Jarvis wins for the sixth time, Roman in 2nd place, Bolton 3rd, Mini Letti 4th, Teasdale 5th

Sibiu, Romania, July 29th, 2017 – The 2017 Red Bull Romaniacs ended today with some of the Bronze class competitors arriving first at the traditional hillclimb just outside Sibiu - with thousands of fans watching. The first Gold class competitor to arrive was “Mini Letti” Manuel Lettenbichler, who nailed the infamous uphill on the first attempt. Mini Letti might not be called “Mini” for much longer. In a career lifting move, Mini Letti continued his performance from yesterday, unleashing mayhem and left many of the established top-guns eating his dust. Coached by his father (Andreas Lettenbichler) and teaming up with Paul Bolton in some of the sections, Mini Letti won the day and secured himself an overall 4th place in the race. After two unsuccessful attempts at the rally, this was his first finish - with an absolutely breathtaking result! His riding buddy for the last two days, Paul Bolton, seemed to be as excited about Letti`s performance as he was about his own. Like Mini Letti, Bolton delivered one of the best performances of his life. He rode best-times from day one, scored a second place today and landed himself in third place on the Red Bull Romaniacs podium for the first time in ten years. The highlight of this year`s Red Bull Romaniacs was Graham Jarvis. Riding in a league of his own, winning the first three and hardest days of the race, Jarvis played it safe on Offroad Day four. Knowing that he had almost half an hour leeway to secure his overall win, he left the open tracks and the spotlight to the “young wild ones”. During the four days, Graham Jarvis was seen using every spare minute to either rest or focus on preparing the next day. And winning his race, which he did… by a long shot. It was the sixth time that Graham Jarvis did it  - he is now officially a legend.  

Graham Jarvis: “Well I can’t believe it, I’ve won it six times, that’s more than I could ever have dreamt of. Obviously every year it gets harder and harder and everyone`s upping the pace, I can’t believe it really, it`s just an incredible experience. I was just happy to get to the finish. This last day I’ve really struggled, I don’t mind admitting that at 42 years old four days on the trot gets harder. There’s no secrets about it, you just have to use your experience and stay out of trouble, knowing when to go fast and when to play safe. You go through a lot of emotions during the four days and I’m so tired I can’t feel anything, I just want to get a beer and sit down and relax.”

Manuel Lettenbichler: “It was a tough week, but still good, I was pretty stoked today, it was fast and you had to push from the start to the finish. I managed it! I’m so happy to finish, for sure ideally you want to podium but it’s still amazing because the last 2 years I crashed and had to quit but this year I made it through to the hill climb and Andy`s surprise and it’s a really amazing feeling.”

Paul Bolton: "I've had an awesome week, no major hiccups or anything like that, I've been positive all week, just trying to ride my own race. I'm more mentally and physically prepared than ever before and it has really paid off. It's my tenth year, so it was all or nothing, it had to happen this year! I rode well from the beginning and consistency was key. My bike and kit have all been amazing. It`s all down to having a lot of awesome people around me, Patch and everyone in the pits and I'd like to dedicate it to everybody who helped me out and so that's it..third place Red Bull Romaniacs 2017!" 

Mario Roman: “I’m feeling so good right now, I’ve been working so hard the last couple of years, I’ve had good results but this is pretty much the best for me, I can’t complain, I’m really happy with Sherco and my team. Today was a perfect day, I didn’t take any risks and I didn’t think about any of the other competitors, I had a good gap and just did my best. I feel at home in the finish with the hillclimb because I have lots of these at home and have ridden them all my life so I had a lot of fun in the finish. I’m young but I have a lot of experience and I know that it’s never over until you get to the end, when I got to the hillclimb I realized that I was second overall. With so many hours riding the bike and navigating the trails you have to be 100% focused and it’s not always possible to be 100% focused and that’s when we might crash which is what happened to me on Offroad Day one and I need to learn from this and will be better for next year. It is by far the toughest race, I’m really happy”

Alfie Cox: “The Red Bull Romaniacs is an emotional rollercoaster for most of the competitors who come in destroyed, that’s just what it is. You don’t come here for a haircut, you come here to really fight your life away. I’ve even heard the best of the best moaning that it was tough but we all know Martin and that’s his style, it's gotta be tough and that’s what it’s about. You don’t just come here and think it's going to be easy, Martin has definitively lived up to his name. The difficulty has always been here in the rally and now the speed is fast too, all the guys have really upped their game.”

Brazilian Bruno Crivilin came into the finish first in silver class as well as in first place overall. The second and third overall finishers were Emanuel Gyenes, Romania`s favorite and Dylan Yearbury from New Zealand. 

Bronze class competitor Romanian Sergiu Grecu greeted the cheering crowds first in the finish of Offroad Day 4. He came in first on each of the 4 Offroad days. Second overall and second on Offroad Day 4 is Portuguese, Nuno Pereira, and third place overall is Will Westgarth (GBR). 

In the Iron class, the “Fat Ladies” were able to sing all the way until the end. Big-twin travel enduro competitors Gerhard Foster (Touratech BMW) and Quinn Cody (KTM Adventure 1090) managed to write history and navigate bikes twice the size of a hard enduro one through the four Red Bull Romaniacs days. Forster finished 14th and Cody 33rd.

Four out of ten women who took on this year`s Red Bull Romaniacs crossed today`s finish line. Kirsten Landman (ZAF) showed her endurance and competitive ability yet again by smokin’ the Silver class, an achievement to be proud of. Bronze class competitors Emma Broadbent (AUS), Anna Larissa Redinger (AUT) and Iron class Heidi Kjogx (DNK) also rode through the Red Bull arches today.

Results: http://www.redbullromaniacs.com/results/results-2017

Air7 - Volker Jacob
Red Bull Romaniacs Communications & Press

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