23 years of Red Bull Romaniacs
The Red Bull Romaniacs extreme enduro rallye was created in 2004 by founder Martin Freinademetz. It has evolved to become the world`s toughest hard enduro rallye. The Red Bull Romaniacs takes place every year and attracts competitors of more than 60 nations from every continents.
The race is spread over five days, the first being the inner city Prolog in front of thousands of enthusiastic fans. The four “Offroad race days” lead the competitors on some of the world`s most beautiful enduro trails in the regions around Sibiu, Romania (Southern Carpathian Mountains). The breathtaking wilderness, the Romanian hospitality and the unbelievable challenges make the +600km race an unforgettable, lifelong memory for all event participants and family & friends and fans of the event.
Sibiu, Romania becomes alive with motorcycling friends from different nations, coming to meet together in Romania every year.
This provides a massive Tourism boost to Romania, creating many jobs, most hotels and Bed & Breakfast accommodations in Sibiu are fully booked for eight days. The Romanian motorcycling industry has a huge boot in income as many local and Romanian companies are providing rental motorcycles and motorcycle servicing before and during the event.
The event constantly evolves. Now there are electric eMoto class bikes and larger and heavier 'Adventure rally style' motorcycles that have their own race class and tracks, these motorcycles are happy to cruise on-roads as well as managing all the challenges of off-road tracks.
63 Nations participated in Sibiu, Romania in 2025
The Red Bull Romaniacs is an event created by competitors for competitors, born out of his passion for enduro sport, the brain and driven person behind these events is Martin Freinademetz. Known for his career as professional snowboarder, he was world champion twice, won four world tour titles and participated in the 1998 Olympic games. During his time as a professional snowboarder, Martin met Sigrid, who was his strong right hand manager for the first 20 Editions. Besides their love for snowboarding, both shared a passion for extreme enduro, which lead them to create Edition 1, the first Red Bull Romaniacs in 2004. In 2026 we will have reached "Edition 23"
The Red Bull Romaniacs was one of the main creators of the sport of hard enduro, which is now world wide popular everywhere and fuels all the associated motorsports industries. Red Bull Romaniacs is regarded as very special, it created the concept of amatuer competitors competing together at the same event directly competing alongside full time Professional competitors, many who are World champions & Red Bull Romaniacs extreme event champions.
Despite the large organisation and lots of international travel, Freinademetz has a strong focus on staying “hands-on” and RIDING!. All the race tracks are developed with Martin`s personal involvement and test ridden by him before being approved - in order to avoid any surprises that could affect the experience for the competitors.
The duration and difficulty of the event, number of days and hours per day make it challenging. The mountains and environment are something I haven’t experienced anywhere else in the world, the sheer uphills and downhills. It’s wild out there. Every race is a learning curve, the bike and body preparation. Reaching the podium is always a difficult task especially with the good competitors out there, this year may be my toughest at Red Bull Romaniacs, but you never know, I'm going to do my best to make it to the finish.
Photographer: Marcin Kin
All Freinademetz events have the passion for extreme hard enduro in common and make the race experiences for the participants unique:
- Amateur competitors get to race together with the best in the world, meeting the “who is who” of the world's hard enduro competitors out there on the track, at the Offroad finish for noodle meal or at breakfast and evening meal in the Race HQ hotel
- Everybody is challenged to their limits - and beyond, the amateur competitors and the professionals, to raise the bar of what is possible in extreme hard enduro rallye every year
- All the event participants benefit from world class service: they are taken care of from Online registration to Sibiu event inscription, along the race track (with support, fuel and water) and they can rely on a state of the art safety and rescue team, unique rules and regulations and time-keeping systems to maximize fairness and the fun of racing.
Santiago, Sigi, Martin, Tara
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