Birch takes over the lead after day 2 of Red Bull Romaniacs
Update from Day 2 of the Red Bull Romaniacs, the toughest Hard-Enduro rallye of the planet. The sun was back today and scorched the track without mercy, which was no problem for most riders, since the pace was relatively high and people went fast. Most riders enjoyed the beautiful landscape and appreciated the cooling airflow, but were also struggling with the navigation at these speeds. Therefore quite a few riders teamed up, for example Chris Birch and Letti who seemed to have had a blast together and were exchanging track-stories right after the finish. Birch however was struggling with an old hand-injury, which he kept cooling in ice after the finish. Letti also had started the race handicapped with a torn tendon at his ankle and was suffering every time he had to put his foot down. Bringing a handicap to the race was not a big problem for most of the day, but…at the end, trackmanager Seppo had prepared an uphill section through a muddy riverbed filled with logs (Pros only). He is not a very popular man after inflicting this pain on the competitors; many Pro riders screamed his name in vain and promised to kill him.
The, so far, leading Jarvis, like many others, was struggling with navigation – which helped Birch take the lead from him for the day. Then Jarvis got kicked off his bike twice, during the higher speed passages but again showed a few unbelievable stunts in the steeper downhill sections. Graham Jarvis: “I started off really good, found a good rhythm – even though it was difficult in the long grass sometimes; but then I had a crash, hit a tree and I was also catching up on some hobby riders, waited for them and then had another crash in their dust – that kind of spoiled it a bit. I also missed a few turns, so I lost some time there. But there are still two days ahead and it’s going to be interesting.”
Chris Birch: “I had a much better day today and had an awesome time. The bike was great – these KTMs just seem to like this kind of abuse… The heat was not so much of a problem, the track was mainly quite flowing so got a bit of venting going on, it wasn`t so bad. Only the last bit, a muddy section in a riverbed with wood-logs allover the place was quite nasty.”
An amazing display ofcamaraderie today saw two pro riders sacrificing ten minutes from their race times to help fellow pro Darryl Curtis. Darryl faced a tough day today, perhaps his toughest in his history as a familiar face on the Romaniacs’ racetrack. Crashing at high speed in the woods, which sent him tumbling through the trees, had him believing that he was “finished”. Although he was not hurt his bike became stuck in a ravine, which is how Martin Volny and Emanuel Gyenes found him. Had Curtis been injured both riders would have been given the time back that they spent helping him, thankfully he wasn’t, and knowing this, both Volny and Gyenes took the precious time to see him back on the track again. Rather than take the opportunity to make a lead on Curtis they showed true sportsmanship. It is acts like this that demonstrate the true Romaniacs’ spirit. Naturally they also teamed up for a while and rode together, later joined by Gerhard Forster.
Xavi Galindo also had a tough time, with the navigation and also with his bike, which took a few rather severe beatings. A torn fuel line and navigation problems had cost Xavi some serious time. The most extreme beating aside from the inevitable crashes that many people had, took Paul Boltons bike, which got it`s carburetor torn out of it by a branch; it cost him about 10 minutes. He still managed to have somegood fun: “There were some fast bits on the top sections, they’re fun when there’s not too many rocks around and it’s a bit single trail sandy, flowy stuff. That’s good. And then obviously when you come to some logs or something in a gully and there’s a sort of natural kick to the side you can bounce over them next to some hobby riders or something, that they’re trying to climb over them themselves. That’s good, yeah.”
Letti: “It was a painful day, navigation was ok (note: most riders stated it was difficult…), but I am still very excited to race here, we have the world`s best extreme-Enduro riders here and I enjoy riding with them.”
This year we have father and son team, Romeo and Cristian Dunca, riding together and also enjoying the experience of riding with some of the world’s best. Local Romanian competitors; this family team are having lots of fun riding together out in the forest. Romeo Dunca, the father, participated in Dakar in 2005 and by coming 79th (and first Romanian finisher ever) proved his worth as a fast rider even though he is competing in hobby team class for this competition. However, it is beginning to become apparent that his son Cristian has inherited some of his father’s capabilities, and Romeo is going to have to recognize that his son could well be his match.
