Mani Lettenbichler defends his title and claims his fifth consecutive victory
It was perfect conditions in Sibiu for the Offroad Day 4 of Red Bull Romaniacs. After a week of what competitors are calling the most challenging Romaniacs yet, it was Mani Lettenbichler (DEU, KTM) who took the victory, his fifth win at Romaniacs and his third win in the FIM World Hard Enduro Championship this series.
Press release by Red Bull Romaniacs created by Susan Mould
When Lettenbichler set out on the tracks at 07:38 he knew that he had an overall lead of 40m45s, 28 minutes of which was from Offroad Day 1. With that in mind Lettenbichler knew he didn’t need to take any unnecessary risks and he pushed through the technical sections of the day until he came into the Hillclimbs Arena behind Mario Roman (ESP, Sherco) and Teo Kabachiev (ESP, Sherco). In the end he claimed the victory with a 33m22s lead.
The real nail biter would be between the two Sherco riders Mario Roman and Teo Kabakchiev who after 3 days in the Romanian wilderness were only separated by 1m15s. The battle was on and both riders gave it their all. It was Teo Kabakchiev who raced the faster times of the day pushing back up into second position by just three minutes. Teo Kabakchiev celebrates his third time on the Romaniacs podium (previously 2022 in second, 2023 in third).
Despite giving it his all, flying through the tough signature sections and arriving at the Hillclimbs finish arena first, Roman wasn’t quite able to beat Kabachiev’s times taking home his third, third place at the Red Bull Romaniacs (previous third positions were in 2021 and 2022 and one second place in 2017).
Mani Lettenbichler: “Not to bad a day, I’m pretty tired, the last 3 days I have to admit I was struggling, I found some last bits of energy to push to the finish, I am super stoked with a fifth win at Red Bull Romaniacs”
Teo Kabachiev: “it was an intense day, Mario was pushing a lot to get second overall. Mani makes his gap in the super technical sections, I’m improving in this area but it’s step by step and I’ll improve. I’m really happy with my performance”
Mario Roman “It was really tough, especially on days three and four. The level increased and we suffered a lot but I’m super happy to be fighting for the top positions. I rode a lot on my own today. I think Teo is still ahead of me. Maybe the toughest year ever, it was super technical”
Offroad Day 4 was jam packed with one technical section after another, up and downhill sections with little chance in between to recover. Signature sections of the day were limitless and kept being thrown at these top level competitors, such names as “The Revenge”, “Momentum”, “Ass slide”, “Steroid”, “Flying Ford”, “Hug the tree” and the well known “Wolf’s Nest”. Mani Lettenbichler holding the dominant lead allowed himself to take the time to choose his lines carefully and then execute his moves with precision. Kabakchiev and Roman were on a tear, they were full throttle ahead and didn’t spend more time than they needed to in any of the sections and hit the faster sections at mach speed.
It was Wade Young (ZAF) and Michael Walkner (AUT) who would be included in the top five fastest competitors in the Gold field. Wade Young wasn’t able to get the result that he needed to stay at the top of the FIM World Hard Enduro Championship ranking but after four days out on the Romaniacs tracks he placed third on both Day 1 and Day 3 and finished the Edition 21 in fourth position. Michael Walkner (AUT) put in a really stellar performance and held his own with the top guns placing fifth overall and proving that he has what it takes to be up there with the leaders in extreme hard enduro.
Mitch Brightmore (GBR) put on a full throttle performance again today and had a fabulous first edition of Red Bull Romaniacs, finishing in position 6 after the longest, and in parts, toughest race he has ever competed in and reinforcing his lead at the top of the World Hard Enduro Championship series. His brother Ashton also crossed the finish line in position 11 along with fellow Junior Championship competitors Suff Sella (ISR) in position 12, James Moore (ZAF) in position 13.
Hands down the Limitless Edition 21 of Red Bull Romaniacs was considered the toughest one yet. It was not only the difficult Offroad Day 1 but the challenges just kept coming; the overnight marathon stage added extra pressure on the competitors who had to spend time maintaining and cleaning their bikes with no assistance and setting out on the tracks the next day with tires from the day before. The Gold Class would end up covering 586 km during the four days and the top guns were on their bikes 24 hours upwards in total.
All classes were treated to a challenging offroad Day 4 and the Hillclimb Arena was the final delight, one extreme hill after another and an optional ramp to jump or concrete barriers to ride over followed by some of Andy Fazekas’ dreaded tires of all sizes, before final crossing through the Red Bull finishing arch. Gold Class made light work of the finish but it wasn’t quite as easy for other amateur competitors who gave the thousands of spectators a better idea of the actual pitch and difficulty of these hillclimbs.
Tensions were high in the Silver Class where the top three competitors started out with only two minutes between them. The same three competitors had been juggling their positions all week and today was the final day to determine which order they would place. Track Director, Teo Isac did not see any reason to go easy on the Silver Class for their final day making it a very technical day with a lot of altitude metres to climb and some rocky creek tracks. It was the young Hungarian competitor Kornel Ott who would race to the finish first followed by the veteran Chris Birch (NZL), whose first Gold podium was when he placed third in 2007, giving an idea of the difference between the two competitors, and Patrick Riegler (AUT) who placed third. For these competitors their Romanaics experience was a true race to the finish.
Pol Tarres (AND)was able to make up a lot of time today after he had mechanical issues yesterday and he moved up position 60 overall today at the final finish. Pol Tarres did not take on an easy challenge to pilot a bike twin cylinder adventure bike through Silver Class tracks for 4 days, this makes him the first competitor ever to complete Silver Class on a Ténéré 700.
Sandra Gomez (ESP) had a good overall result finishing in position 25. Previously Sandra Gomez was the only female to ever finish in Gold Class and one of two females to finish in Silver Class this year, Kirsten Landman (ZAF) finished in position 97.
Bronze, Iron and Atom Classes were dealt one of their toughest days so far, the Romaniacs hills were in full flow, it was probably the most technical day for these classes only to then arrive at the finish hillclimbs. “It ain’t over till it’s over” would have been a fair statement.
In Bronze Class it was Kevin Gallas (DEU) who achieved an outstanding result and won on his Ténéré 700 after placing third in the Prolog and then completing four Offroad Days on the beast of a bike. He was 9m21s ahead of second position, Josh Kirby (GBR) and 21m38s ahead of third position, David Ignat (ROU).
Iron Class saw Greek competitor Dhmhtrhs Margos take the win, followed by Peter Wuth (AUT) with 14m48s difference and Konstantinos Dimitriou (GRC) in third place with 36m8s difference. Dawid Szczotka (POL) was just 44 minutes behind competing on a Ténéré 700 and finished in fifth position.
Atom Class was dominated everyday by Alexander Petroiu (CAN) who claimed the win, followed by Valentin Ganea (ROU) and in third was Dmitriy Reznitskiy (KAZ)
Martin Freinademetz: “I would like to thank my entire team for all their hard work during the year and the big effort during the race where people only get about fifteen hours sleep in the whole week and all the volunteers and friends who support us. We are all very proud to have the year where there are the most nations participating, 64 nations, a huge amount. We also had the hardest day ever in Romaniacs on Offroad Day 1, of course the weather contributed to that, it’s all part of racing. We have seen increased viewer numbers and a lot of good feedback about the LEATT LIVEmaniacs and we look forward to continuing and improving this LIVEtransmission. In terms of the riders, Mani has been dominating for a while and we are happy to see him take his fifth win. We are seeing some new stars coming forward which is really important for the sport so it was good to see the newcomers do so well. It was also positive for the sport to see so many FIM World Hard Enduro Championship Junior competitors. It was good to see Jonny Walker back, too bad he got hurt and also to see Graham Jarvis out there racing, he is still without doubt very, very good as we saw on Day 1 and it was sad he had to pull out due to his broken ribs only three weeks prior. I would also like to thank all our amateur competitors who make this event what it is. On Monday we will start demarking all the trails, this will take 3 weeks and then we will start to make plans for the 2025 Edition, which will be held from the 22 – 26 July 2025 and registrations will once again open in October”.
