Cycle News Staff | June 19, 2022
Germany’s Manuel Lettenbichler earned his first Red Bull Erzberg Rodeo Hard Enduro win. The Red Bull KTM rider led from the beginning and completed the course in two hours, fifty-eight minutes, and 51 seconds. Sherco’s Mario Roman finished second, three minutes and 26 seconds behind. Canadian Trystan Hart rounded out the podium on his Red Bull KTM, he was thirteen minutes and two seconds behind the Lettenbichler.
Germany’s Manual Lettenbichler earned his first Red Bull Rodeo win and joins his father as a winner. Photography by Red Bull Content Pool
Lettenbichler was the leader for most of the race, which meant that he had to break in the trail in several new sections of the course. This allowed Austrian, Michael Walkner to keep it close in the first half of the race until he lost a lot of time in the Carls Dinner section. Spain’s Roman, moved into second at the mid-point and managed to close to within sight of Lettenbichler a couple of times on difficult sections but Lettehbichler managed to hold the lead and open a small gap before the finish line.
Lettenbichler said: “Oh man, I am feeling definitely exhausted now, it was such a hard push. I am completely over the moon. It has always been on the list and I have been so close the last couple of years so if feels pretty special.”
Roman, 32, said: “It was super tough, I had a miss at the start with crazy dust and I started to lose a lot of positions, about 20 or so. I tried to take it easy and do my own pace and I started to overtake one-by-one, then I was watching the leader, who was maybe 20 meters away, but second place was all I could do.”
Mario Roman recovered from a bad start to finish second. The Spaniard was close to Lettenbichler several times but was unable to make a pass.
Trystan Hart became the first Canadian rider to earn an Erzberg Rodeo podium finish. The 2021 AMA US Hard Enduro Series champion and current points leader is planning to compete at three more FIM Hard Enduro rounds this year.
Husqvarna’s Billy Bolt finished in fourth place despite riding with an injured ankle that he thought may keep him on the sidelines for Erzberg. The fourth-place finish was enough to keep the British rider at the top of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship points standings.
Spain’s Alfredo Gomez rounded out the top five on his GasGas. Walkner was the first Austrian to finish the complete Erzberg rodeo in sixth place. South African Wade Young finished seventh after some bike issues slowed him down in the final sections of the course. Fellow South African Matthew Green finished eighth, he was the final rider to finish within the four-hour time limit.
American Ryder LeBlond was credited with tenth place based on his time through Checkpoint 21, but he was unable to complete the course within the four-hour time limit. Fellow Americans Quinn Wentzel was sixty-second and Kailub Russell was seventy-third.
Multi-time Erzberg Rodeo winner Graham Jarvis had a mechanical problem right at the start that took about an hour to repair. This put him behind the five hundred riders that qualified for the Sunday final and he worked hard to make it through 21 of the 27 checkpoints but was unable to complete the course in the four-hour time limit.
Lettenbichler (center), Roman (left) and Hart shared the Erzberg podium and were among only eight riders to complete the course in the four-hour time limit.
2022 Erzberg Rodeo Hard Enduro Results
| 1. |
Manuel Lettenbichler |
(KTM) |
2:58:51 |
| 2. |
Mario Roman |
(She) |
3:02:17 |
| 3. |
Trystan Hart |
(KTM) |
3:11:53 |
| 4. |
Billy Bolt |
(Hus) |
3:18:25 |
| 5. |
Alfredo Gomez |
(Gas) |
3:20:30 |
| 6. |
Michael Walkner |
(Gas) |
3:40:32 |
| 7. |
Wade Young |
(She) |
3:55:13 |
| 8. |
Matthew Green |
(KTM) |
3:55:54 |
The complete results are here.
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