2023 Red Bull Outliers Results: Lettenbichler beats Bolt for Calgary Prologue win

Set some two hours away from the main event location, downtown Calgary opened the show for the 2023 Red Bull Outliers, round four of the HEWC series.
Unlike last year when the rains curtailed racing, riders were able to tackle the course in dry and warm conditions as ever, to set start positions for Sunday’s main race.
Heats through the afternoon saw all classes taking on the looping course in the Olympic Park area and featured a mix of logs, tyres and concrete blocks. Heats qualified riders for semis and finals and culminated with nine lap Pro class shootout for the fastest 12.
Red Bull KTM's mani Lettenbichler is the championship points leader and doesn’t need to bag the extra points for a prologue win or run any risks but stole the march off the line to lead.
Fastest in the heat races, Billy Bolt was fastest again in the final but dropped it trying to get past Letti on lap one, and it was this which ultimately cost him. As the pair ran well-clear from the rest of the Pro class, Mani was consistent out front and held off the last lap pressure to win by a front wheel.

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Behind them Jonny Walker, Alfredo Gomez, Ryder Leblond and Trystan Hart were also quick on the technical course and were squabbling for positions in the early laps.
Hart ran clear for third pretty quickly though, briefly going for second after Bolt’s crash, much to the delight of the Canadian crowd. But the FMF KTM rider also had a crash and that allowed Billy to make an easy pass to close in on Lettenbichler again, relegating the home hero to P3.
Leblond and Gomez completed the top five ahead of Teo Kabakchiev, the only other rider not getting lapped in the final.
Endurocross champion Walker looked good in the heats and semis but by his own admission was scrappy in the final and, along with riders like Wade Young (P7), Mario Roman (P10) and Graham Jarvis (P11), will see tomorrow as a different story.
A good start position will surely help in the main race but two and a half hours on an epic amount of steep ups and downhill climbs in the Badlands for the main event will sort the wheat from the chaff. The race for amateurs begins early with the HEWC riders starting from 14:30 local time.