2023 Red Bull Romaniacs results: fourth win for Mani Lettenbichler

Mani Lettenbichler wins the 2023 Red Bull Romaniacs, his fourth victory at the Hard Enduro World Championship round, finishing one hour clear ahead of Trystan Hart second for a KTM one-two as Teodor Kabakchiev leap-frogs Billy Bolt for third on the podium.

Red Bull Romaniacs day 4 in a nutshell:

• It was the Silver and Bronze class riders who got the show on the road on this final day, allowing the Gold class a leisurely 8am start for first rider away.
• Mai Lettenbichler has led from day one and began the day with a whopping 58-minute lead. The KTM rider could literally trail ride (by his standards), but naturally didn’t back off and extended his lead to over one hour for a fourth Romaniacs victory.
• The secret to his success here is no secret, the guy is fitter and fastest over the ground than anyone, simple as.
• “It was a crazy Romaniacs but I can’t believe it.” Said Mani at the finish. “I wanted redemption this year and it paid off. I think this week went perfect and that’s the way to win. I pushed really hard because I really wanted it. I will try to do graham’s record but it’s not easy!”

• First and one of the few riders to make the infamous final hillclimb at the finish, Trystan Hart claims second place making it a one-two finish for KTM. The Canadian keeps on grabbing podiums and cements his second place in the 2023 World Championship. The series now heads to his home round in Canada.
• The biggest interest on the Gold class leader board was the fight for third place between Billy Bolt, starting with a four minutes advantage over Teo Kabachiev. After two very solid days where he went 1-2 on the daily classification, Kabakchiev had closed right in on Bolt who admitted he’d “hit the wall” during day three.
• But Bolt had no answer to Teo’s pace. The Bulgarian’s morning was fastest overall showing his fitness and he’d already done enough to take third.
• “After 30 minutes penalty on the first day I am very happy to recover to take the podium on the last day. I worked so hard.” Said the Bulgarian taking his second podium in two years.
• Bolt typically was still giving it everything to the final flag but it wasn’t enough, the Husqvarna rider finishing P4, 16 minutes back. “It was a little bit frustrating starting the week so well but my main goal was to maintain today. I knew the pace was so high at the front it was going to be tough, the races are always tough but this was the hardest that’s for sure. I’ve brought a broken bike back every night so thanks to me team.”
• Sherco riders went third and fourth on the final day, with Mario Roman matching his day three performance with third on the final stage. The Spaniard suffered with technical issues (not for the first time on the Sherco team sadly) on days one and two.
• But it was his teammate Wade Young who completes the top five for another Romaniacs result and in the end finishing just five minutes down on Billy. Michael Walkner slotted into sixth place and Roman got seventh.
• Sonny Goggia was only the second rider to nail the final hillclimb and overall his skills on the hills saw him take ninth overall behind the legend Graham Jarvis who basically killed his bike on this last day.
• P10 and comfortably best Junior World Championship rider was Matty Green.
• Valentino Hutter put up a good fight in the Silver class, taking the final day, but British rider Ben Wibberley finally delivered the win after a solid week. He’s clocked a few Romaniacs by now and earned his stripes. HButter finished second with Sergiu Grecu third.
• Switzerland’s Jürg Shütz took the Bronze class win with a comfortable margin of almost 30 mins. Romania took its second podium across the classes with Ovidiu Nistor second and with Priit Biene swapping enduro for hard enduro and claiming third.
• Robert Adams sealed the Iron class 27 minutes clear of Sam Defoy and Paul Bulai makign it yet another Romanian on the podium in third.
• Finally the Atom category had some drama with Latvian Janis Stauers over-turning a four minute deficit to claim the win ahead of Moritz Muller.

Red Bull Romaniacs Gold class overall classification:

Red Bull Romaniacs Day 4 results (Gold class):

Red Bull Romaniacs Silver class overall classification:

Red Bull Romaniacs Bronze class overall classification:

Red Bull Romaniacs Iron class overall classification:

Red Bull Romaniacs Atom class overall classification:

Full results for all classes: www.redbullromaniacs.com

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi