2023 Red Bull Romaniacs results: Mani Lettenbichler eyes victory after epic day three

With his second victory of the event, Mani Lettenbichler is on the verge of the 2023 Red Bull Romaniacs victory after an epic-hard day three – Teodor Kabakchiev takes second and has his sights on Billy Bolt for a podium.

Red Bull Romaniacs day 3 in a nutshell:

• The third day of the RBR ’23 was billed as the most demanding of the week and they weren’t kidding. 90-kilometres doesn’t sound much but the was a relentless hard day which included notorious sections such as K2, Brother of K2, Beer Bar, Lost World, Kill'em All, No Sex, Galindo and Long Walk among others.
• After the peaceful day yesterday, riders were faced with the main course of this Romaniacs and many Gold class riders were either incredibly late or did not make the finish – the last of the official finishers clocked over nine hours..!

• The result is the same, that super-efficient hill monster Mani has increased his advantage with another day win a time of 5h29m30s, ahead of Teodor Kabakchiev, 14 minutes away, and Mario Roman, 20 minutes further back.
• “I felt really, really good today. I wanted to have a good day because I knew it was the hardest day but yesterday afternoon I felt pretty tired and I wasn’t sure I could push so much. But it was a really good day.” Explained the race leader.
• The KTM rider has scored the top step again today after logging the best split times across today’s stage. Mani is well on his way to a fourth Romaniacs victory and can literally go for a trail ride with his mates tomorrow, tagging behind them all the way to the final Red Bull arch in the quarry.
• Teodor Kabakchiev didn’t benefit too long from being the first rider away today, Mani collected him pretty quickly in the morning. But remains consistent with his overall pace and finish second , setting up a showdown with Billy Bolt tomorrow…
• Mario Roman 'woke-up' today, showing again that is a master when the going gets hardest of all. The problem is it is too late. The Sherco pilot occupies seventh place in the general standings, one hour behind his teammate Wade Young in fifth, after having lost his chance of a better result in the day one weather conditions.
• Behind today’s first three finishers, a large group is seemingly making hard work of sorting out the rankings. Trystan Hart fourth means the KTM Canadian rider remains second overall, almost an hour from his teammate and Bolt behind him, third, more than 20 minutes away.
• Billy remains in third place in the general standings after finishing sixth today and admitting it was “survival mode to get to the finish”. Kabakchieve by contrast said he was “ready to go” at the finish after a fast and flowing end of the day to the flag. Teo is hounding Bolt for that third spot on the podium and this could be the best contest to watch tomorrow, the final day – the difference is just five minutes.
• As mentioned, Young is fifth scratch ahead of Michael Walkner, Roman, and then last year’s winner Graham Jarvis, Sonny Goggia having one of his best Romaniacs ever, and Matthew Green completing the top 10 overall. The South African Green remains the top Junior rider.
• British rider Ben Wibberley has laid a claim for the Silver class win with another day win, he holds a 18-minute lead over Valentino Hutter.
• Switzerland’s Jürg Shütz won the third day in Bronze class, followed by the Romanian Ovidiu Nistor and the Australian Michael Chapman.
• In Iron, another Briton, Robert Adams won again and now holds a 23-minute lead.
• Finally, the Atom category remains fully open with German Moritz Müller taking the day win but Moritz Muller holding a slender four minute lead over Latvian Janis Stauers.  

Red Bull Romaniacs Day 3 results:

Red Bull Romaniacs overall classification after day 3:

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi