Stamping his mark on the FIM Hard Enduro championship, Manuel Lettenbichler of Germany took the race win for the third year running in the 2021 Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro Rallye. Touted as one of the toughest odd-road events in the Enduro race calendar, this year’s Romaniacs was held in the Carpathian mountains near Sibiu, Romania.
Race favourite Graham Jarvis, riding for Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing started Romaniacs strongly after completing the first day’s prologue in first place, while Lettenbichler finished the 18 km course in fourth. While the race initially shaped up to be a battle between Lettenbichler and Jarvis, a knee injury put paid to Jarvis’ race hopes, dropping him further down the ladder as racing progressed.
Capitalising on this, Lettenbichler powered his way to the front of the remaining races on his KTM 300 EXC, increasing his race margin with every checkpoint. At the end of the five days of racing, including a marathon overnight stage on day two with no team assistance, Lettenbichler won the 2021 Romaniacs ahead of Wade Young and Mario Roman in second and third place respectively, both riding Shercos.
Lettenbichler finished the race with a comfortable 27 minute 28 second lead, after close to 20 hours of racing. With the 2021 Romaniacs win, Lettenbichler now tops the Hard Enduro World Championship with 37 points, followed by Billy Bolt of Great Britain in second with 33 points and Wade Young of South Africa with 25 points.
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