Off to a good start this year - just finished the prologue for Red Bull Romaniacs and came 1st, with Graham Jarvis second and Taddy B third...

New Zealand’s Chris Birch rewarded himself for the longest journey to the world’s hardest Extreme-Enduro-Rallye with a well deserved victory in the legendary incity prologue. The KTM rider showed an incredible performance surfing the man-made obstacles in the city center of Sibiu (Romania) and secures the pole position for the first race day on Sunday. Graham Jarvis from Great Britain managed to come in second on his Sherco ahead of the Polish four-time Erzbergrodeo champion and rallye rookie Tadeusz “Taddy” Blazusiak on his two-stroke KTM.

From www.redbullromaniacs.com ...

Romaniacs veteran rider Birch turns into a rain god
The pouring rain turned the track of man-made obstacles into a breathtaking challenge - even for well-experienced riders like Paul Bolton (Eurotech-KTM, GBR) and Gerhard Forster (GER/Touratech-BMW). Especially the obstacles made out of wood and rubber tires became slippery as ice - bringing even the top pro riders close to their limits. “Birchy” in the opposite appeared to be rain-proof: Already in the qualifying heats the Kiwi has been leaving his footprint and left no doubt that he is determined to the max to finally win the Red Bull Romaniacs.

„After a previous third and a second place at the Red Bull Romaniacs I really want to make it to the very top of  the podium this year. The prolog went really well and I did have the bit of luck you need to win a qualifying race like this - given the difficult wet conditions. I mastered the extremely slippery section with the loose wood very well and was able to leave Graham and Taddy behind. Winning the prolog is a big achievement for me since I will be the first to start the real race tomorrow and I will leverage the experience I gained in the past years. The organizers have done a great job in designing a track which was ridable even in these conditions“, Chris Birch said after the race.

Graham Jarvis (Sherco, GBR): „I pushed a little too hard right after the start and lost some traction due to the wet conditions. But Taddy made a little mistake so I was able to pass him. The second place is a good result for me to open the real race tomorrow.”

The Extreme-Enduro dominator Taddy Blazusiak stated about his third place in the Prolog: „I am always determined to win but in the rain turned the track into a dangerous challenge and I must be happy that I got away with the third place, no injuries and no damage to my bike. This is my first ever Rallye and starting from the third place gives me the opportunity to find my way into this racing style without the pressure to lead the pack.”

2009 winner Andi Lettenbichler (GER/BMW-Husqvarna) was pretty happy about his fourth place, too: „Right at the beginning I got stuck in a wood section. However, I was able to pass a lot of riders after this mistake and finally came in fourth. From the previous year I know that this starting number is not bad at all and I will give all I have in order to defend my title.“

Prolog as a crowd magnet
Whoever thought that the poor weather conditions would lead to fewer spectators has been proved wrong. This legendary Red Bull Romaniacs incity prolog managed to attracted even more than 6,000 spectators who made some big noise and created an awesome atmosphere especially for those who struggled with themselves in the technically demanding sections.

The heavy rain is expected to tunr the overall conditions for all riders into a true nightmare within the upcoming four days – no matter which class each rider is in. But this is exactly the reason why year after year more riders show up in Sibiu: To face this extraordinary challenge to ride against the best of the best in the most difficult terrain on the face of this planet.

Well unfortunately this years Erzberg finished for me at the end of the infamous Carl's diner. I got a pretty rubbish start after I got a bit of water on the air filiter and the bike bogged just after rounding the first turn. The track then turned to blinding dust and another rider clipped my bars and I went down. I was in about twentieth position with no goggles coming out of the quarry and started working my way towards the front. Dropping down the new mega steep rock section into Carls Diner I passed Curt Caselli, Ben Hemmingway and Cory Graffunder picking up fifth place!

I was feeling really good and started to work my way through the massive boulders of Carls diner. In the past we have picked our way down the side of this section missing the worst of the boulders, this year the organizers taped us down through the worst of it so we had about a kilometer of car sized rocks  to deal with. It was all going pretty well and I was pulling time on the guys when right near the end of the section the back wheel slipped on a rock and a gnarly dagger shaped rock smashed my clutch cover guard and pierced the clutch cover. Oil spewed out the side of the engine and pieces of the cover ran around inside the engine. I chucked the bike on it's side to save the last of the precious oil and ran across the boulders back to the start of the section. Unfortunately the team guys had already left leaving the chance of getting a new cover pretty small. I shouted around the spectators to try and get some help but nobody seemed too interested in helping me at all, so basically I was done...

I spent the next three hours running back and forth along Carl's diner getting as many of my KTM team mates through as possible and using the exercise to vent my frustration at not finishing.

Pretty disappointing but bring on Romaniacs with the new improved clutch guard!

The first few days of Erzbergrodeo have gone pretty well.  My first run up the prologue was a blinder and I pinned it to fourth overall. The next day, my second run was not as good as I caught a flying rock whilst passing a slower rider and suffered some damage to the front brake. This will be easily fixed for the main event.

With my fast time from yesterday I am comfortably on the front row for the big race tomorrow. Now I have to rest, eat and drink to be strong as possible for tomorrows battle.

Day two of the Scottish Six Day Trial was another brilliant day’s riding. It started out with a twenty mile cold ride down the road to the start of the off road and the first sections of the day. The mornings sections were made up of lots of loose boulders and I struggled a bit, no fives but lots of muscling the bike through for a three. We did several moor crossing’s today, they are great fun but pretty hard work. The bogs are incredible,  one wrong line and you are over the bars before you know it! Towards the end of the day I got my act together a bit more and had some good rides, cleaning some stuff I didn’t think I would (including a section that I have seen many a time in videos when I was a small child!). I had a great ride at the Creag Lundie group, getting up the big water falls with some a fair bit of style! 

The time schedule was a bit more relaxed today and I had some time at the end to check the bike over and turn the rear tire round. The bike seems to holding together well and I’m looking forward to day three tomorrow.