The Erzberg Rodeo Road Trip

On Monday morning Chris and the lads returned from their week long adventure to the Red Bull Hare Scramble / Erzberg Rodeo. Chris had set himself the big challenge of a top 50 finish in his first ever attempt at riding the event and we are chuffed to be able to say he came home with an impressive 48th place.

This was a massive achievement for Chris considering it was his first ever attempt and a few things didn’t quite go his way leading up to the event. Chris qualified in 181st which saw him on the 4th row of the grid, which was good, but Chris felt he could have gone 1 or 2 rows better if things went a little more in his favour.

First of all, due to none of the lads understanding German, Chris missed a fairly important guide/tour of the Prolog course. This is the course that the riders ride twice with their best time counting towards their qualification position. This wasn’t the end of the world as Chris has cycled the course the day before and knew what to expect, but it would still have been an advantage to go on the tour and maybe see a couple of different lines and see how the conditions were changing with the dramatic weather conditions.

Then during Chris’ first qualifying run Chris has the misfortune of his tire coming off the rim. He was looking completely tapped out and said his run was going very well up until this point. So Chris didn’t have the comfort of a qualification time going into the second day of qualifying, nor had he actually ridden half of the top part of the track unlike most of the other 1,800 riders.

Without making any excuses and knowing he had to make his second run count, Chris rode well under pressure and managed to come in at 181st position, which was on the 4th row of the starting grid. We were all pleased with this but at the same time Chris felt his first run was going faster as he had to shut off a few times during his second run due to dust and not being able to see anything. If he had ridden the track the whole way the first time he wouldn’t have had to ease off like this if he knew what was ahead. Like we said though, no excuses.

The next day saw blistering heat hit Eisenerz. Each row was set off with a 2 minute gap between each, so before he had even let the bike have it, he was 6 minutes behind the first 50 riders. Chris spent the rest of the day tackling what he says was the hardest, most technical and physically demanding terrain he has ever ridden. He worked his ass off right through and with the help of the team managed to make it to the infamous checkpoint, Carl’s Diner in one piece, albeit exhausted and dehydrated.

It was in Carl’s Diner where Chris shone and showed his typical character and grit and this is also where all his hard work and training paid off. Chris pretty much pushed himself into the top 50 by passing 4 or 5 riders who were all but beaten by the challenge that is the Erzberg Rodeo. The whole team were giving Chris massive support and encouragement to help him through what has to be one of the craziest stretches you would ever want to put a motorbike through! When you see grown men close to tears, collapsed against their bikes you realised just how much this event takes to ride.

After this, Chris made his way to a couple more checkpoints before running out of time and finishing the day in 48th position. The whole team were chuffed for Chris and overwhelmed by what they had seen throughout the course of the day.

Chris will be posting his own thoughts and views on the week here over the next week so make sure you stay tuned.

This coming weekend (8th May) sees the Colwith Charity event kick off. This is the fundraiser event for Chris’s trip out to ride the Erzberg Rodeo and is being held at Colwith Farm.

If your planning on coming along, Colwith is near the small village of Par, towards the south coast of Cornwall. Very close to the Eden Project. There will be arrows out on the roads to help direct you once you get close to the area.

Click here to find us on Google Maps. For all you Sat Nav heroes out there, the post code is - PL24 2TU. This should get you pretty much on the doorstep, but make sure you keep a lookout for the arrows once you get close and you can’t go wrong.

Everyone is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the course. It’s going to be a good day and a unique event so make sure you get involved.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all.

Regs are now available for our fundraiser event, being held on the 8th May. It’s a two way timed and observation trial with a separate race for trials bikes and a fun dual slalom race to end the day.

All of this is being followed up with an evening of entertainment, including music, a bar and a hog roast. There will also be free camping for those of you that want to travel down for the event as well as those who fancy a beer after, so make sure you come along and get involved.

Spaces are limited, so make sure you get yourself an entry sooner rather then later. Even if you don’t fancy riding, come along for a few beers and to meet Chris and the boys planning on making the trip out to Austria in June. It’s going to be a good weekend.

Click here to download regs for the event.

The Erzberg Rodeo is to be round 3 of 5 from The World Xtreme Enduro Championship. The 5 rounds making up the series are considered to be the 5 toughest enduro races in the world, with Erzberg supposedly the toughest.

The Xtreme Enduro Championship kicked off this past weekend in Toscana, Italy for the infamous Hell’s Gate enduro race. World Trials Legend, Dougie Lampkin took the win at the opening round, with fellow Brit Graham Jarvis coming home in second. No other riders, including series favourite Taddy Blazusiak, finished the event. Taddy did set an insane pace early on, but unfortunately crashed out later in the event and damaged his bike.

Full report can be read here.

To give you an idea of the challenge Chris faces in Erzberg, Hell’s Gate is considered one of the top 5 hardest enduro races in the world. Erzberg is said to be the hardest of the series.  If only 2 of the best riders in the world are finishing Hell’s Gate you can see exactly why they say finishing the Erzberg Rodeo feels like winning.

The series now moves to Shropshire, England on the 20th of February for the second round, The Tough One.

D.O