PADDOCK’s own Wade Young (Brother KTM) claimed third place at the 11th edition of the infamous Red Bull Romaniacs in Sibiu, Romania last week.
The course comprised various man-made obstacles, such as logs, rocks, tyres and wooden bridges.
Close to 400 competitors registered for what has been described as the world’s toughest enduro rally, with riders coming from Russia, Ecuador, Australia and South Africa, to name a few.
Last Wednesday marked the first race day and over the period of four days the route through the Carpathian Mountains would separate the men from the boys.
A 6.30am start saw the leaders setting off into the mountains where gold competitors had to complete a 119km racing stage.
The stage was tough in the beginning and very slippery on the grass.
Riders had to face a long downhill and a long and steep uphill with lots of roots an hour into the race.
“Overall I had a good day, there was quite a bit of traction out there and I was loving my KTM 300 EXC,” said Wade, who posted the sixth fastest time on the first race day.
Thursday, the second race day, was a lot harder and riders had to stay focused in order not to make too many mistakes.
A sunny day had a lot of climbing in store for the riders and Young impressed everyone by finishing third, less than a minute behind KTM’s Jonny Walker.
“There were some crazy down hills of which I had to walk down a few. We went through the forests and there were one or two fast sections but other than that we had a lot of climbing to do and the hills just felt never ending. I felt really good and my bike was running great,” said Wade.
The third race day, where competitors had to race from Voineasa to Petrosani to finish on top of an old industrial building, was to be the longest and hardest race day of the rally, with a distance of 161km.
“I had another good day but ran out of petrol and had to ride on reserve for about 15km, so took it easy to bring it home safely,” said Wade, who finished in third place for the day.
On day four he battled to get into a nice rhythm.
“I had one or two big crashes but I stayed focused the whole race and managed to push all the way to the finish line. The race was hard, but not as hard as last year. What makes Romaniacs so challenging is that it’s four days of tough endurance racing which makes it so different from all the other extreme enduro races. I am extremely happy with my podium finish,” he said.
Wade finished third behind KTM’s Jonny Walker and Husqvarna’s Graham Jarvis.
He won’t have much time to rest as he will join his Brother KTM teammates for the fourth round of the national enduro championship in Lydenburg this Saturday.
