Brits dominate the annual Romaniacs Rally…

Touratech sponsored British Riders Graham Jarvis and Paul Bolton put up a strong showing in this years rain-soaked attack on the Romanian mountains, coming Second and Fourth overall in the Pro section.

Martin Freinademetz, the former multiple World & European snowboard champion, explored the Carpathian Mountains on his own enduro bike for many years, before coming up with this unique hardcore competition in 2004. With his extensive off road experience, riding skills and geographical knowledge, he concocted an unforgettable Enduro Rallye experience.

With amazing mountain climbs, downhill’s, fantastic single trails and time spent both exploring and guiding tours in the area, Martin figured out that adding a timed element to those routes would produce a truly World Class motorbike Enduro Rallye on tracks never used before competetively.




Riders have to prove their endurance, skills and experience in front of thousands of fans, television crews and journalists. The stars of this sport stand out in a special preview stage to this extreme race within Sibiu’s town center – where artificial obstacles create an amazing show.

The main challenges of the course itself are the technical parts, which lead through heavily wooded areas, where riders struggle over trees, rocks and rubble. The length of the track varies for every class, meaning 100km to 200km per day.





The race itself..

By day three the rain is not only a constant companion but has become the dominating factor of the Red Bull Romaniacs 2010. The riders started the day from Petrosani in pouring rain and only and out of the initial 21 starters of the pro class only 11 continued the race.




The fourth and last off road stage once again offered exciting action and top-level Enduro racing right from the start. Touratech supported Graham Jarvis started his expected hunt for the prestigious win and gave it all on the last 126 km of extremely challenging terrain. Jarvis was shadowed by German Andreas Lettenbichler (BMW) and fellow British competitor Paul Bolton (KTM), both of whom still had a slight chance of victory themselves.

Birch makes no mistakes New Zealands Chris Birch started his day with a 23-minute margin on Graham Jarvis. Even though this cushion should have been comfortable enough, Birch charged hard from the very beginning and made 6 more minutes on his main rival. The 29-year old cemented his position as one of the world’s most talented Extreme-Enduro riders and was all smiles at the finish line. „Considering all my technical woes during the past few days, I really didn’t even think that I would finish the race – let alone win it. I’m really happy.“said the Kiwi. Graham Jarvis fights back for podium The British Trials expert had already forsaken his ambitions for winning the Romaniacs after his major engine troubles on the second off road-stage. But Graham unleashed his characteristic “Never give up” attitude and started his race from the scratch on day 3. Touratech supported Jarvis successfully fought back to the top of the field and missed the top spot on the podium by a mere 29 minutes in the end. “Chris did an amazing job today and was racing in his very own class. I’m very happy with my second place finish, considering that my race was actually already over.”

Red Bull Romaniacs: Europe’s toughest Enduro-Rallye

The Red Bull Romaniacs 2010 confirmed its reputation to be toughest Enduro Rallye in Europe once again – less than half of the original 165 competitors finished the race after 5 hardcore riding days through the Romanian countryside. In the Pro-Class, only 10 riders from 7 nations out of 21 crossed the finish line at the medieval centre of Sibiu, proving all the more the incredible skills and determination of the finishers. Congratulations from all of us at Touratech to our riders for their tremendous efforts in this incredible endurance event.