Mani Lettenbichler grabs his third back-to-back win at the Iron Giant.
500 starters.
Nine made it to the finish line.
Two are South Africans.
Mani is only the second rider to take three wins in a row since Poland’s Taddy Blazusiak in 2009.
Did you watch it? We shuffled between Moto GP and the Rodeo, so much motorcycle goodness on one weekend is just a sensory overload…
For 2024, race organiser Karl Katoch packed the track with two passes through the boulder-strewn Carl’s Dinner, punctuated with two runs through the Erzberg’s notoriously soggy forests, each trickier than the last. “The toughest Erzberg yet.”
This weekend during the second round of the 2024 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship, Manuel Lettenbichler was a class act as he took his third consecutive victory in the Iron Giant by 20-minutes…
He was followed in by his KTM teammate, Trystan Hart. Mario Roman took third after pipping Hard Enduro Legend Graham Jarvis at the final checkpoint.
At the four-hour cut-off mark, only nine had crossed the finish line.
A two-day prologue set the starting positions for the riders and whittled the entries from 1,300 down to 500 riders.
Wildcard entry Josep Garcia was the fastest in the field by some distance but the Spaniard wasn’t entered for Sunday’s race.
Cody Webb, widely touted as a front runner crashed out.
German MX star, Chris Gunderman was the fastest off the line, but that didn’t last long.Mani Lettenbichler hunted him down before reaching CP1.
Three-time winner Jonny Walker settled into second place early in the race and was joined by Kabakchiev and Will Hoare.
Mistakes by Lettenbichler and Walker allowed Hoare and Kabakchiev to take over at the front of the pack for a (very) short time. Lettenbichler regained his lead with Kabakchiev on his heels until the Sherco rider didn’t make it up a climb before the notorious Carl’s Diner section.
That was it! He didn’t look back, shook them off and just opened the gap.
It’s About Heart:
At the start, Trystan Hart ran out of space and crashed into the big track marker at the end of the straight. Several riders ran over his bike, which left him in about 50th position among the five hundred riders that qualified for the Sunday final. He was bruised, but quickly got back on his KTM and fought his way up.
By the time Lettenbichler had reached the two-thirds point at Stony Party, he had a 15-minute lead over the recovered Hart and was through the section and at the top of mountain as his rival was entering.
Hart was in second spot as he exited Carl’s Diner.
“The late forest sections at Motorex Highway and the new Killer’s Leap can be tricky.” Letti took time to reset and cleared each test, emitting a holler as he cleared the valley with victory at the top.
His lead was so impressive that he spent the last part of the race doing some wheelies for the audience. After 2h48m of racing, he bagged his third consecutive win at the Erzbergrodeo.
But the action was far from done.
While Hart dug in to take a very impressive second place, 5 time Erzberg winner Graham Jarvis showed the boys how it’s done.
He forgot that he is 49 years old and fought his way through the field. Qualifying 35th, By Carl’s Dinner he was sixth. There are few that can match his technical ability and as usual, he made light work of the hardest sections overtaking our Wade Young and Jonny Walker.
But… Mario Roman had eyes on by the time they reached the Chris’ Stony Party section. Jarvis was third by Udo’s Playground but was a bit tired by the Motorex Highway, using Mario’s help to climb out.
The Spaniard took third place and valuable championship points with Jarvis in a superb fourth.
Following them over the finish line were SA’s Young. He proved that you don’t need a factory team backing you for a good result in hard enduro.
The fight for sixth place wasn’t decided until the last wallride when Kabakchiev arrived with Jonny Walker right on his back wheel.
Mitch Brightmore, The only junior to make the closing time came in next, followed by SA’s Mathew Green who crossed the finish line in ninth place, the same position as last year.
This race is for glory and a large polished chunk of rock.
We bet that they’ll all be back again next year…
The finishers:
- Manuel Lettenbichler GER – KTM 2h 47m23s.
- Trystan Hart CAN – KTM 3h 7m 40s.
- Mario Roman ESP – Sherco 3h 21m 47s.
- Graham Jarvis GBR – Husqvarna 3h 23m39s.
- Wade Young RSA – GASGAS 3h 39m 48s.
- Teodor Kabakchiev BUL – Sherco 3h 40m 27s.
- Jonny Walker GBR – Beta 3h 40m 28s.
- Mitch Brightmore GBR –Husqvarna 3h 48m 42s.
- Matthew Green RSA –KTM 3h 56m 31s.
