Hard, long & beautiful – decision day?
Day 5: Baile Herculane - Petrosani
3. Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro Rallye, 13.-19. August 2006



Today the riders were passing maybe one of the less populated but for sure one of the most beautiful part of the country. This monster day should select the wheat from the chaff. While Michel Gau (FRA) crossed the finish line in first position after 09:41 hours, the last rider in the pro class finished more than five hours later at half past nine.

Michel Gau, the winner of the last two legs has won again today. After his third victory and this long tour he was glad to have finished “this very, very long tour. We had to ten hours of motor biking, but there was not anything very, very hard. We left at six in the morning and arrived at 4.30. Great landscapes and a hard race!”
Since Monday and Cyril Despres’ surrender it has been clear that there will be a new winner at the Red Bull Romaniacs this year. If one believes Despres, who has given up on the rallye on Monday due to his injured arm and left Romania today, it will be another Frenchman on top of the podium – Michel Gau, the French semi-professional who grows plants as a job. Giovanni Sala is already more than 30 minutes behind Gau. It is still Alex Antor and the two South African Curtis and van Niekerk who follow the two dominant pro riders in this 3rd edition.

Riding up the high peaks of the region between Baile Herculane and Petrosani the participants reached platforms which opened a marvellous view over the valleys and green mountains, offering habitat to herds of wild horses and cows. So it was not an unusual picture, seeing riders stop to let a shepherd and his sheep and dogs pass by or encountering a farmer on his horse trap waving in astonishment. At some points the scenery might even have been a little grotesque: at an open valley with a river running through the riders had to cross the river where at the same time a group of local people were washing their clothes and

carpets. Nobody felt disturbed by the other’s work – the Red Bull Romaniacs brings together tradition and extreme sports.

A hard day’s work for the riders of all four classes took them over more than 250 almost idyllic kilometres. When walking through the paddock after the race, the notion of the participant was unanimous: today was the most beautiful stage, hard and extremely long, but beautiful. So, for example the only lady in the expert class, Lisi Mucha from Austria riding with her team mate Thomas Fälbl could only laugh about her broken index finger on the left hand; a crash within the first hour was resulting in a bluish and greenish finger. “I think I lost about four kilos today, because of the exhausting and long route and the hot weather, but the landscape compensated for everything!” a smiling Francois Vulliet’s (team Motoverde I) statement about the day. The first three teams – KTM Romania, Motoverd I and Motothek KTM – are quite close together and tomorrow the last offroad stage might decide the podium.

Abseiling the Quad
After leisure day, which was mostly used for repairing the quads, the riders of the Quad/ATV class were expected to show creativity. “As the track ended abruptly and continued only a few meters below we had to stop and think about a solution. What we then did was to let down the quads on a rope! It was adventurous but it worked,” Karl Rohrmüller from the Desert team Pottmes closes this 240 km ride looking forward to get to Sibiu tomorrow and finishing the first Quad/ATV race within the Red Bull Romaniacs.


Correction of the results of day 4 in the professional class (due to time credits)
1. Michel Gau (FRA)
2. Giovanni Sala (ITA)
3. Alex Antor (AND)
4. Darryl Curtis (RSA)
5. Riaan van Niekerk (RSA)
6. Michael Angerer (AUT)
7. Stefan Müller (GER)
8. Dominic Finnis (RSA)
9. Kevin Miller (USA)
10. Craig Stone (RSA)

Result, Day 5 (unofficial)
Pro
1. Michel Gau (FRA)
2. Giovanni Sala (ITA)
3. Alex Antor (AND)
4. Riaan van Niekerk (RSA)
5. Darryl Curtis (RSA)