With two percent finishing rate, Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is a festival of speed, suffering and celebration for the thousands who travel to the largest iron ore mine in Central Europe – watch the action on Red Bull TV.
See it to believe it: thousands tackle the toughest motorcycle race on the planet
With two percent finishing rate, Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is a festival of speed, suffering and celebration for the thousands who travel to the largest iron ore mine in Central Europe – watch the action on Red Bull TV.
– Billed as one of the wildest offroad racing weekends on the planet, Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is an unmissable spectacle attracting dirt bike fans and over 1500 competitors, who attempt to complete the race that takes place in an active iron mine in south-eastern Austria.
– Almost 99% of entrants – mix of amateurs and professionals – don’t reach the finish line. Despite using their best skill and determination the riders need to overcome a course designed by founder Karl Katoch, who has been creating harder challenges that include boulder fields, forest and impossible ascents for the riders for 20 years now.
„The term ‘extreme enduro’ was invented at the mine. We had the idea of doing something totally different and once we found the location and things got together. After the first issue in 1995, people started talking about the race „where nearly no one finished“ and interest started to rise. The constant evolution of rider skills, motorcycle technique and tyre development drives us to adapt our tracks to new levels – and even push the boundaries further.”
– Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is the second round of a world championship series in a discipline known as ‘Hard Enduro’. It’s four days of challenging conditions that tests the limits of the 1,500 riders who enter. Two thirds are eliminated in qualifying. The remaining 500 will be lucky to finish the main race.
– Action begins Thursday with the Rocket Ride, an uphill exhibition sprint race. On Friday riders have the chance to qualify for the main race by taking on the ‘Iron Road Prologue’. Saturday sees a final chance for the 1,000 riders who didn’t qualify to overturn their result and make the cut for the race.
– Between the seriousness of racing, is the spectacle of side events and activities, highlighted by a parade through the small town of Eisenerz that sits at the foot of the mountain. More than 2000 riders, fans and competitors, turn the main street into a festival of wheelies and burnouts, displaying camaraderie in the lead up to the tense final challenge.
– The weekend culminates in a gruelling 27-checkpoint, four-hour time limited race on the final day, climbing up and down the 1400-meter (4600 ft) iron mountain. It’s the ultimate test for man and machine to see who can finish the race within the time limit.
– Redefining what’s possible, Germany’s Manuel Lettenbichler was this years’ fastest rider out of 9 who finished. Red Bull KTM factory rider, now three-time winner of the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo said “it’s such an intense race and so many physical and technical sections. No time at all to relax even for a second. More or less everything is super difficult.”
– “I didn’t have the best start, but I was surprised how fast I was in getting back to the front. After that I just tried to keep the gap as big as possible and in the end managed to even do some wheelies for the fans. I’m feeling really good on a bike, I’m definitely in the peak of my career. I know there’s going to be a point where I’m not at the peak anymore but for now, I’m trying to enjoy everything.”
– Showcasing the accessibility of the event, US-based rider Carson Brown tried his hand at Hard Enduro despite never having raced the sport previously. Brown, known for many styles of riding, immersed himself into the human challenge as well as the festive, controlled chaos environment of what the ‘Iron Giant’ at Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is.
– Having placed an impressive 8th in the prologue, Carson Brown didn’t manage to finish the main race as the clock ran out with him having finished over 30% of the course. He summed up his rookie journey in extreme enduro as one of the hardest thing he has ever encountered.
– “Unfortunately, I ran out of gas, and cramped up so bad that even if I didn’t run out of gas, I probably wouldn’t have stopped anyways. Being out here in the trenches and learning was so cool – everybody is helping each other out. Few of the times I had my bike on top of me, or just physically couldn’t get the bike anywhere, and guys were helping out, so huge shout out to them.”
– “The overall atmosphere was insane. Fans everywhere – they’re at all the gnarliest sections, cheering you on, giving you words of encouragement. A lot of them are speaking different languages, but you know that they’re all talking about the same thing and have the same goal and the same passion. Everybody in the pits, everybody that’s riding and the aroma, people around here are insane.”
– The ultimate test of what’s humanly possible was mirrored some 1800 kilometers away at Red Bull Hardline, the world’s toughest mountain bike race, which reached its 10-year milestone in the Dyfi Valley in Wales last weekend too.
Get closer to the action by watching the highlights of Red Bull Erzbergrodeo & Red Bull Hardline on Red Bull TV HERE & HERE
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Contact: Fabian Ress
fabian.ress@3mpg.ch / +49 173 248 8404
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