Red Bull off-road roll call...
By Team TMX on 4th Jan 17
For a decade or so Austrian energy drink giants Red Bull have pumped a ton of cash into promoting some of the most amazing and at times amazingly weird dirt bike events on this planet
Romaniacs
Quite probably the world's #1 multi-day enduro – in terms of social media reach if nothing else – the Romaniacs is a brutal affair that has everyone bar the very best of riders basically pushing their bikes through the Carpathian mountains for four days. However, despite being tougher than a two dollar steak there's something about the race that makes it highly enjoyable and a little bit addictive as the Romanian terrain is just so damn good that the race is normally oversubscribed each and every year.
Heck, even getting there can be an adventure in itself with corrupt cops and kamikaze truckers making the drive from the Romanian border to the host town of Sibiu even scarier than some of the man-made obstacles on the Prologue.
As former competitors we reckon this race should be on every enduro rider's bucket list and although it's not cheap to compete it's well worth every penny.
MX Super Champions
One week after the MXoN at Maggiora, Red Bull Italy hosted the third edition of the MX Super Champions at the very same venue.
Open to Italian Amateurs only the now well established event accepts entries from 400 riders in eight categories – 65cc up to MX1 – for two days of action each autumn.
Fingers crossed that someone picks up with this idea and runs something similar in the UK next year – perhaps on the weekend between the des Nats and Weston Beach Race?
Get On Top
More hill climb madness – this time from Porubka in Slovakia.
As an event Get On Top has been around for many years but a new head-to-head style format gave it a new lease of life for 2016. The new concept is pretty simple – leave the start gate, battle through a small endurocross section, then climb an epic hill that has logs strategically placed across it faster than the guy next to you. Sounds easy but the reality is far from it...
This year's event attracted well over 120 riders – mostly Slovakians, Czechs and the odd Polish dude – and with a bargainous 25 euro registration fee that's not so surprising.
If you want to get on up to Get On Up keep an eye on the Motorsports section of www.redbull.com next summer...
Sea to Sky
The Sea to Sky is billed as the world's most enjoyable hard enduro and offers competitors three separate styles of competition in three days from the base of Kemer, Turkey. This diversity – and late summer sunshine – means that the Sea to Sky is rapidly becoming a must-attend event for all British Hard Enduro fans despite being situated around 2,250 miles from Calais!
Starting with a 15-minute blast on the beach before moving into a two-hour forest race on day two, the third and final stage of the race is a blast up Olympos Mountain (a climb of 2,365 metres) that must be completed in seven hours – although the fastest guys are normally done and dusted within three or four.
A huge beach party and awards ceremony wraps things up before racers fly or drive home.
111 Megawatt!
111 Mega what now? 111 Megawatt is a Polish Hard Enduro that was originally envisaged by Taddy Blazusiak. Held in a disused coal mine near Belchatow, the event is situated pretty centrally in Poland and is surprisingly only 125 miles further than the drive to Erzberg and a damn slight closer to the UK than the Romaniacs starting point of Sibiu which makes it very reachable indeed.
The two-day event is gaining popularity year on year with riders from around the globe. A one-lap timed dash whittles the entry down to 500 starters for Sunday's main race.
After setting off in rows of 75, the mixture of sandy, rocky and man-made going makes the three-hour main event more of a sprint than an all-out slog like Erzberg – that said, get stuck in the slag heaps and you may find yourself having to push your way out of trouble!
Won for the last two years by Brit Jonny Walker, it's worth keeping an eye on www.redbull.com/uk if you fancy giving it a go yourself!
Epic Rise
If there's one thing Italians love more than pizza, pasta and peroni it's 'peds – nope, I'm not on about performance enhancing drugs here but motorised pedal bikes of the two-stroke engine variety.
Also a nation of motorsports freaks, some genius or other figured out a way of combining their two passions and came up with an absolutely doozy of an off-road event they call Epic Rise.
Basically, a hill climb event for riders in three classes – Stock (up to 65cc with standard running gear), Trick (anything goes but the original frame, engine and clutch are used) and Proto (the F1-style specials of the moped hill climbing world).
Epic Rise is held on the 50 metre slopes of former MXGP-circuit Malpensa (yep, it's right next to the airport) and draws in an eclectic mix of moto-nuts including eight-time world champ Tony Cairoli!
Donkey Cross
If you desire no-holds-barred donkey and dirt bike action then Donkey Cross would've been right up your street. Combining the two very different modes of transport the good people of Red Bull Greece delivered this Greek tragedy on no fewer than three occasions, allowing absolute asses to put their asses on asses before embarking on some kind of hard enduro around the Greek town of Makrinitsa straight after. That's fairly weird, right?
Gone but not forgotten City Scramble
This is no joke but way back on April 1, 2012 the fine city of Auckland in New Zealand hosted the Red Bull City Scramble. Basically an inner-city endurocross race – that ventured out onto the bay using floating pontoons – this event was ultimately won by UK hard enduro ace Graham Jarvis riding a two-stroke Husaberg. Grimbo took home 5,000 New Zealand dollars for his efforts after beating off some pretty stiff competition down by the bay...
