It’s race week in Sibiu for the 2022 Red Bull Romaniacs, round five of the Hard Enduro World Championship. Enduro21 is behind all the action at the five day mammoth event which kicks off with the city prologue broadcast live.

Day zero of the ’22 Romaniacs and the atmosphere is already pretty electric. Today saw plenty of final checks following weigh-in and lengthy signing on process with a rider parade through the host city streets bringing out the burn-out merchants.

Riders headed on down through to the prologue course on Bulevardul Corneliu Coposu, in the heart of Sibiu’s Medieval centre, where the Pro riders put on a demo on the obstacles and were officially presented to the crowds.

The real action begins tomorrow, Tuesday July 26, with Silver class opening the show bright and early at 7:30am on the prologue course. All riders must make a competitive, individual run through the prologue to establish start order for race day one on Wednesday. The fastest 35 riders in Bronze, Silver and Gold classes graduate to a prologue final which Enduro21 will broadcast live (see event schedule below).

Watch 2022 Red Bull Romaniacs Prologue Live

2022 Red Bull Romaniacs Fast Facts:

  • Riders from 51 nations enter the 19th edition of Romaniacs this week which is back to its traditional format of one day qualification followed by four, long days of navigation in the mountains.
  • The event will again feature a bivouac day for the different classes (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron and Atom), which means a night camping out on under the stars – family and/or support crews area allowed this year though, so riders aren’t totally isolated.
  • A new championship points leader is guaranteed on Saturday since Billy Bolt has undergone surgery on his wrist and will sit out the remaining HEWC rounds of the season.
  • Former winner Wade Young also announced he’s out of Romaniacs similarly needing to fix a long-standing injury – the Sherco rider’s back has been hampering his results this year.
  • Manuel Lettenbichler surely must start as favourite having won the previous three HEWC rounds this season (after missing round one) and with victory at the previous three editions of Romaniacs.
  • But there are some very hungry riders looking to take revenge on results which haven’t been entirely to their liking this season so far: Mario Roman (who also needs to take his first win in Romania) and Graham Jarvis who will want both redemption on his Erzberg disqualification and for his knee injury sustained while leading this event in 2021. Alfredo Gomez too has a very strong record at Romaniacs and is getting his self-run GASGAS team bike dialled now.
  • Outside bet? What about Trystan Hart? His fans will argue he is way more than an outside bet but the US Hard Enduro runaway champ bagged P3 at Erzberg and is hungry for more in this, his second visit to Romania.
  • Taddy is back! Taddy Blazusiak made a fleeting return to action in the Erzberg prologue but returns for real this week for his first HEWC race since breaking his wrist at the final SuperEnduro round in March.
  • Pol Tarres will again attempt the course on a Yamaha Tenere 700, not the main course as at Erzberg but the third rung of the adjusted Romaniacs routing in Bronze class. He will be joined by former Dakar winner Matthias Walkner on his KTM 450 Rally bike.

Enduro21 will broadcast the city prologue finals live but here’s the schedule for the day tomorrow:

  • Track walk starts from 7:15am for silver class with riders on track from 7:30.
  • Bronze on track from 8:40
  • Iron class 10:40
  • Atom class (asap after)
  • 16:00 Gold qualification (2x runs)

The Prologue finals

The 35 fastest competitors from the qualification runs compete in a multi-lap races to become the 'Prolog champion of 2022'.

Race 1 Bronze class start from 17:30 followed by Race 2, Silver Class and finally Race 3, Gold Class.

Live streaming starts from 17:15 EEST = Eastern European Summer Time which you can watch on Enduro21.

 

We will also bring you live coverage, results as soon (as they are official) and insight from each race day. Stay tuned…

 

 

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi