Since winning Red Bull Romaniacs in 2010 , Chris Birch has travelled multiple times to Hard Enduro ’ s flagship event in Romania . However , since his last crack at the premiere Gold Class in 2015 , the KTM Adventure Ambassador has largely taken a step back from the competition side of the enduro world . After two years of Kiwis largely missing out on making the pilgrimage to Romania , Birchy found himself nearing the tail end of his three month European trip with the opportunity to ride at Romanaics as the final cherry on the cake . “ The plan initially was to chaperone a friend of mine ’ s daughter through the Atom class ,” he expains .
“ They kind of go into Romaniacs as a family . They ’ ve done it before as a father and son team , and his daughter wanted to race it as well . So , okay , I thought , I ’ ll ride with Vanessa and it ’ ll be fun . From my side I was keen to go back and catch up with everyone and kind of see the event , so I was thinking I ’ d just kind of cruise around in Atom with her and have a good time . But then she got sick , and school got really busy , and she just didn ’ t have enough time on the bike . We then decided kind of as a team that wasn ’ t the right time for Vanessa to do it .”
THINGS HAVE CHANGED With his original plan in tatters , Birchy did what all good riders do ... and adapted his line .
52 KIWI RIDER