’ ve raced a lot of things in New Zealand. Enduro nationals, MX, GNCCs, local hard enduro rounds. The kind of days where you know most of the riders in the field, you’ ve probably had a beer with half of them afterwards, and you go to the start line with a rough idea of where you’ ll finish. I raced overseas, where I’ ve also had a good understanding of where I’ ll end up, which was usually at the pointy end of the spear. But Romaniacs is not that. Romaniacs is not even in the same universe as that. For anyone who hasn’ t gone deep down the hard enduro rabbit hole, you’ ll most likely still know of the race. It’ s, basically, the Crown Jewel of Hard Enduro. Red Bull Romaniacs is widely considered to be one of the toughest off-road motorcycle events on the planet. There’ s the Prologue( an extremely testing event just by itself), followed by four days in the Carpathian Mountains, hundreds of riders from something like 60-plus countries, and terrain that’ s less track and more geological event. Rock gardens the size of houses. Hill climbs that chew up pro riders on factory bikes. It’ s the kind of event where finishing, just finishing, is a genuine achievement. It’ s also where the start list reads like a who’ s-who of hard enduro royalty; Graham, Billy, Manni, Wade, Mario, Cervantites, Sunderland, all riders who’ ve built careers and legends out of exactly the kind of terrain that’ s about to try and kill me. And that’ s the bit I’ ve been sitting with more than I expected to.

THE COMPETITIVE PROBLEM Here’ s something I’ ll be honest about. I’ m a competitive person. Always have been. Put a number on my bike and something switches on. I want to race the guy next to me, I want to beat the clock, and I want to know where I sit in the results. That’ s just how my brain works, and, normally, that’ s a good thing. I love to win, and sometimes I do win, but also, sometimes I learn. But Romaniacs breaks that wiring a bit.

KIWI RIDER 91