draw close . The German added : “ The Highway almost killed me . I was the first guy in there and there were literally no lines [ to ride ], I had to dig some lines and put some trees up , because it was really difficult , and I made it a little bit easier for the rest . The race almost killed me in this point .” Of the 500 riders who qualified for Sunday ’ s main event , just eight mastered the 35.2km course within the four-hour time limit with Canada ’ s Trystan Hart third behind Lettenbichler and Roman . In comparison to Lettenbichler ’ s start-tofinish win , Roman produced a fightback after falling backward during the mass start , which saw the first 50 riders released into the race at once . The Spaniard drew within metres of Lettenbichler in the closing stages , but couldn ’ t overhaul his rival . “ It was super tough ,” Roman explains . “ I had a miss at the start with crazy dust and I started to lose a lot of positions , about 20 or so . I tried to take it easy and do my own pace and I started to overtake one-by-one , then I was watching the leader , who was maybe 20 metres away , but second place was all I could do . The toughest thing today was finding surprises , because we walked the track , we thought that we knew all the sections , but then when we were riding , we didn ’ t recognise some new sections . That was hard because we couldn ’ t find the good lines and that was difficult for the first riders . I think for sure this was the hardest edition ever . Even if only one year there were only five people that finished , I would say that today not many people will get to the finish .” This year ’ s race marked the first time that the famed event was part of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship with the prologue narrowing the field to 500 qualifiers for the start of Sunday ’ s main race . Michael Walkner was the only Austrian to finish his home event , while South Africa ’ s Matthew Green - the final finisher - was the only FIM Junior Championship rider to see the chequered flag aged just 20 . The hard luck story of the day was five-time Red Bull Erzbergrodeo winner Graham Jarvis , who encountered mechanical problems that saw him stranded on the start line for an hour . Despite the 47-year-old veteran making his way through 21 of the 27 checkpoints in the time he had left , he was unable to finish within the time limit . While the Lettenbichler ’ s own the title of the only father / son to win the event , with Lettenbichler Snr sharing the glory in 2015 with Alfredo Gómez , Jonny Walker , and Graham Jarvis , they certainly won ’ t be the last father and son to etch their names into the Iron Giant . The FIM Hard Enduro World Championship now moves to Italy for Red Bull Abestone from July 9-10 .
2022 Red Bull Erzbergrodeo 1 . Manuel Lettenbichler ( GER ) 2:58:51 2 . Mario Roman ( ESP ) 3:02:17 3 . Trystan Hart ( CAN ) 3:11:53 4 . Billy Bolt ( GBR ) 3:18:25 5 . Alfredo Gomez ( ESP ) 3:20:30 6 . Michael Walkner ( AUT ) 3:40:32 7 . Wade Young ( ZAF ) 3:55:13 8 . Matthew Green ( ZAF ) 3:55:5
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