South African Wade Young has claimed victory in the second edition of the King of the Hill hard enduro in Arad, Romania.
Words: Lisa Bolton/Enduro21
Images: Denis Günther / Enduro.de
King of the Hill – the first Romanian Hard Enduro of the year – started on Friday in Arad, Romania. The city centre prologue saw Paul Bolton beat South African rising star Wade Young and German Enduro champ and EWC rider Marcus Kehr.
Transforming the central park into an obstacle course of logs, rocks, tyres and constructed wooden jumps, the course offered plenty of leaps of faith and entertainment for the crowd of spectators who packed the street for the spectacle or watched it televised on national TV.
Saturday brought about day one of the mountain race. Dry conditions made it a fast charge from start to finish. Wade Young stormed to first on his 18th birthday with Paul Bolton second and Marcus Kehr third. But with locals removing numerous track markers a dampener was put on the day’s fun as many riders got lost.
Praying for rain to dampen the dusty conditions on day two, Bolton was keen to see some more technical terrain emerge as he bid to close the gap to Young – who on the other hand hoped for it to stay dry!
A small shower did nothing to alter the terrain and a super fast day two ensued. Young and Bolton battled to the finish, with Wade ahead on the high-speed terrain and Bolton gaining it back on the technical riverbeds. In the end it was Young who claimed the win finishing just one-minute ahead to take the overall win.
Placing a further two minutes behind the leaders, Marcus Kehr (Sherco) completed the top three.
Results – King of the Hill
1. Wade Young (KTM) 3:05:00; 2. Paul Bolton (KTM) 3:08:20; 3. Marcus Kehr (Sherco) 3:10:57; 4. Sebastian Krywult (KTM) 3:21:28; 5. Philipp Bertl (Beta) 3:30:36…
Big thanks to Enduro.de for their awesome images of the event!