JARVIS LETS THEM KNOW WHO'S BOSS ON DAY ONE

Graham Jarvis fired a serious warning shot to his Red Bull Romaniacs rivals on day one by delivering a dominant start-to-finish victory.

After playing it safe in Tuesday’s prologue with third, Jarvis kicked off the first day in the mountains with a solid performance. Flying through sections like “10A” and “Please no Rain” he made mince meat of the 124km long trails. Starting first and without too much trouble while riding alone for the majority of the day he showed up relatively fresh at the finish to claimed the win.

Still smiling, the “King of the Carpathians” only mention was some deep grass that annoyed him in the morning before casually disappearing off towards the hotel! His dominance especially showed in one of the toughest sections of the day, “Heavy Start”, in which only he and Andreas Lettenbichler (KTM) were able go up without help. 

Letti – who started off fourth in the morning – was at times riding faster than Jarvis during the first half of the day and looked like a potential winner up until the service point. Even though he had to give in to Jarvis, who ended up four minutes faster than him, Letti still showed one of the best performances of the day.

Riding side by side with Jonny Walker (KTM), they both approached the “Heavy Start” uphill, Letti picked a better line and gained several minutes while Walker had to go down and restart.

On a roll Letti ploughed through everything thrown at him and only slowed down when he encountered another rider stuck on an uphill.

While things looked promising for Walker in the morning, when the riding was fast and flowing his day took a turn for the worse after the service point – especially in “Heavy Start” – which took a few attempts to climb.

A few navigational mistakes and slip offs later, Walker ended his day in third. Disappointed with his result he wrote it off as a “bad day” at the office.

Behind the leading trio, KTM’s Paul Bolton ended his day in fourth.

Gomez, who started after Jarvis in the morning, finished fifth and was also not too happy with his own performance – crashing a few times and having problems with his GPS device.

Silver

While some of the Silver class riders also proclaimed an easy first day, this year most of their fellow competitors were taken a little aback by the required performance level of this class. The first awakening was briefly after the start, where an uphill riverbed led to some serious carnage.

Later in the game – after the service point – an unnamed uphill drove riders into desperation and the hands of volunteering local helpers. A few steep downhills managed to wear the riders out some more. At the time of the estimated arrival in the finish, only 20% of the field had managed to complete the track and 40% had not even managed to get to the service point.

Kiwi Kevin Archer nailed the first Silver class win and surprisingly there are another five New Zealanders among the top eight in the Silver class. 

Bronze

Overall the general feedback of the Bronze class riders was relaxed and most of them arrived at the finish in good spirits. Some of them even “declared” the 2015 edition of the Red Bull Romaniacs relatively easy, oblivious of what will be waiting for them tomorrow!

Sandra Gomez had a strong ride finishing day one eighth in the Bronze class.

Tomorrow

Day  two will take the riders just outside Sibiu, into most of the local enduro playgrounds. The start is located in Tocile and after passing through the Sadu-valley, the riders will meet their service crews in the Arena Platos-Paltinis ski resort. Awaiting them at the finish will be a fun wallride in close proximity to the Cibin River, in Sibiu.