The Lost Way - 2021 Hixpania Hard Enduro Full Race Recap

um [Music] [Music] [Applause] calling the hard enduro cavalry for another savage campaign it's time to don the armor and mount the steel frame steeds we're headed back into battle a medieval moto crusade where one warrior will be knighted the new champion of expania heart harding girl [Music] flying into this small town in northern spain it's like going back in time [Music] [Applause] medieval ruins rule the rocky landscape around aguilar de campo knights of a bygone era may have ridden horses over the winding dirt trails around this town now they're navigated by moto warriors all looking for glory at the penultimate race of the fim hard enduro world championship we are in expanding her enduro for fifth edition this year is just the race on sunday the rest of the races are qualifying for the next one we have today which is super short uh qualifier for basically tomorrow which is going to be i think around six hours of racing we do three laps all the way around the lake and then on the final day is just two and a half hours plus one lap around a short course which is really difficult so sunday the bikes are starting a hundred cave and we have to run into the cave get the bikes out then we have pretty intense really technical lap i would say and then obviously the the final lap we go into the finish arena and have you know some some of the hardest hills of all race on the last lap which is often where a lot of overtakes and passes for the win are made on their final hill climb there are only two chances left for top riders to win big points with everyone hunting series dominators billy bolt second place finish at poland's hero challenge moved him into the series lead just one point ahead of letting bigler wade young took the hero challenge title allowing him to close the third place gap and he's now only nine points back from the german pro but there's still a lot of racing before the final podium of the season competing in spain means that fourth place mario roman holds a home soil advantage and may be a major threat extra motivation to raise in your home gp but especially if the last division was that good for you you feel that that extra energy will be in your sight at the end of the weekend no no no no oh no that was so easy as well and our man in the field paul bolton has transformed from race reporter into medieval town crier to bring you the key info from inside the commentary booth at this live event earlier he got to sample the treacherous track here at hickspanya hard enduro the guys will be running into here like that straight out [Music] okay into the logs ride it high [Music] got a big kick on the back end there this side of the hill is like marbles the other side's a brown rock if it rains apparently it's super slippery so these are the brown rocks we're talking about guys super grippy now put in the wet oh mama oh my god excuse my language but this track is brutal this is where the guys are really coming to some traffic i suppose you guys like a crash [Music] oh man that went way easier i thought brutal whew now we're heading towards the second lap and the cave again and then obviously the all-important final few hill climbs in the quarry [Music] got a pretty steep hill here oh i nearly come up handle by then it's not ideal definitely don't want to catch a foot peg off this one so there's the cave where it all begun [Music] this is just for the final lap this bit so roll roll gas do it yes definitely not my favorite part of the track now i might want to rodeo it i think i'm no no don't you set off yeah i'm not ready i need to get my leg on i'm gonna go that was a better line than before risky but saved a bit of time [Applause] um [Music] whoa that is an intense track hope you like my pov and the final attempts at the hill time hill clan happy time the happy times kick off with high speed high flying short runs through an enduro crosstrack at the day one prologue a nice first taste of the action where hobby riders are called archers and squires pros like spain's own mario roman are known as knights johnny walker launches off a lift and dominic lejeue gets some air of his own both are riding lean and mean but the night with the most fight and flight is billy bolt who finishes with the best time walker is second and o joey third quick and dirty and the starting order is set for the day two qualifier race here at expania art enduro [Music] i think the race suits me pretty well like it's so technical and you have to be precise and calm and ride smooth like all race long and i think pretty good in it is one of the most technical course of the the whole season you ride first and second gear most of the time sometimes third you go up and down up and down with no rest first time for me being here the biggest challenge is not having a sense of traction once you've ruined the area you kind of know what the terrain's like and what attraction especially that they say there's rain so i'll spray some water on the rocks and i falter and it's crazy slippery if rain is gonna be very tricky especially trying to overtake people it's a multi-lap race so miss that line to overtake and then come back depending where can cost you some time and energy i'm looking forward to the to the main race on sunday it's going to be a good battle and i'm feeling like i'm getting a little bit more confident and uh we're learning stuff still with the bike so yeah i'm hoping uh we can do a better race than we did in poland here [Music] this year with it not being a point system it's kind of just winner takes all on the sunday race i think that's just going to increase the intensity even more it means everyone kind of starts sunday on an even playing field so everyone's going to be battling to win yeah i think it's going to be a good race as it's been the whole season very competitive i think it'll be a big battle until the last half an hour and i think there'll be a splits in the pack around them you could hear a pin drop at the dawn of day two a small army of hard enduro steeds stand in silence the knights archers and squires will ride them into battle on the rocky shores of this lake for the campo extreme qualifier they've got a really long day today all the way around the lake really fast sections some super technical bits which are an insight for sunday we've got three laps around this lake 50k each room for a big day the morning silence is replaced with heavy revving so who do we expect to do well today obviously we've got manny and billy fighting for the championship third place isn't over between teammates mario and wade but don't forget wade's first time here in expania so now you can hear the bike start in the background i need to go let's get out on track out on the track the knights blast from the gate with billy bolt getting the hole shot he and manny let meckler escape the carnage behind them a bottleneck that's trapped the likes of johnny walker mario ramon and wade young [Music] ten minutes into the race manny is closing in on billy but makes an involuntary dismount not long after len migler recovers follows bolt over the jagged shoreline boulders and finds a line around the brit minutes later bolt answers back with an overtake of his own that was a really wise move from manny there he just slid it down reversed it back a bit and then went johnny walker had a less than stellar start to the race but he's climbed the ranks and these massive rocks and now he sits third behind bolt and race leader letting meekler as they enter the pits in the second lap manny is still narrowly ahead of billy both have extended their lead over walker much farther back a local favorite is in trouble less than a minute after leaving the service area mario roman is having problems with his ride [Music] he's going to have to make the best of it until the next pit stop up front manny is holding on to his narrow lead over bolt until once again the rolls are reversed the hard enduro heavyweights continue this dance then bolt finds an advantage there you go you're not bigging now you know and pulls away but letting biggler once again shrinks the gap nearly three and a half hours into the race billy and manny are merely two seconds apart over six minutes back it's walker faulconer gomez and young follow local hero roman is desperately trying to stay in the top 10. in the beginning of the second lap something happened with the bike the bike stopped and i have like 15 minutes to fix my bike in the middle of the forest do my race don't lose the 10 position and that's it we will see tomorrow in the third and final lap bolt and lenten bickler continue their reign over the sand and rocks zigzagging past back markers at an epic steep hill climb billy wows the crowd manny gives them a good show too [Music] further back expanding newcomer wade young weaves his way up the trail into fifth alfredo gomez was able to get ahead of the south african and austrian michael walkner his home country crowd is loving it after a rough start in bike issues mario roman is determined to stay in the game he managed to climb his way from 10th place and is currently sitting in seventh [Music] up front letting mickler makes a last-ditch attempt to take back the lead from bolt [Music] but it's billy with a stoppy across the finish line to take the win eight seconds later manny comes in second it was a good race i think like i think me and billy went pretty fast at the end and we pushed each other a little bit maybe too much also because at the end we've been definitely going flat out up until the like final difficult section money was still pretty much on my tail so i was like he's not going to give up so i pushed yeah pretty much as hard as i could for like this last couple of kilometers i'm happy with my riding today yeah the road's good i think you know so i didn't have to push too hard i literally rode around on my own for three laps so uh yeah happy to come away with third and looking forward to tomorrow here we are with the results billy bolt in first manny letton bigler in second and 12 minutes back it's johnny walker rounding out the podium if things were to stay like this tomorrow bolt would have a four point series lead over many young would still stay in third place and walker would jump ahead of roman into fourth in the overall standings so all in all the guys have had a really fast flowing ride with some really quite technical bits did manny and billy push too hard have the other guys kept some energy in the tanks for tomorrow let's see going into poland i knew it was a race that i could do quite well in and that i need to try to capitalize on as many points as possible and in expanding now obviously mario has won the race here the the final day so he's going to be really good as it's very trousy and tight so my main focus is just to make no mistakes and do my best well yeah it's more than my kind of of riding but he's driving super aggressive and strong the whole year so you never know like i am confident on i can beat him but at the same time he's super strong so for sure it will be a good battle the whole weekend yeah i'm currently leading the championship just one point ahead of money uh so it's you know really important to do everything i can to try and try and extend that lead a little bit more we're heading into germany next for his home round so uh you know he's gonna be hungry there we're on a line right now where you literally can't make any mistake and you have to write injury-free mistake-free there's no time and no chance to lose any points in a championship because if you lose points now this weekend you definitely have a really hard time in the last race and i know billy is riding really good at the moment he's on fire and trying his best to definitely get the title and i'm also trying my best but yeah it's definitely tight this is hard endure there's both the next two races i would say there are a lot of guys that could be challenging [Music] it's sunday race day the top 10 riders are putting the bikes in the cave they're gonna run as fast as they can into that cave dive on the bikes fastest man out before he's gonna get the whole shot up the first hill super clean and then they're gonna go diving down the left side of the peninsula all the way to the end back on the slippy rocks back into the quarry behind me out the gate and then back in another lap the guy's going to take this brace win he's going to be a little bit lucky with the lap traffic but also making really good decisions in that back traffic so i think the smartest ride is going to win today i don't know who it is i can't call it anymore but call it you will paul from the live commentary booth hi there i'm pat parnell honored to once again be joined by none other than paul bolton and a special guest graham jarvis welcome uh welcome to the show sir riders are getting ready for the lost weight two and a half hours of insane spanish riding plus the gnarly final expania hill climb new plate numbers are based on results from the qualifier it's going to probably be the worst conditions possible with it being raining and now it's not raining so the track's going to be as slippy as it ever could be the best result the top 10 riders can hope for during a savage le mans style start [Music] is making it to their bikes in one piece and we're off the 24 mx expandia races underway le mans style race into the cave oh always trip it's a massive accident it's a mad scramble wade young and billy bolt are the first to emerge from the cave and hit the boulder ridden track let's talk about what we're seeing here it seems innocuous by just looking at it but a steep climb right there just to get out of this first pick this is called the gate and they're going to close out later on for the final it rose the rest of the knights squires and archers charge into action later some of them will become additional obstacles when the fellas in the front start to lap them wade young continues to lead the pack as riders behind jockey for position but it's brief [Applause] only five minutes into the race alfredo gomez passes young as they climb into the section known as the castle that's manny pushing there wow bit of a surprise billy ball takes a clean line around his main series competition manny answers back it's the same back and forth we've seen all season both of them continue past a struggling mario ramon establishing the order of the race front runners gomez lettin bigler and bolt gomez right now currently in sixth place in the overall standings but in this race if we're to end right now he'd be the winner as he is out in the lead [Music] but you can see just behind him the battle for second and this has been a romance that has been going on letting bickler billy paul been like a tennis match patch for the championship lead it really has [Music] it's a grind through the brutal section called cathedral mario roman stumbles in fourth behind him is shirco teammate wade young that is until a cautious and methodical johnny walker finds his way into fifth on the mass of rocks nearly 20 minutes into the race gomez is extending his lead on letting bigler and bolt as they begin to pass the back markers [Music] very very very focused gomez up ahead gomez has extended his lead riding clean confident and relaxed nearly an hour in manny is still in pursuit of the spanish leader but gets caught behind a back marker meanwhile bolt has found a second wind he overtakes letting bickler he's now on the hunt for gomez billy closed this gap or he's going to run away with it further back johnny walker is pushing it in fourth but then he has an issue with his radiator he leaves the track in a desperate attempt to fix it which could lead to disqualification [Music] this chain of events has allowed mario roman to move into fourth he wants to catch the front runners but more importantly he's riding for as many points as possible in hopes of stealing wade young's position in the series and the south african is having a rough race he's currently sitting in sixth but he's been lapped and has no hope of heading to the final climb towards the end of the race bolt is ferociously attempting to close the gap he's now only a minute behind gomez can he catch the spaniard before hickspanya hill fatigue is setting in for all riders when that happens mistakes are made oh no no that's it that that's a real big breathing space for gomez two and a half hours into the race the final section opens up and gomez is the first to appear he guns it here we go here we go perfect yes he's done it alfredo gomez is your 24 mx expanding a champion and it's spanish night alfredo gomez taking the top spot and the long sword at expania heart enduro next up billy bolt crushes the climb to take second manny litton bickler ascends the steeps for third it's incredible be back on the top of the podium it's been a really hard season for me and yeah win is really special always but winning home is even better tough race i made hard work of it as well i was really uh struggling on the first couple of laps to be honest going forwards are heading home now and kind of regrouping a few days off and then get back to training towards germany our one last push to try and try and rob this championship i didn't feel like 100 ready for this race so it's been such a cool achievement to be back on the box like it's been now every round where i'm on the podium so mr consistent i'm hopefully we can do a good job in getting as well here are the hickspanya hard enduro final results it's alfredo gomez at the top of the podium billy bolton second and manny lettenbichler in third luckily for johnny walker his disqualification was overruled he comes in fifth bolt is now three points ahead of letting bickler and mario roman is only 10 points back from young the battles for first and third will be fierce as we head to the epic final race of the season once again we will bring you exciting live coverage on red bull tv this time from germany's gobsmacking gets in rodeo until then i'm troy mantering saying keep the rubber side down you

Channel: Red Bull Motorsports

Views: 23,158

Rating: 4.9715505 out of 5

Keywords: red bull, red bull motorsports, motorsports, motorsports videos, redbull, hard enduro 2021, hard enduro, hard enduro highlights, red bull hard enduro, hard enduro race 2021, hard enduro skills, hard enduro world championship, fim, fim hard enduro world championship, fim hard enduro world championship 2021, manuel lettenbichler, jonny walker, billy bolt, graham jarvis, taddy blazusiak, hixpania, highlights, hixpania hard enduro

Id: Wi7piasNw7E

Length: 26min 43sec (1603 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 17 2021