Dirt an Trail July 2022
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Erzberg<br />
Rodeo <strong>2022</strong>:<br />
Brought to you by Redbull Content pool<br />
1500 starters. 8 finishers. Two of them South Afric<strong>an</strong>s…<br />
It’s difficult to believe that the last Erzbergrodeo was in in 2019. That<br />
saw Graham Jarvis take his fifth win at Erzberg in what was then the<br />
WESS championship which has since been replaced by the FIM Hard<br />
Enduro World Championship. In the intervening years the Iron Gi<strong>an</strong>t<br />
Mountain in Eisenerz hasn’t been resting. The quarry is active <strong>an</strong>d has<br />
been busy. It’s ch<strong>an</strong>ged shape in places me<strong>an</strong>ing some of the familiar<br />
sections of the course were not the same as riders expected…<br />
Eisenerz, the town that hosts the four-day event, swells tenfold as<br />
40,000 f<strong>an</strong>s flock to the tiny Styri<strong>an</strong> mining town to see hopefuls take<br />
on the ‘Iron Gi<strong>an</strong>t’ with this year also doubling up as the third stop of the<br />
<strong>2022</strong> FIM Hard Enduro World Championship.<br />
During the Friday <strong>an</strong>d Saturday prologues, 1500 riders got two attempts<br />
to qualify. Start positions were determined in time order with rows of<br />
50 starting the main Hare Scramble from down in the very depths of the<br />
quarry on the Sunday.<br />
Rumour was that top riders would enjoy around two hours of riding the<br />
course this year but the new sections, plus a long slog through Carl’s,<br />
me<strong>an</strong>t the race headed deep into a third hour – the longest it has ever<br />
taken a winner. This was “The toughest ever” Erzberg according to<br />
Mario Rom<strong>an</strong>.
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