2025 Erzbergrodeo victory number four for Red Bull KTM’s Mani Lettenbichler in a vintage edition of the infamous extreme enduro race – Billy Bolt claims a solid second place ahead of an epic fight for third place between Kabakchiev, Brightmore, Hart and Walker.

2025 Erzbergrodeo in a nutshell:

• As Erzberg’s go that was a good one! It had everything: unbelievable pace set by the leaders, classic twists on the Iron Giant course, just 14 finishers, a hellish rainstorm, a near faultless ride for the win, a first Aussie finisher, heartache with mechanical problems, the closest finish for the podium we think ever, a four-stroke up in the mix, even a classic Jarvis second row to top 10 finish for good measure.
• About that fourth straight victory for Mani Lettenbichler. What can you say but the guy was again simply the best on the day. We say simply — it’s not simple at all — but nailing hillclimbs first time at crucial times, plus a relentless pace through the tough sections, created an ever-increasing gap to cross the line and claim the win by over 10 minutes.
• If it was a vintage Erzberg, this was vintage Mani, who said he got lucky on at least one hillclimb to gap Billy and went on to claim an emotional win.
• Billy Bolt cannot say he didn’t give it everything for his second place. A fast start put him in the lead early and it wasn’t till the first visit to Carl’s Dinner that Mani was able to sneak by, as these two made mincemeat of the track.
• But where they exited those rocks for the first time, Carl’s Light, Billy got caught by a hillclimb which Mani had sailed up, and it was here the gap was established. “It was just one of those,” Billy told us, “I didn’t quite get it right, needed four goes at it and burned a bit of energy there, and that’s where Mani gapped us.”
• Behind these two is where some of the real action was, with Teo Kabakchiev, Jonny Walker, Trystan Hart and Mitch Brightmore all taking turns to put a claim on that final podium spot.
• Trystan Hart looked to have it in his pocket by Checkpoint 22, Carl’s Dinner. After a poor start, he’d fought his way ahead of Walker and Brightmore. But the Canadian was easily the most disappointed rider at the finish after loose bolts in the rear sprocket cost time to fix and he dropped to fifth.
• The fight for third then switched to Mitch Brightmore and Teo Kabakchiev and it was an epic one. The X-Grip and Sherco team riders went at it before a final decisive block pass from Teo out the top of Lazy Noon, the final hard hillclimb, and he nicked third from Mitch. The pair crossed the line two seconds apart for the closest finish in memory.
• Four-strokes can’t do hard enduro? We think it is fair to say Jonny Walker’s team weren’t keen on him racing Erzberg. The Triumph Racing programme doesn’t really include this stuff but Walker was adamant he wanted to do it, and sixth place was pretty awesome on a 250F.
• A better result could have been on the cards but Walker told us he’d opted for a too-hard mousse which, when the rains came, made life hard in the tree sections.
• You need to be on the front row to finish Erzberg? Not if you’re Graham Jarvis you don’t, as the granddaddy of hard enduro proved yet again. Caught in early queues in the woods after his second row start, Graham set about picking riders off in classic style to climb the order, finally claiming eighth place. “Another flag, but no prize money this time,” Graham told us. “I spent what I used to win!”
• More finishers’ flags for Mario Roman, Alfredo Gomez, Wade Young and Matty Green, with Will Riordan popping in among them to take the first one ever back to Oz via the USA with ninth.
• Happiest finishers award goes to Francesc Moret, who was rightly pleased with his not unlucky 13th place. Biggest cheer of the day award went to Austria’s own Dieter Rudolf, who clocked in with just two minutes to spare before the Erzberg horn blew for four hours and claimed the last finisher’s place.

2025 Erzbergrodeo main race official finishers:

Photo Credit: Future7Media | Andrea Belluschi