Billy Bolt delivers the win at second edition of the Red Bull Tyne Ride after head-to-head shootout with Jonny Walker in Newcastle.

Laid out along Newcastle’s Quayside in the shadow of the iconic Tyne Bridge, the Red Bull Tyne Ride is spectacle. A dual-lane racetrack on the streets, free to watch and with the world’s best riders on track right under your nose and next to bars, restaurants and even a Greggs…in the UK at least there’s nothing else like it.

Taking a break from the Hard Enduro World Championship season (which resumes next weekend in Italy with Abestone Hard Enduro), Billy Bolt and Mani Lettenbichler were joined by last year's Tyne Ride winner Jonny Walker and Cody Webb who were both using Tyne Ride as prep for the upcoming EnduroCross season in the USA. Other international riders included Eddie Karlsson, Mitch Brightmore, Matty Green and Francesc Moret.

Typically, the weather was a consideration but luckily it stayed away as large crowds packed the Quayside and looked on from the Tyne Bridge during early morning practice and qualifiers before the main event kicked off in the afternoon.

Knockout racing

After qualifying, 16 riders battled it out across heats with winners progressing to the finals. The knockout style races put riders side-by-side for a best of three format to progress they rattled through it in quick succession on a trickier track than 12 months ago – the track designed and built by Dougie Lampkin and his team specifically for this event with impressive jumps, a boulder garden, log matrix, shipping containers and a wall ride.

Honestly it seemed a bit unfair to pitch a highest ranked riders against the lowest in the early heats, and it made for little or no contest. A solid line-up of British national riders going head-to-head with the likes of Billy Bolt, Jonny Walker, Mani Lettenbichler and Cody Webb felt cruel and they ripped through the heats in no time at all.

As Charlie Frost put it when faced with his heat against the five times SuperEnduro World Champion, “when I saw they’d put me against Billy I nearly packed up and went home!”

With the heats whittling the riders down to quarter and semi finals, it produced much closer racing and hot duels like Walker versus Lettenbichler and Mitch Brightmore against Bolt.

With Billy getting passed Eddie Karlsson and Jonny defeating Cody Webb, the final most people were expecting between Bolt and Walker was on.

The fastest pair went head-to-head for the closest races of the afternoon, with the top two in the world of SuperEnduro piecing the track together like no others had.

In the end Walker kept Bolt honest but ultimately the Husqvarna rider secured two wins to take the final and top the podium in front of his home crowd.

“I had to watch from the sidelines last year,” Billy said after the win, “so it gave me the opportunity to appreciate how big and how amazing this event is. But riding this year, there was only one goal in my mind.

“The pressure was on as it’s my hometown. I actually felt a bit nervous this morning and there’s a lot of people here with high expectations for me. I had a couple of shaky runs early on if I’m honest, but I started to turn it on and execute how I wanted towards the end.

“So, amazing day, amazing crowd, amazing place to ride. Just super grateful to be part of it all.”

“Second place – I'm happy with that.” Said Walker. “The track was technical, more technical than last year, so the riding was a bit more spread out.

“The crowds are always good here in Newcastle – they’re northerners so everyone gets excited. Everyone’s had a good time and everyone’s so nice. It is like home for me – I’m only an hour and a half away, so I come here all the time.  I’m excited for next year already.”

Hard Enduro World Champion, Manuel Lettenbichler raced Red Bull Tyne Ride for the first time: “It was brilliant. I couldn’t believe how good the vibe was. It’s so nice that it's open to the public and everyone can just come. Yesterday we did practice, and it was so packed from 9am in the morning, which was really cool. Riding was good, the vibes were so high, so I'm really stoked.”

Photo Credit: Red Bull