Enduro21 - Hidaka Rocks Extreme Enduro 2019

Hidaka Rocks Extreme Enduro 2019 – Japan’s Erzberg

Round four of the Japanese Hard Enduro Championship 2019 hits Hidaka Rocks Extreme Enduro for an oriental taste of Erzbergrodeo.

Based in Hidaka Hokkaido, Japan, the second edition of Hidaka Rocks Extreme Enduro took place on northern island of Japan on August 10-11.

The race format is similar to some of the world’s biggest extreme enduros but with two different types of timed qualification: firstly an Iron road prologue with five kilometres of high-speed track. The second is a SuperEnduro-style blast much like the Friday night Super Test at EnduroGPs.

The main event on Sunday is very much a 'Hard Enduro' as we know and love with a “Hare Scramble” format like Erzbergrodeo.

The course totals 12km in length with five check points named Rock Garden, Pipe Line, Forest, Dragon and Dynamite.

90 riders gathered from all over Japan this year for Hidaka Rocks and included six females. Not unusually it was raining for race weekend at Hidaka Rocks but the small amount of wet stuff was a benefit for the riders in humid Japanese mid-summer.

Finally, a total of 23 riders passed under the finish gate standing on top of the Iron mine mountain in typical extreme enduro style.

The overall winner was Takatoshi Fujita who took a rare victory for the KTM Freeride which suited the trials-like terrain. Bikes were mixed through the leader board however with Yukinori Izutani piloting a GAS GAS EC300 to second place ahead of Taku Izumi on a Beta RR 350 four stroke.

“I love this race format,” said Takatoshi Fujita after his victory. “It requires not only trials technique but we need more speed on various tracks. I think it’s a Real Hard Enduro!”