Erzberg Motorcycle Endurance Race - Dirt Rider Magazine Online

What do you get when you take 1200 riders, a 3000-foot mountain sliced with roads and trails from iron mining and a dirt road hillclimb qualifying round leading to an extreme enduro that only a handful of riders are able to finish? Not wild enough? Then throw in some star power with the likes of Travis Pastrana, Jeremy McGrath, David Knight, Ronnie Renner and a whole lot of guys who are famous in places other than the United States, and you get an event that's crazier than the Nitro Circus Series. And we haven't even mentioned the packed beer tents, the incomprehensible awards ceremonies and the wild and unpredictable weather. Erzberg has a flair all its own, and it is 100 percent out-of-control. Plus, it's in Europe-Austria to be exact. Rev up the crazy-o-tron, we're going in!Situated in the Austrian Alps, the Iron Mountain is deep in KTM country. In fact, the event is largely a KTM and Red Bull festival-just picture a lot of orange bikes and spastic people. It spans four days, and as an event, it creeps along, with the Iron Road Prologue taking up three of those days. Thursday is reserved for the Knigsklasse, or twin-cylinder, class. It's a heads-up match between the new KTM 950R Super Enduro and the BMW HP2. While the road is smooth, this winding 17.5 kilometers is comparable to an all-dirt, much rougher and much rockier Pikes Peak, a place where bikes of this magnitude can really breathe. It was my second appearance at the event, and I was riding a factory BMW HP2. I get invited to Erzberg since I used to be fast and I have a history on Bavarian-built, flat-twin-powered bikes. This year was even more important, as it served as a backdrop to the KTM Super Enduro introduction (see page 72) in which KTM brought out full-factory race versions. How crazy is it? Well, if you ever get the chance to ride a 120-horsepower bike that completely shreds the tire in just a few short miles, we can talk about it.Without a whole lot of practice on the course, I was doomed to a couple of runs in which my wrist closed the throttle way too early even though I couldn't tell by the pucker factor going through my head and other parts of my body. KTM had Dakar winner Cyril Despres, former World Enduro Champion Giovanni Sala and current WEC Champ David Knight pinning the big new orange dirt bike. Although BMW's Simo Kirssi came within two seconds, Knight took the victory with about as much practice as I'd had on the hill. So much for my lack-of-practice excuse-he's just better.The Oktoberfest-style beer tent fired up the first evening to welcome the riders on the regular bikes. It would later serve as an awards ceremony hall. The celebrating started before the event even began. A contingent of famous American riders showed up-Travis Pastrana, Jeremy McGrath and Ronnie Renner-but they held nothing compared with the local riders who were deep in the beer garden doing backflips off the tables and prematurely bedding down right outside the tent in the pouring rain. Yeah, it rained the whole time.Early Friday morning, the prologue race gets going. The prologue consists of 1200 riders racing up the mountain road to qualify for Sunday's hare scrambles. Each day, riders get one run up the road to qualify into the top 500 who are allowed to start Sunday's race. BMW and KTM continued to run the twins up the road to try to win the prologue, with most of the top riders also racing up on a second bike, the one they will actually race on Sunday. I borrowed a Gas Gas EC250 from the Austrian importer, which was the same bike I'd used last year. Knight switched to a 300, Despres to a 250. McGrath was borrowing a transformed freestyle CR250, and Pastrana took his usual RM250. Since the course was rapidly deteriorating from the impact of 1200 riders, fast times are usually set on Friday. But it was Kirssi who took the low time on Saturday to win the prologue stage of the event. Most top riders easily qualified in the first 50, giving them a front row start on the hare scrambles.The evening party in the beer tent was bigger and more packed than ever! It was so full that I couldn't get in, nor did I feel the need to since the smoke was so thick you could have hung a hat on it. Besides, I'd easily qualified in the front row (sixth on the BMW, which I parked, and 22nd on the Gas Gas), and I was going to need all the rest I could get for the hare scrambles.Unique to say the least, the 20-mile course setup on Sunday is sadistic. And with the rainy weather, the only thing riders had going for them was that it wouldn't be dusty. In waves of 50, participants started every 30 seconds from the bottom of the open pit mine. The race began with a dead-engine start line, a couple turns, followed by a near vertical climb up the tailings to a rim road. Then you race around the road and continue up four more levels, each progressively softer and with less of a run. It is difficult just to make it up on your own, let alone with 50 other guys hucking softball-sized rocks back down at those below. I can tell you, because I caught one on my head, bobbled and headed back down into the way of 30 or so riders coming up at me. McGrath could tell you, too, because on my second attempt at going up the hill, I passed him coming back down. On my third failed shot, the leaders of the second row were cresting the top of the first step, and I became really motivated to get my ass over these next two steps and out of the war zone that was going to take place in approximately 10 more seconds.I finally got out by running a gear higher and abusing the clutch to no end, but my race was squashed due to the number of riders ahead on the trail. Once we got into the forest, most of which was on the side of a very steep hill, the trail was ruined, slid off and mostly a greasy, root-infested mess. I picked off a few guys at a time as they slid off the side, and then it was a waiting game of sorts at every obstacle.I'm not sure of the ethical code here, but I'll try to explain. Unless you know you can make it around a guy without hitting him or getting stuck, you don't do it. And if you do get in front and get stuck, well, you shouldn't have tried to get in front. Looking for good alternate lines is a plus, but it is also risky, as there may not be a way back to the right trail. We trudged along through the forest for a few miles, pushing up the hills and sliding down the drops with approximately 100 feet of riding in between. Then the course took the surviving riders back out to the open, exposed rock climbs from level to level to gain elevation. I hooked up with Renner for a few ledges, where we marveled at what complete jackasses some of the other riders were. They would cut in line to take a run at the hill. Since the rider trying to get a run was back a ways, a couple of these idiots would try and cut in front, shortening up the run and then getting themselves stuck. I got chopped about three times before I began to get a little hot-headed and threatened to knock one of these guys off the hill next time they did it. The language barrier worked wonders for me in Austria. Being the nice guy wasn't paying off. In fact, after helping one guy up a hill, he torpedoed me while I passed him on the next hill. Luckily, I made it, while his bike tumbled back down about 70 feet.Each passing mile was getting torn up even worse, but then they headed us back into the forest. Here is where the race got interesting. Bad marking or unscrupulous characters, take your pick, but the bottlenecks were getting longer and the guys in front of me were not great riders. They must have cut off a big section of the course. So now I'm off my bike and helping guys who should not be this far into the course get out of the way so I can get through. And wouldn't you know it, with my bike a ways back down the trail, Mr. Cutoff Guy comes through, knocks over my bike and gets stuck where I was helping the last guy over. I really should have just pushed this guy off the side of the hill, but I was trying to be niceThere was a lot of betting and side action going on at Erzberg. It was the reason McGrath was there, as I believe Travis bet Jeremy a dollar he would beat him on the hare scrambles. The Nitro Circus Crew was making all kinds of bets on how far Pastrana would end up going. I didn't have a bet with fellow American journalist Ryan Dudek, who took my former job at Cycle World magazine, but he seemed to be trying to beat me to take less heat from his coworkers at the streetbike book. McGrath obviously had no idea what he was in for. I knew that when I passed him up a slimy root hill as he was sliding down backward-behind his bike. This is no way to see the King of SX, but it sure felt good at the moment. Pastrana was at one point actually leading, but Knight soon found his way to the front with Andres Lettenbichler, Despres and Graham Jarvis in tow, staying that way till the finish. Two of the four names you may not know, as they are trials guys; Lettenbichler was only riding a true enduro bike for three days before the event!I trudged along in pure survival mode and made it over the top of the mountain. I rode up stone staircases and successfully hopped the gully on a 45-degree hill with the trolly track in it. Managed to get enough help to get tugged up more than one vertical wall of roots and mud, in part thanks to my Tugger straps and the human chain that pulled me. On my way down, I knew that I'd eventually finish; I just had to get my bike through the three remaining rock gardens. At this point, I had clawed my way up into the top 15, way out of touch with the top-10 goal I'd set. Methodically, I was saving energy but still picking guys off. In the first rock garden, called Karl's Diner, which was supposed to be a no-assistance area, drama erupted. My buddy Mr. Cutoff Guy decided on an impossible lower line. Impossible that is until a helper rides up on a trials bike and pulls him up out of it. Making matters worse was the guy in front of me falling into every hole possible and getting stuck, leaving no way around. Then the guy on the trials bike actually cut me off! At that point, I was ready to blow. Louwre Mahony from South Africa launched his bike to try and go around all of us, but he lost his balance and instead knocked me and my Gas Gas into a rock hole, breaking off my front brake lever in the process. I was super-pissed, and I actually took a swing at the guy before I sensed the fear of death from him. Knowing my race could be over, I started to demand he give me his front brake lever. After all, he had a fanny pack and I had nothing. I got his spare and a 10mm wrench before he took off; I believe I gestured to him that he was number one. And wouldn't you know it? The KTM lever didn't work on the Gas Gas. I thought I was done. And if you think that you don't need a front brake, well, you have no idea!I hiked out of Karl's Diner and proceeded to beg with the course workers who were there to borrow a front lever off of one of their bikes, which were, of course, mostly new KTMs. But I located an older KTM, but that still wouldn't work. Then I came upon a Yamaha. I couldn't find the owner, yeah, I tried, and I quickly liberated its front brake lever, as it would work on my bike. (I found the guy later and gave him a reward!) McGrath had just arrived. He had run out of gas in the rock pile and was having his mob find some fuel. Out of gas in 15 miles, gives you an idea of the situation. I couldn't believe he was still riding, and we decided we'd ride the rest together, making sure we both made it to the finish. Hey, I might have needed the help more than him! We worked our way through the rocks till the downhill that followed. It was just steep enough to make you think that you could ride down it, which you could if it didn't terminate into a giant pile of rocks. And as I was off bulldogging my bike, I heard Jeremy ask, "Can't you ride down this?"He passed me quite in control, but the rock's consistency changed to boulders, and as his speed picked up, his only saving grace was to slide out. Luckily, Jeremy used his head-even though it was to hit a small tree, which actually slowed his descent to a stop. Off-line and in rocks the size of car tires, he had a little more work cut out for him to get to the bottom.Don't think the guy didn't impress me in other sections. He found the killer line through another rock hill and hopped a giant hole that would have easily swallowed his bike if he hadn't cleared it. We were tangled in with some other stragglers and making slow and steady progress when Pastrana showed up at the bottom of one of the rocky canyons. He'd already finished, was in street clothes and decided to come back to heckle McGrath, stoked he was a dollar richer. Later, obviously feeling as if he'd rubbed it in, he said. "Man, that may have been a little too much." But he deserved to relish his glory, as he'd really put it all together to finish one of the most grueling races on the face of the earth. Especially considering he has a slightly harder time than most people just staying on two wheels. "I got a good start then just took it easy. I was really waiting for Jeremy to catch me, but it never happened. I actually rode smart," Travis recalled. "It's hard to come to a race like this knowing that I can't beat guys like Knight, but at least this time I finished!"Dudek had now caught up to us, and we, without speaking, decided it was going to be an American trio to the finish. Although we all endured hardships throughout the last five miles-stuck, under the bike, pinned against trees and wedged between rocks-none of us bolted on the other two. We got near the finish line and decided we'd race over the last set of giant tractor tires to the checkered flag.As we lined up to start, McGrath asked, "How the hell do you get over those?" Just about the same time a fourth rider pulled up. We didn't hesitate, and before there was an answer, we shot off at the 4-foot-tall tires with rim holes easily big enough to swallow a bike. The fans loved it, and somehow I managed to get the jump, though I'm pretty sure both Dudek and McGrath could out-holeshot me any time they wanted. I launched my bike halfway onto the tires, dragged it up the rest, got it down the backside and then managed to rocket my way to the top of the sandhill finish, taking 27th place.Looking back at all the good memories and cross-referencing them with sore muscles, I can say the Erzberg Rodeo is a lot more fun after you finish then when you are actually doing it. But since I was like a pig in poop (literally) during the whole mess ,you can't believe how much fun it is telling stories about it now. It's a circus, and I fit right in-too bad it's a half-world and another year away till the next one!