Jarvis is King of the Hill
Romania
Chris Birch was the Prologue Prince but Graham Jarvis finished as King.
A hot bed for hard enduro, Romania hosted the first major enduro race of the 2013 season this weekend with the King of the Hill Tournament. Besides the undisputed king of hard enduro, Husaberg’s Graham Jarvis, other big names of the extreme enduro scene took part – the young Wade Young, Chris Birch and Paul Bolton were only some of the 320 competitors at the start.
The three-day race started with the prologue on Friday that determined the start order for the next day. Chris Birch won the prologue with Paul Bolton 2nd and Graham Jarvis 3rd and Wade Young 5th.
Chris was a little surprised. He had won the No Way in Hell event in NZ at Easter and barely a week later, after a 60 hour trip, he was competing against the toughest of the tough in Europe. “The prologue went well. My bike is pretty worn out, I hope it's going to last,” said Chris. “Tomorrow is 120km of thick deep glorious mud.”
Saturday was super super muddy. Graham Jarvis was the fastest on the 100 km long track filled with ruthless sections, ahead of Birch on the second place and Young on the 3rd with only some seconds separating the riders.
Chris was well in contention but if he had thought his trip had got off to a pretty bad start after the plane broke down leaving Auckland, it was nothing against Day 3 of the Hill Climb. His title hopes were totally scuppered. “No luck on this trip at all! I got some winch cable wrapped up in the back wheel. It smashed off the brake and jammed everything up. The axle nut was too worn out for my spanner to work so game over, start walking. Pretty gutted. » was his comment.
Day 3, the final day of the race selected the winners after a 60-km long route. Graham Jarvis was crowned the King of the Hill while Wade Young placed 2nd after a great performance. Germany’s Markus Kehr took the 3rd podium position ahead of Paul Bolton, who finished 4th.
But Chris does note, “Bonus! The prologue trophy (pictured above) doesn't even say prologue!”
Click here for a clip of the Prologue
Click here for footage of the other days. The more interesting stuff (in my opinion) –rocks etc- starts at about 4minutes.