which dropped me to 4th by the end of the race.
Day one off-road was very eventful... on the very
first Gold section I misread my GPS and went left
off a bank instead of going right up a hill, dropping
me five places into 9th. The rest of my day went
smoothly, and with a few navigational mistakes
made by others I managed to win the day overall.
Day two was another awesome day on the bike.
Not long after starting off, the rain set in and it
didn’t stop until after lunch. On the first hill of the
day there were about five of us pushing each other
along, and we all overshot a corner and rode up a
really steep hill that we didn’t need to do (making
a hard day even harder). I struggled to navigate
the hill and lost touch with everyone. I thought
I was in about 5th, so I pushed as hard as i could
until lunch and managed to catch up with Tommy
Buxton and Tausten Gibbs. We came into lunch in
1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Tommy and I exchanged the
lead throughout the afternoon until Jake Whitaker
passed us both on the final big uphill, taking the win
for the day. Tommy took 2nd and I finished in 3rd.
The Husqvarna Hard Enduro is, in my opinion, one
of the best – possibly the best – extreme enduro
races in New Zealand. It is a GPS-marked track, so
you have to navigate the track by following a line
on your GPS and the odd white Husqvarna tape in
a tree. Held in the Tokoroa Forest, the variety of
riding is incredibly good – from racing along the
Dirt Guide Series tracks to creeks, swamps, gravel
tracks and hills you can barely walk up, the Hard
Enduro has something to entertain everyone!”
SILVER CLASS THIRD
WARWICK BATLEY
“For those of you who have not ridden Romaniacs
(labelled the hardest enduro in the world), the
Husqvarna Hard Enduro is the next best thing
that New Zealand has to offer. It requires a wide
range of dirt bike skills. The big difference between
Romaniacs and the Husqvarna Hard Enduro is that
the level of difficulty is tamed down, and instead
of a four day off-road event, the HHE is two days
so you still get to keep the skin on the end of your
toes and some on your butt – and I mean literally!
In the prologue I qualified 13th overall in Silver
and 6th in class so did not have to attend the final.
92 KIWI RIDER
The big difference between
Romaniacs and the Husqvarna Hard
Enduro is that the level of difficulty
is tamed down, and you still get to
keep the skin on the end of your toes
and some on your butt