Covered in Mud and Loving It, Part 3: A Moto2 Champion Got Left Behind by Seven Hours — Grading Romaniacs 2026

Last time I wrote that ‘dirt became the main stage.’ So this time, let's check the answer key — what actually happened on that stage. From July 28 to August 1, the 23rd Red Bull Romaniacs wrapped up in Sibiu, Romania. This year's theme was ‘UNSTOPPABLE.’ Riders from 57 countries ran a prologue packing 19 obstacles into 700 meters, then spent four days in the Carpathians. Zero paved road. Best thing ever.

Gold Class went to Manuel Lettenbichler. He started third after Teodor Kabakchiev posted 11:23.657 in the prologue, then won Offroad Day 1, stretched his overall lead past 19 minutes on Day 2, edged Day 3 by under a minute, and blew the field open by 44 minutes on the final Day 4. Overall time: 22 hours, 14 minutes, 41 seconds — 1 hour, 3 minutes, 27 seconds ahead of second-place Kabakchiev (Sherco). South Africa's James Moore took third. That's Lettenbichler's seventh Romaniacs win overall, tying Graham Jarvis's all-time record, and his fourth in a row. He also took Erzbergrodeo back in June — 3 hours, 5 minutes, 39 seconds there, out of 500 starters only 15 made it back inside the four-hour cutoff. This isn't ‘strong.’ It's a different tier.

But the rider I had my eyes on the most this year wasn't Gold. It was 34th place in Silver Class: Remy Gardner. The 2021 Moto2 world champion, currently racing World Superbike, used the series' two-month summer break to enter Romaniacs for the first time, on a Beta 300. Result: he finished the four days in 26 hours, 42 minutes, 15 seconds — over seven hours behind fellow Australian Sandon Carswell, who won Silver in 19:10:12, fastest in class on all four days. A world champion. Seven hours.

Here's my opinion. Anyone who laughs at that seven-hour gap doesn't know dirt. Even the fitness and instincts of someone who won the world on tarmac made it unmistakably clear, in hard numbers, that rock, scree, and mud are a different sport entirely. Road speed doesn't convert into a single gram of currency out here. And what matters even more is that he came knowing that gap was coming, and made it back without a DNF. In hard enduro, finishing is already winning. Even I remember the day I limped back covered in mud from dead last in a grassroots race more vividly than any day I've stood on a podium.

Another thing not to overlook: Adventure Ultimate. The win went to Mario Roman on a modified CFMoto 450MT-based machine — 13 hours, 27 minutes, 30 seconds overall, winning three of the four days for his first-ever title in that class. A man who couldn't win Gold Class in ten years of trying finally took the top of the podium in the big, heavy adventure-bike ‘HARD’ category — and on a Chinese-built adventure bike, no less. A class where you can actually run that kind of machine through the Carpathians for four days now properly exists, and CFMoto rolled in and won it. I think this is going to matter more and more as the years go on.

One more thing worth mentioning: what makes Romaniacs great isn't only what happens at the top. Below Gold comes Silver, Bronze, and Iron, and this year Germany's Benjamin Richter took Bronze, fellow German Nico Friedmann took Iron. There's even an electric eMoto class. In other words: on the same mountain where the world's best are burning themselves up, you get to run a course matched to your own level, over the same four days. This structure is what I love most about it. You're not watching from the stands — you can enter under your own name, on the same mountain. That's probably half the reason hard enduro keeps growing worldwide.

And starting in 2026, Romaniacs and Erzbergrodeo are leading the launch of the Hard Enduro World Ranking (HEWR). Modeled on tennis's ATP/WTA system, it grades races from Supreme down to Hobby, allocating points based on the caliber of top riders who show up, nationality diversity, spectator flow, media exposure, prize money, and number of event days. The organizers say the goal is building a career path for young riders. In short, the world of mud is trying to become a proper ladder you can climb, rather than an extension of some local grassroots race. It means the same ground connects someone like me, who just falls over on weekends, all the way up to Lettenbichler. That's what's so great about it.