Enduro
10 reasons why the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is awesome
If you're excited for the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo 2024, you're not alone. We've brought together some of the best moments to celebrate the world's toughest one-day hard enduro.
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In the past three decades, the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo has become the benchmark for extreme enduro races, combining one of the toughest sporting challenges in the world with a festival atmosphere as 1,500 riders and thousands of fans descend on the ancient mining town of Eisenerz in Austria's Tyrol region.
Red Bull Erzbergrodeo 2024 takes place on June 2, 2024 and you can watch the action live on Red Bull TV. If, like us, you can't wait for one of hard enduro's legendary events then let’s take a look at nine reasons why this extreme enduro is truly unique.
Torrential rain meant the riders started the 2013 Erzbergrodeo in a lake
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
01
The weather
Everybody talks about the weather, but on Erzberg, it's actually interesting. The Styrian mountains produce strange weather patterns where it's ferociously sunny one moment and hailing golf ball-size ice cubes the next. The Red Bull Erzbergrodeo has seen it all: heatwaves, midsummer snow, freezing fog and lightning, which is an eye-opener on a mountain made of iron ore. Most memorable was in 2013, when torrential rain created a bike-drowning lake over the start line at the bottom of the quarry.
02
The festival atmosphere
The riders, the fans and the guides all help to create an amazing festival atmosphere on the Erzberg. They can test themselves in the Rocket Ride and the two-day Iron Road Prologue, before the main four-hour event. And in the afternoons after the competition, riders borrow spare parts from one another as they fine-tune or repair their bikes, share meals or party in the beer tent. And then there's the Raid on Eisenerz – a pre-race tradition on Saturday evening where the competitors ride into the host town to party with the locals. Get the inside line on Red Bull Erzbergrodeo in Paul Bolton and Mani Lettenbichler's vlog below.
22 min
Down and dirty at Erzbergrodeo
Paul Bolton and Manuel Lettenbichler take us deep into the dirt of Erzberg in preparation for the big race.
03
The rivalries
Manuel Lettenbichler and Billy Bolt are the closest of rivals: although they have contrasting styles and each pushes the other to achieve greater heights in the sport, they believe that sport should be fun and are great friends. In 2023, Mani got a good start in the sprint along the bottom of the quarry and soon took the lead, while Bolt fell, damaged his bike and had to ride around a host of problems. Yet somehow, he hauled his way through the field and even passed Mani for the lead. But as his strength started to fail and his bike picked up more damage, Mani found a way to retake the lead and his second Red Bull Erzbergrodeo title.
The 2023 podium men celebrate their huge efforts
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
04
The celebrity competitors
2 min
Taddy races Kimi up the Erzberg mountain
Taddy Blazusiak on a KTM races Kimi Raikkonen in a Citroen C4 WRC around the Erzberg Rodeo course.
05
The amateurs
Red Bull Erzbergrodeo isn't just a tough race – it's the toughest one-day race in the world. The Prologue reduces the 1,500 entrants down to 500 qualifiers, and of those, a handful will reach the end of the main race. Most will spend the whole four hours trying to get up an early climb like Wasserleitung (Water pipe) or Three Kings. And the next year they'll be back for more punishment. In WESS Diaries, we followed privateer Kevin Gallas and the legendary Laia Sanz through the 2019 event.
13 min
The Erzbergrodeo
Take a look at the Erzbergrodeo Red Bull Hare Scramble from two different perspectives.
06
The scenery
The Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is held against a stunning backdrop of pine-clad mountains a few kilometres from the Red Bull Ring, offering precipitous drops, lunar landscapes and verdant forests. In 2022, Mani Lettenbichler arrived at the bottom of a peaceful valley covered in pine trees - the last obstacle in his path to his first win. But the forest floor was damp and slippery and there was no grip. He struggled to find a path back out of the valley before the pack of riders caught up with him. Ultimately, he jumped off his bike dug into the ground to pull away rocks and roots so his KTM could find some traction. His strength returned and the German surged out of the valley and roared on to victory.
There's views to die for – not that riders have time to admire them, though
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
07
The climbs
With crazy names like Lazy Noon, Water Pipe, Bathtub, Three Kings, Dynamite, the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo is defined by massive climbs as the riders try to sprint around the Iron Giant in less than four hours. The slopes are not only steep, but they're also incredibly loose and slippery as the bikes scramble to grip the shale, sending rocks skittering down the slopes. For every rider that conquers a climb, it makes it a little harder for another to follow.
Now that's what we call a climb!
© Philipp Carl Riedl/Red Bull Content Pool
08
Carl's Dinner
The definitive Red Bull Erzbergrodeo stage, Carl's Dinner is an exhausting crawl over a pile of massive boulders left behind on the side of the mountain by centuries of mining. Carl's Dinner tests the riders' trials skills to the limit, as well as their strength and endurance – both mental and physical. In 2019, a 21-year-old Mani Lettenbichler was first to arrive at the boulder field but Graham Jarvis drew on his years of experience here and in trials to pass the young German and proceed to win the race. At 44, years old, it was his fifth triumph here. Mani is now at his peak and is carving his own legend on the Iron Giant.
Showing the strain in Carl’s Dinner.
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
09
The riders
The FIM Hard Enduro World Championship is unlike any other. In no other sport are the top riders not only competing ferociously with one another over massive obstacles and long distances but coming together as good friends off the track. Of the older generation, riders like Graham Jarvis and Taddy Błażusiak came up riding trials. Today, the top riders will often practice together and go on free rides, and the two riders who won the former World Enduro Super Series, Lettenbichler and Billy Bolt, even train together.
Riders help each other up the mountain
© Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool
10
The winners
500 may start the Red Bull Hare Scramble, but literally, just a handful reach the end of the 35km race. The ones who come back and win it time and again are a breed apart. Perhaps the most extreme example was 2015, when four riders led the way until a new section – a steep run through untouched forest. Race organiser Karl Katoch dubbed it 'Downtown', but the riders who got stuck in the bottom called it the 'Green Hell'. Four riders – Graham Jarvis, Jonny Walker, Alfredo Gómez and Andreas Lettenchbichler – had to work together to climb out of the valley and shared the top step of the podium.
Pulling together: the Red Bull Hare Scramble
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
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