Connor Gulbrandsen aged 12 and 3/4 years old; the youngest ever rider to attempt and complete a Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro race.
Connor gives us his rundown on this tremendous achievement and the lead up to the event…
We decided once we were out of lockdown in April to concentrate on long days riding rather than short races to gain stamina and prepare ourselves for the very early starts and long days in Romania that lay ahead.
We entered an extreme event with Edge at Spaunton quarry in May which ended up with my dad dislocating his shoulder after 20 mins of racing having had major surgery on his shoulder 6 months earlier.
My race ended also after an hour due to clutch failure and an overheating engine which in hindsight was good as it forced us to focus on preventing problems rather than having to deal with them should they occur high up in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania
We decided to visit Wales to train with Adam Extance from the Mick Extance Experience which was great as it was as the terrain was very similar to the mountains in Romania
It was also clear my little 85cc bike with its 105cc engine would need some modifications to cope with the beating it was going to get so we updated the water pump, bigger radiators, stronger clutch, new piston and refreshed suspension.
We teamed up with Romeo and Andrea who own Motoland Romania and they arranged transport for the bikes to and from the UK and serviced and looked after our bikes whilst we were there.
Upon arrival in Romania, we spent a couple of days training near Brasnov before travelling to Sibiu ready for the carnage to begin. Qualifying time trial was to decide our starting place due to the Prologue event in the city centre being cancelled because of Covid restrictions and consisted of a 10km sprint through woods, riverbeds, steep climbs and decent’s.
Connor finished 17th from 38 riders in his class which was called Atom
The Atom class is the entry class for first time Romaniacs entries. 450 riders from all classes took part in the event, Connor was not only the youngest rider there but also on the smallest bike so he was up against it
One thing I’ve learnt from racing at this event is not to believe anything you get told about the difficulty of the trails as they are all challenging and whilst our class rode on average 10km a day less distance than say Iron or Bronze classes we were for 90 % of the time sharing their routes and covering 80 to 90 Km a day.
Day 1 was a day that consisted of lots of hill climbs, long downhills through very tricky terrain with logs, rocks, river beds and off-camber trails. Finishing in 13th place I was very happy as I spent a lot of time waiting for my dad and I was under strict instructions from the organisers not to ride alone due to my age.
It was difficult to get permission to start the race as the minimum entry age is 16 but we managed to get special start permission from the FIM and we did not want to abuse the trust they put in us. All in all, I was very happy with my progress and my little bike helped loads on the technical long downhills.
Day 2 was the start of our marathon stage where we would finish at a campsite in the middle of a valley. Day 2 was pretty easy, to be honest with lots of open trail riding which was frustrating as my little bike was no match for the big 300cc bikes everyone else was riding.
Again my dad let me ride ahead of him or better said he could not keep up with me and I rode with a group of Canadian guys who were great and dragged me along, amazingly I finished day 2 in 9th place and was buzzing as I felt there was more in me yet to come.
Day 2 was spent under cover of our little tent in a sleeping bag listening to the wolves in the forest late at night.
Day 3 was a reverse of day 2 with additional routes added and was going great until I hit a rut flat out in 5th gear and bounced for what felt like an age before stopping and being helped by a couple of other riders. My dad was only 10 minutes behind me and once he arrived and checked I was ok he insisted I ride with him the rest of the day as I was battered and bruised and feeling worse for wear and ended up dropping down to 16th place.
Day 4 was the last day and to be honest the long days and riding in 36c heat was hard work and I was feeling tired and beat up from my previous days crash. Our last day was no easier and although only 65km long the going was tricky and had lots of long downhill sections through tight and twisty forest sections, in the run into the finish I had another fast crash and thought I’d broken my wrist but it was only bruised but was still very sore, thankfully we only had 10km to the finish which we rode at a steady pace and I probably lost a few places but my aim was to finish in one piece.
We arrived at Gusteria the massive hill we all see on the videos and had to descend it to get to the final mud bath before the finish line.
I crossed through the final Red Bull arches to a massive cheer from the thousands of fans watching the event in 16th place in my class
To summarise
The days are very long every day we started at 04.45 am and did not get to bed until 10pm at night. 36c temperature each day
80 to 90km a day riding carrying tools and water weighing 5kg on my back.
Watching where to ride whilst reading a GPS is not easy and takes some getting used to;
The scenery is amazing
The camaraderie is brilliant
The people are great and friendly
The experiences are something I’ll never get a chance to do again at 12 and to be the youngest ever rider to date to complete the race makes me very proud. I got to race with my older brother and my slow dad in the worlds longest hard enduro race and loved every minute of it.
I want to thank my parents and say sorry to my mum for putting her under so much stress with worry and thank our support team Motoland Romania who were absolutely brilliant and looked after us like kings.
Congratulations to Connor and the Gulbrandsen family on this fantastic achievement.