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Birch wins second day of Romaniacs
KTM New Zealand's Chris Birch held the top spot at the close of Day three of the Redbull Romaniacs in Sibiu, Romania.
Birch started the day in seventh after a small mishap with his GPS navigation system on Day one.
Birch said, “I got into an awesome groove and just rode. I felt really comfortable, and it obviously worked out alright.”
“Overall today seemed easier than day one with the exception of two sections, one a steep rocky switchback hill climb and the other a mega steep downhill which I basically just slid down on my side.”
“One highlight of the day was when we had to put our bikes into slings and run them down a cable across a valley, it was pretty extreme,” commented Birch.
Cyril Despres matched his position from yesterday again in second. The ever consistent KTM rider doesn't seem to get flustered by any terrain thrown at him. One tricky rock section that slowed a few of the professional riders for a few seconds didn't faze Despres.
In third for the day was Kyle Redmond who said, “it was a close day with only minutes separating us and it was a lot easier than day one as we didn't really get to the hard stuff.”
“There is a lot to come yet, tomorrow should be tough as we ride some of day one's course backwards.”
The day was shortened to around two thirds race distance for the professionals after a race official sent the first three riders down the wrong track, those three happening to be Despres, Gau and Birch.
This left race organisers no choice to but to call it after the sixth checkpoint. While this left some riders unhappy there was no other viable option to keep the results fair.
In terms of overall results, Cyril Despres moved ahead of Michel Gau, yesterday's day winner, to take the top spot. Third went to Forster Gerhard with Alex Antor dropping from second to fourth. Fifth overall is Kyle Redmond leaving Birch up one place in sixth.
In closing Birch said, “It's pretty amazing to have won a day of the Red Bull Romaniacs, I'm really happy but there is still an awful lot more to go.”
For results and images see www.redbullromaniacs.com
