For ambitious motorcycle offroad athletes all over the world waiting has come to an end: the official announcement of the actual date of the Erzbergrodeo's 23rd edition is the starting shot for thousands of Enduro riders to begin preparing for the toughest Xtreme Enduro race of the year. Additionally, tens of thousands of motorsports fans all around the globe will mark the weekend from June 15th to 18th 2017 in their calendars - and will once again turn the whole region around the "Iron Giant" into the epicentre of the international dirtbike community!
After the Erzbergrodeo is right before the Erzbergrodeo - something like a "summer break" is not available for the Erzbergrodeo’s mastermind Karl Katoch and his organisation crew, as preparation works are well under way since several months. "After fixing the event's date, our main priorities are the conservation and optimization of the infrastructure for our tens of thousands of visitors, the saftey concept for both competitors and spectators, an efficient waste disposal system, energy supplies and an effective traffic control system during the event. Over the past weeks we have gathered and analysed the feedback from all purviews of our organisation crew of the Erzbergrodeo 2016. This feedback is now implemented into the plannings of the Erzbergrodeo XX3.", the Erzbergrodeo's head of organisation Mark Schilling describes the challenges behind the curtains of the unique World Xtreme Enduro event in the heart of Austria.
Erzbergrodeo XX3 World High Speed Prologue: 1500 riders against the "Iron Giant"
The legendary high speed race to the Erzberg's peak is no longer solely regarded as the qualification for the Red Bull Hare Scramble - the fight for the prestigious Prologue podium gathers the world's fastest motorcycle offroad athletes at the starting line. Top speeds of over 115 mph on a gnarly gravel track, spiced with lots of curves and selective chicanes are no children's playground, so the Iron Road Prologue regularily separates the men from the boys. To reach a Top-500 result, riders need a perfect combination of Motocross riding techniques, high speed experience and Trials skills. To enter the Top-50, which also translates into the Red Bull Hare Scramble's first starting row, riders need an excellent choice of lines on the 9 miles long racetrack as well. The track leads from the bottom of the Iron Giant to its peak at 1466 meters and follows the contour of the impressive mountain. "The Iron Road Prologue is defintely a challenging task in terms of concentration and wide open racing. Let's see if our homegrown Motocross cracks will be amongst the fastest riders in 2017 again!", Karl Katoch is looking forward to the Erzbergrodeo's high speed highlight.
Erzbergrodeo XX3 Red Bull Hare Scramble: Tougher than Iron
Only the 500 fastest Prologue riders are eligible to compete in the definite Erzbergrodeo highlight race: the Red Bull Hare Scramble 2017! These brave men and women will be served with the unarguable toughest challenge of the Xtreme Enduro season. 22 miles of unforgiving terrain have to be mastered within 4 hours, 25 checkpoints have to be passed on the way to the finish. The track winds over the whole mining compound and offers a spicy menue of endless and very steep uphills, nearly vertical downhills, slippery forest sections - and the notorious rock sections carrying well-known names like Machine, Carl's Dinner or Dynamite.
Despite nice weather and perfect track-conditions in 2016, only 9 competitors finished the Red Bull Hare Scramble - proofing the immense difficulty of the race. "Track manager Hans Werth and his crew made an awesome job with a really good track design, enabling a exceptionally exciting race. For 2017, we are not planning to add some extra difficulties but we won't make it any easier as well.", Katoch offers a first preview on the Red Bull Hare Scramble 2017.
Erzbergrodeo Arena 2017: even closer to the action!
The Erzbergrodeo Arena is the pulsing epicentre of the whole event. It holds the race office, the press/media office and the operations headquarter, and is therefore the main hotspot for all competitors, media representatives and crew workers. Additionally, the Arena offers lots of action and entertainment to all Erzbergrodeo visitors: besides the exclusive VIP-Lounge, the legendary Erzbergrodeo festival marquee and lots of renowned vendors, the Factory Teams of all leading offroad motorcycle manufactorers are presenting their race bikes and top riders inside the Erzbergrodeo Arena. Another Arena highlight is the newly designed Action Zone which offers grandstands for more than 500 people, an integrated offroad track and big LED-screens to get as close to the action as possible. "By constructing a completely new Action Zone in 2016, it was possible to create an open-air stadium right in the middle of the Erzbergrodeo Arena. The grandstands were fully crowded during all the side events and the Red Bull Hare Scramble, creating an awesome atmosphere. The feedback on the new Action Zone was very positive, so we will even enlarge the Action Zone for 2017 with bigger grandstands and a wider offroad track. And of course we will keep the spectaculous wallride as the Erzbergrodeo's new landmark!", Karl Katoch explains. The 20 feet high wooden wallride offered breathtaking action during the Erzbergrodeo Endurocross, the official rider presentation and at the Red Bull Hare Scramble finish.
Erzbergrodeo Endurocross & Strombike Downhill: the 2017 side event highlights!
The return of the spectacular Endurocross race to the Erzbergrodeo's range of side events in 2016 was a full success. The novelty: all riders had to compete on the same type of motorcycle, which turned out to be completely noiseless! KTM presented its pioneering Freeride-E electric motorcycles to the Erzbergrodeo crowd and made up for great racing without any emissions. 250 riders registered for the special racing event inside the Action Zone and even the qualifiers on Friday and Saturday got the spectators well on their feet. Despite heavy rains on Saturday evening, the Endurocross Superfinals offered even more exciting racing action in front of hundreds of waterproof fans cheering on the grandstands. No wonder that the Erzbergrodeo Endurocross will stay on the 2017 event schedule for sure...
The Erzbergodeo XX3 will offer another "electric" highlight: the brandnew Strombike Downhill will offer some serious Mountainbike action for the first time. Race promotor Karl Katoch is working on a downhill race event featuring electric powered MTBs. The track will include the awe-inspiring uphills of the Kärcher Rocket Ride down to the Erzberg lake and back to the Erzbergrodeo Arena, offering serious downhill sections as well as gnarly uphills. "MTB and motorcycle offroad racing have lots of parallels as nearly each ambitious dirtbike athlete integrates Mountainbike riding into his training program. By teaming up with HAIBIKE, the renowned manufactorer of innovative ePerformance Mountainbikes, we have found the perfect partner for this new side event. Of course we will do the race in typical Erzbergrodeo style, so there will be a lot of action and entertainment included. Riders can participate on their own electric MTBs of any brand as long it's electric powered!", Katoch describes the new highlight.
Erzbergrodeo XX3: registration kicks-off in October 2016!
The first "race event" of Erzbergrodeo traditionally starts months prior to the actual event in front of the computer screens: the online registration for the Erzbergrodeo 2017 will once again see thousands of ambitious Enduro athletes virtually fighting for one of the 1500 entries.
Registration will start in October 2016, the exact date will be published soon.
Facts about the Erzbergrodeo World Xtreme Enduro
The review on the 22nd edition of Erzbergrodeo is by all means positive: 6000 competitors and entourage, 800 crew members, 250 international press and media representatives and close to 1000 VIP guests populated the "little town at the iron mountain" in the end of May 2016. More than 40000 spectators experienced perfect weather conditions and exciting motorsports of the highest level: 1500 riders from 38 nations and all continents took on the challenge to fight against the "Iron Giant", amongst them the world's elite in motorcycle offroad racing. The Red Bull Hare Scramble offered intense and exciting racing, while the 6-hours long Live-TV broadcast on Servus TV and Red Bull TV fascinated actionsports fans around the globe.
The Erzbergrodeo is not called World Xtreme Enduro for nothing: the media coverage of the world's most renowned Extreme Enduro event in print, web and TV was more than impressive. More than 3 million fans followed the event on the official Erzbergrodeo facebook page, which made the Erzbergrodeo reach the Top-50 of the Austrian Social Media Rankings.
Martin Kettner
Erzbergrodeo Press/Media-Service
