Ian's Return to the Red Bull Romaniacs

The last time Roadskin founder Ian Wilson raced the world’s toughest enduro rally, he came home with a broken shoulder. Now he’s going back for more. Here he explains what’s so addictive about this five-day epic and why racers risk life and limb to ride the Romaniacs.

Over to Ian....

Next Wednesday, my wife Nik and I are heading for the Channel Tunnel, van loaded with my Ducati Desert-X suitably prepped and boxes of spares and tools en route to Romania for the Redbull Romaniacs enduro rally. My friends always ask why, at nearly 65, I’m heading back for the third time to do it all again, and I sometimes wonder why myself.

What is the Red Bull Romaniacs and what I've done to prepare

Five days of hardcore motorcycle action plus some Ducati rebuilds

The Red Bull Romaniacs is widely considered the ultimate test of extreme enduro because it’s a five-day rally rather than a single-day sprint. Romaniacs forces competitive riders into brutal, relentless terrain day after day, coping with total elevation gain and unpredictable mountain weather, all without getting lost and on little sleep. It’s a mental and physical war of attrition that sucks up all your strength. It’s totally gruelling.

Racing like this for even one day is a feat of endurance, but five days is unbelievably tough and painful. To win, you need bags of grit, fitness, stamina, technical skill and a really cool head. For me, it’s all about the experience and the challenge, and the Red Bull Romaniacs is one like no other.

Day one

The event kicks off in Sibiu, a picturesque, medieval city in the historic region of Transylvania, which is transformed into a giant obstacle course for the ‘Prolog’, a warm-up that is truly unique. Thousands of spectators gather to watch riders overcome logs, rocks, tyres and lumps of concrete that have been craned, towed and dumped into a lap lasting around 700 metres. All classes compete in the qualification rounds of the Prolog, which start at 6.30 in the morning, and the Finals take place at 5 pm when the 35 fastest competitors across four classes race to become Prolog champions.

Riders’ success around this track determines the starting order for the off-road section.

Days two to five

The next morning brings a complete change in the atmosphere, as the event moves to the countryside and resumes in the golden hours after sunrise. The route is getting on for 400 miles of off-road racing around the Carpathian mountains. It’s all forest, rocks, ravines, rivers and hills. It’s beautiful, but the terrain is insane. The climbs and descents mean you go up and down over 35,000 metres and back again. They say this is nearly four times the height of Mount Everest. No wonder it takes your breath away. Some of the tracks are near-vertical downhills or loose-surface uphill. Not easy when manhandling a motorbike. Even the top riders must drag their bikes around sometimes, and sometimes they lose their grip and watch their bikes roll down the mountain. So, I put my Ducati on a diet by stripping everything back - a lot of cutting stuff off. I also got new wheels, new suspension, new tyres and lighter callipers - I even fitted a carbon-fibre fuel tank, because every kilo counts when the trails get tough. Over the past few weeks, she’s gone from 211kg to 193kg. I’ve lost a little bit of weight too, but not nearly as much as she has!

Every year, the route changes to keep it challenging, so you can’t relax for a moment. You must be totally on top of your GPS navigation, as mistakes can add hours of extra riding to an already punishing day. The forests are dense and disorientating, and the mountain tracks can be hard to find. There’s so much pressure not to get lost, not just because you’ll fall behind, but because the remote setting means mistakes can leave you stranded miles away from help. It’s lonely, and it’s isolating. You need to dig deep.

Did I mention the weather yet? 

The Romaniacs has everything from burning sun to torrential downpours. Storms come on very suddenly in the mountains, and within minutes the rain will turn steep dirt tracks into mud slides. Everything gets more slippery and dangerous, from the ravines to the boulder fields, while the rivers swell up (but you gotta cross them anyway).

Expect to be up at dawn, and in the saddle for seven to eight hours every day. There is no respite on the course; the technical challenges just keep on coming. There’s not much time to recover physically, sleep, or address any issues with the bike, as the bikes are securely impounded overnight in a ‘closed park’. There are also daily online briefings to attend.

The event finishes with the final up and downhill challenges of the Sibiu Final hill climbs and a podium presentation for the winners. But by day five, I fully expect to be pretty bashed up.

Why do I do it?

I do wonder this myself. This will be the third time I’ve returned to Romania to push my continually older and increasingly fat body to the limit. Admittedly, I have entered their new adventure class, which will be easier (I hope) than the previous class, Bronze, which I entered 12 years ago and eventually finished, albeit with a broken shoulder which still gives me gyp to this day. It’s my very own badge of honour!

But it’s still going to be tough. The lovely Nik is going as my support crew, so will be at the service points during the day to feed and rehydrate me, then give me a hug before pushing me back out into the mountains with words of encouragement, ready to meet up again at each day’s finish with ointments and pills to repair my tattered body!

The answer, though, is easy. When I hurtle my beautiful Ducati around mountain roads and through rivers, I feel at home. Age, aches and pressure of work have no place in my head. My mind is clear with one simple goal: ride fast and finish. It’s the best time of my life and, to use that overused phrase, my happy place.

Follow Ian on his adventure at the Romaniacs

Ian will update his YouTube channel daily, as his son and wife will upload videos to chronicle his time on the course and beyond:

https://youtube.com/@ianwilson-uk

The Red Bull Romaniacs takes place 28 July-1 August and has a terrific website where you can follow all the action live online.