I once showed my friend the highlights of a Red Bull Romaniacs race to help explain what hard enduro is. A few minutes in, he said, "Can we please stop watching this? It's making me feel bad. I don't know why anyone would do this. It just looks awful." The thing is, Red Bull's Romaniacs isn't even the toughest hard enduro race there is. No, that accolade goes to the Red Bull Erzbergrodeo.
This year, the Erzbergrodeo attracted around 1,300 of the best hard enduro riders in the world. And by the time the main race came around on day five of the event, the number of riders had been whittled down to just 500. Out of the 500 starters, just nine finished the race—less than 2%.
So what happens when a super high-level motocross rider takes on the toughest hard enduro in the world with no training? Well, Carson Brown showed us.
Brown's grip it-n-rip-it style served him well for the majority of the five-day event. He even made it to the final of the Rocket Ride where he, well, I won't spoil the ending of that race.
His motocross race pace lent itself perfectly to the prologue, which dictated where he would start amongst the 500 riders that made it through to the actual race. If he recorded a time within the top 50 riders, that'd put him on the first row/wave of riders. Brown was 39th on his first run and 3rd on his second, placing him firmly in the first wave of riders.
Up until this point, Brown had been smashing it by all accounts. But the race itself is a whole different animal.
Staying true to his old-school style, Brown rode a 2008 KTM EXC 300, which crucially had an electric start. Emphasis on the word "had" because the bike's electric start was the first thing to break. So, every time he stalled the bike, which happens a lot in hard enduro, he needed to kick it back to life.
Eventually, the KTM ran out of gas, and so did Brown, who said "I physically can't even move. I've got energy. I ate the bars and stuff, and my body's just like, "What are you doing, dog?". I tried. I did my best."
I was more impressed with Brown's attempt than I thought I'd be, and I already held him in high regard. He says he'll be back to tackle the mountain next year and I can't wait to see it.
