Following the 16th edition of the now legendary race on the massive iron Mountain and in front of 30,000 enthusiastic spectators the organizers have announced that the next Erzberg Rodeo is to be the location of the Xtreme-Enduro World Championship!
From 2011 the official world champion of this type of sport will be named at the same location where the sport was inaugurated in 1995.
Karl Katoch, Head Organizer and Event Director of the Erzberg Rodeo said "It was here 16 years ago that together with Heinz Kinigadner and the publisher Andreas Werth that a simple idea was realized with support from Red Bull and KTM.
"We wanted to bring all the world's best offroad riders from all disciplines and present them with an unsolvable task. After the unique development that has take place with the Erzberg Rodeo up till now - in 2010 we had active riders from 35 countries and all continents coming to Styria - now, with the strength of the same partners, it is now time to give the riders and the fans ‰Û÷their' Xtreme-Enduro World Championship."
KTM Motorsport Advisor Heinz Kinigadner added: "We welcome and 100% support the development of the Erzberg Rodeo into an Xtreme-Enduro World Championship. A sport is being born here that is unlike any other format, riders and fans from all over the world come together for an extreme event. It was here that top riders like Cyril Despres, Chris Pfeiffer, David Knight and not the least Taddy Blazusiak became stars of the offroad world. The field of starters, which on the one hand is extremely high class and on the other very broadly varied, as well as the entire format of the Erzberg Rodeo as an extremely positive sporting event in every way, has already let this race develop into an unofficial world championship."
Taddy Blazusiak, who won the race last Sunday for the fourth time in a row and in doing so wrote himself into the record books of the Red Bull Hare Scramble, is very enthusiastic about the announcement: "I find the idea to stage the Xtreme-Enduro world championship here in Erzberg very good and logical. Everything is in place to take a step in this direction. The best riders in all disciplines, a very big competition, the toughest of all possible courses, very strong partners and any amount of spectators. It won't be just me that goes to the start even more motivated than ever. "
Also second placed Andreas Lettenbichler (GER, BMW), the third placed Dougie Lampkin (GB, Beta) and all the active riders welcome the announcement.
Lettenbichler said, "Erzberg is unique and already brings together the best offroad specialists from all continents. The world championship will be an additional stimulus for all the riders" Trial king Lampkin on arriving at the finish line: "The Hare Scramble already combines the most challenging speed passages with the most difficult technical sections. Whoever wins here can really call themselves the world champion."
The special character of the most extreme Enduro race, which is also followed with interest by International Motorcycle Federation FIM, will stay in the same format in 2011 despite being declared the world championship. Every rider, from pure fun riders and amateur, right up to the Enduro, Rally or Motocross professional has the chance to qualify for the Red Bull Hare Scramble in both of the prologue races, then to ride on Erzberg and have the chance to be declared the world's best Extreme Endurist
