Last weekend, the 2023 Australian Hard Enduro champion, Ruben Chadwick took to the iconic 2024 Red Bull Erzbergrodeo in Eisenerz, Austria for his first race outside of Australia.
Friday and Saturday saw Chadwick compete against a sea of 1,500 riders in the Iron Road prologue. Located over 1,000 meters up in the Styrian mountains, riders were met with low-level cloud and plenty of heavy rain which hampered visibility and made the treacherous tracks even tougher.
Ruben finished the prologue in 59th place, securing him a second row start for the main race. Considered one of the most technically and physically demanding courses of all time, the mainrace was packed with some of the hardest sections in Erzberg history.
Consisting of two passes through the boulder-strewn Carl’s Dinner, and two runs through the Erzberg’s notoriously wetforests, with each pass being trickier than the last, putting both rider and bike to the test.
Chadwick continued to gain momentum as the race progressed and managed to gain a solid lead on the other Australian riders and make great headway from his second row start. Chadwick finished his race at checkpoint 22 (Burping Stones) with a time of 3:51:00 and in 20th place out of the 500 riders.
Ruben’s result marks the highest position an Australian has achieved in the history of Erzbeg and a stellar result for the Queenslander’s first overseas race.
“Having a less than ideal start coming from the second row, I faced a lot of bottlenecks at the start of the race, but once I clawed back some spaces and headed to the harder technical stuff, it actually got easier for me. I got into the flow and continued to pick riders off throughout the tougher sections working my way up to 20th place. For my first time here, I’m happy with the
result and can’t wait to get back next year to finish the race. It’s been an awesome experience, comparing myself to the best in the world. Thank you to the Beta Factory and my sponsors for your support ” Ruben Chadwick.
Chadwick was joined by a few other Australian competitors with the following results.
Anthony Solar (Sherco) 26th
Adam Giles (Beta) 50th
Wade Ibrahim (KTM) 79th
Josh Ibrahim (Husqvarna) 85th
Ryan Severs (Sherco) 189th
Chris Cash (Sherco) 297th
The 2023 Australian Hard Enduro Champion returns to Australia for RD 3 of the AHEC at Tenterfield, NSW on 29/30 June.
