Lettenbichler goes four-for-four with Red Bull Outliers victory

2023 Red Bull Outliers
FIM Hard Enduro World Championship

Manuel Lettenbichler has triumphed at Round Four of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship, making the Red Bull Outliers his fourth win of the season, out of the four races held, further extending his standings lead.

Saturday at Red Bull Outliers saw the intense and spectacular endurocross-style prologue in downtown Calgary. Working his way through the heats and semi-finals, Lettenbichler stayed smooth and consistent on the tricky obstacles of the course. Ultimately, that strategy paid off for the young German as he put in a cool, calm ride in the final to take the win and with it, the valuable three championship points.

Starting from pole on Sunday’s main race, held in the Canadian Badlands, Lettenbichler got off to a great start and along with championship rival Billy Bolt, began to gap the rest of the field. Three laps in and Mani had also gained a sizeable advantage on Bolt, again staying smooth on the steep, slippery hill climbs and making the very minimum of errors.

Cresting the final climb to the finish line, Mani took the win by an impressive 41 seconds from Bolt to keep his 100 percent win record intact. The reigning champion now looks ahead to the fifth and penultimate round of the series – the Hixpania Hard Enduro in mid-October.

Manuel Lettenbichler – P1

“I’m so happy to take the win here in Canada, it feels awesome! I managed to get up most of the hills without any problem and that helped me to conserve as much energy as possible. I bent my handlebars pretty good on one of the last uphills so that was a bit of a worry. Being the first to reach some of the sections was a bit of a disadvantage, because it was so slippery. Four wins in a row now, I’m speechless.”

Bolt had earlier set the pace, winning both his heat and semi-final races with ease, but despite repeatedly challenging Manuel time and time again, the Brit was just unable to make a pass stick. Giving it his all on the final climb, Billy came up short and had to settle for second.

Billy Bolt – P2

“It’s been a good race and a great weekend. Finishing second in the prologue and runner-up in the main race has been solid. I would have loved to win the prologue having won both my heat races, but a crash at just the wrong time cost me. For the main race I knew it was going to be tough. There were a lot of big slippery climbs, and we were racing in some serious heat. I had a good start with Mani, and we rode together early on. I had a few mistakes throughout, but generally I was happy with my riding. On the final lap I had one big mistake that allowed Mario to close the gap to me, but I managed to recover and get some breathing room coming into the final big section. I got onto Mani’s wheel there but had pushed a bit hard and just didn’t have an answer to him at the end.”

After claiming a solid third in the prologue, FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Trystan Hart headed to the main race aiming to repeat his performance of 2022 and take the fight for victory right to the final hill.

A tough start to the enduro however meant the KTM 300 XC-W racer got caught up early on, forcing him to push harder than ever and make his way through the pack. At the final hill, Trystan was able to ultimately move into third place and secure a home podium. The Canadian now lies third overall in the HEWC standings.

Trystan Hart – P3

“Not the result I wanted to get here at my home race, but I have to be happy with a podium. The prologue didn’t go my way – I made a few too many mistakes there, and today was the same. I got caught up in the mayhem early on and was chasing the whole way after that and it really took everything out of me. It’s great to get onto the podium in front of all my home fans, I just wish it was a couple of steps higher.”