At the first weekend of June over 1500 riders came to Eisenerz, Austria, to battle the Iron
Giant. Kevin Gallas, reigning Super Enduro Junior World Champion, this year was again one
of the few riders to reach the finish line in the 4 hour time limit.
The Red Bull Hare Scramble is well known as the toughest single day hard enduro race in the
world and is the highlight of the extreme enduro season. Being part of the all-new WESS
series it didn’t only attract hard enduro pro’s but also some classic enduro and cross country
riders as well as all the privateers.
Only qualifying for Sunday’s main race is a big ask. The riders get two runs up the Iron road
prologue, a 12 kilometer long fast gravelled and dusty track from the bottom to the very top
of Europe’s biggest mine.
Kevin Gallas managed to secure a spot in the first starting row for Sunday’s race, like in years
prior. Starting from first row is important not to get in trouble with all the traffic accidents
and craziness happening in the beginning of the race.
The young German got off to a great start inside the top 10 but at the famous Checkpoint
‚Water pipe‘ another rider fell back down and they crashed head on. So Gallas had to go
back down and lost a lot of time and positions that early in the race. But he didn’t give up
and started chasing down the riders in front of him.
The names of the 25 checkpoints only give a small impression on how tough they actually
are. Starting with ‚water pipe‘ and ‚bath tub‘ over ‚machine‘ ‚cuckoo’s nest‘ to ‚dynamite‘
and ‚green hell‘ they get worse as the race goes on. With ‚Carls dinner‘ only a few can relate
how bad it really is. A rock field, several kilometers long, boulders higher than a car, holes big
enough to bury bike and rider. In the hot summer temperatures the rocks also reflect the
heat which just makes it that much worse.
In this section Gallas was able to show his years of trial experience, saving energy and
gaining positions. But at the end of that selective part of the track Gallas’ bike started cutting
out.
The engine kept stopping every 5 to 10 seconds. For the last third of the track Gallas had to
push his bike up all the hills due to the engine dying before he could reach the top and had
to watch his competitors riding up without any issues.
Under enormous physical and mental effort Gallas still managed to get himself and his bike
through the finish, as the third best German and 19th place finisher.
Kevin Gallas got supported by his long time mentors Marcus Haas / MH Motorräder and
Marko Prodan / Endurides for this year’s Erzbergrodeo. Gallas parted ways 3 weeks ago with
his old team Hill Climb and his main sponsor Grenzgaenger mainly to pursue his own way
