Factory Husabergs/Canadians at Erzberg

Once again a large contingent of Canada's elite off road racers and support crew are in Austria to take on the Iron Giant at the infamous Erzberg Rodeo. After consistent success by the Canadian riders over the last few years, the lads (as well as super fast female Jill Kings) are back to see how they stack up against some the worlds best riders.

Lee Fryberger (aka Fryguy) is there again acting as manager and crew chief for the Cornergrass Husaberg team. Shane Cuthbertson and Jared Thomas are enjoying direct support from Husaberg riding factory supported FE570 and FE450s respectively. Cuthbertson missed last years Erzberg event due to injury but last minute fill-in rider, Jared Thomas rode Shane's Cornergrass Husaberg to the finish line at the 2008 Erzberg event. An amazing accomplishment considering he only had a few days of preperation time aboard a Husaberg. Cuthbertson went on to finish top 10 at the 2008 Red Bull Romainiacs race on an 09 FE450.

Shane is healthy this year and should be a contender at Erzberg. Based on last year's performance, Jared Thomas was rewarded with a spot on this years Cornergrass Husaberg team with the blessing of our friends at Husaberg. Both riders are multi-time Canadian off-road Champions.


Other notable Canadian entries are Cory Graffunder who finished 18th last year and Alberta fast guy Noel Bolso.

Go Canada!...and Husaberg :lol:

There is a new event this year called the Rocket Ride. One of the extremely steep slopes of the RED BULL HARE SCRAMBLE will be the venue of this side event. In a timed training on Thursday (June 11) a maximum of 300 starters will fight for the 48 final placings in the main race. At 9 pm, under floodlight, these top 48 riders fight for the Rocket Ride crown. Rules are as simple as it can get: Straight up, time measurement by transponders.

Looks they are off to a great start. I found the following at this site :

http://forums.rmdra.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4435

"Rocket Ride Qualifying TIMES:

Top 3: 1.Seppi Fally, 2.Dougie Lampkin, 3.Taddy Blazusiak

#7 Shane Cuthbertson - Husaberg FE570
#10 Jared Thomas - Husaberg FE450
#11 Cory Graffunder

And this is nuts:
#23 Cyril Despres

The Canadian boys are kicking butt and taking names. Awesome."

Jill Kings is maintaing a blog here:

http://www.secondgearclub.com/erzberg2009/

Main Erzberg site is here:

http://www.erzberg.at/jart/prj3/mma...&content-id=1162818505415&reserve-mode=active

Rocket Ride Qualifying

ERZBERGRODEO XV., June 11th - 14th 2009
Press release May 19th, 2009

Top-level riders at the Erzbergrodeo 2009!
Just a few weeks left before the world's biggest motorcycle offroad event open it's doors to thousands of enthusiastic riders and fans, and preparations are running on full throttle - not only for the organizers of the 15th Erzbergrodeo but as well for the Factory Teams and ambitious privateer riders. It really looks as if the entire offroad community is gearing up for the big battle against the “Iron Giant".

Even though the FIM is holding a round of the 2009 WEC at the same weekend, four international Factory Teams have taken up the challenge called Erzbergrodeo this year:

KTM and Taddy Blazusiak: True Favourites
The KTM Factory Team could once again be the dominant force at Erzberg. Taddy Blazusiak (POL) has won the 2007 and 2008 Red Bull Hare Scramble with such breathtaking dominance, it's plain to see that the orange factory rider is regarded as the true favourite for this year's Hare Scramble. Blazusiak will have to face fierce competition out of his own team though. 2-times Erzbergrodeo winner and Dakar Champion Cyril Despres (AND) will give Taddy a hard run for his money, and so will Extreme-Enduro Pro Chris Birch (NZL) and multi-time Roof-of-Africa winner Darryl Curtis (RSA). The “choice of weapon" for all four KTM factory riders: Two-Strokes! Blazusiak will ride a KTM 250 EXC, Despres, Birch and Curtis all choose 300 EXCs for their race against the Erzberg.
KTM will also bring one of their fastest factory guys to compete in the Iron Road Prologue: 2009 Dakar Champion Marc Coma (ESP) will pilot a KTM 690 to the Erzberg's peak on Friday and Saturday.

BMW takes up the challenge
BMW Factory supported Andreas Lettenbichler (D) already displayed his potential in 2008 when he conquered the Red Bull Hare Scramble podium and rode his BMW G 450 X to a solid second place. The sympathic former Trials rider will be back for BMW in 2009 and could be once again a major threat for Taddy Blazusiak. Fellow Bavarian Gerhard Forster (D) will be backing up BMW efforts. The extremely experienced Enduro rider has Top-10 finishes at all European Extreme Enduros in his bag and will be riding a G 450 X as well.
Further riders under the blue-white flag include Austrian Enduro Champion Rudi Pöschl and multi-time South African Enduro Jade Gutzeit and Gray ****. While Pöschl dominated the Austrian Cross-Country-Championships during the past years, Gutzeit and **** have both won the notorious Roof-of-Africa Hardenduro-Rallye before.

HUSABERG - the blue-yellow axes are stronger than ever
Husaberg will challenge the Erzbergrodeo with their all new, innovative FE-models and with an international team featuring top-riders from 3 nations and 2 continents. Shane Cuthbertson (CAN) and Jared Thomas (CAN) belong to Canada's own Enduro elite, while Thomas “Fuxi" Günther (GER) ranks amongst the most successful Enduro riders of Germany. Ex-Snowboard Worldcup Champion Dieter Happ (AUT) and 12-times Austrian Trials Champion Erich Brandauer (AUT) both have tons of experience with even the most crucial offroad tracks under their belts. Except Jared Thomas (FE 450), the complete Husaberg team will attack the “Iron Giant" on board of the FE 570 four stroke machines. “The Husaberg FE 570 offers massive power for the high-speed gravel tracks of the Iron Road Prologue, and it also has enough punch to cover the endless Hare Scramble uphills right after the start. Still the Husaberg is lighweight and easy to handle, which will work perfectly in the tight and technical Trial sections.", Erich Brandauer describes the benefits of his “working tool" at Erzberg.

APRILIA & Antoine Letellier: Prologue Champions of 2008
It was probably the biggest surprise of last year's Erzbergrodeo. Antoine Letellier (F) managed to win the Iron Road Prologue 2008 at an eyebrow raising speed on board of his twin-cylinder Aprilia RXV 550. It was Letellier's first ever appearance at Erzberg, until then the 27-year old Frenchman was rather known for his Motocross riding skills. Unfortunately Antoine couldn't show his potential at the Red Bull Hare Scramble because he had to attend a GCC-race at the same day, but in 2009 he wants to show his team that he definitely is capeable to do well even at the world's toughest Single-Day race event.

The Challengers: Doug Lampkin, Paul Bolton & Co.
In 2009, the factory riders will have to face tough competition from an armada of top-level riders from all over the world. 12-times (!) Trials World Champion Doug Lampkin (UK) and 3rd place Hare Scramble finisher Paul Bolton (UK) will spearhead a true “invasion" of English riders at the Erzbergrodeo - an amazing 85 top-level riders from the UK have entered fort he 2009 event!

Lampkin is well known as the world's most successful Trials rider, but the 33 year old from middle England has also competed very successful at events like Hell' Gate Enduro and Tough One Enduro in the past 12 months. Lampkin will debut at the Erzbergrodeo on board of a Beta 450 four stroke Enduro.

For Paul Bolton, the sympathic truck mechanic from near Liverpool, the Erzbergrodeo 2009 marks his third appearance at the “Iron Giant". Bolton finished 7th place in 2007 and made the podium in 2008. This year Bolton will for sure fight for the Hare Scramble crown once more. Paul will ride a two-stroke KTM 250 EXC for the new EUROTEK KTM-Team - and will face some real competition from his own “boss". Team-owner Mark Jackson rocketed his KTM from second row (!) to an outstanding 10th place finish in 2008, so the 44-years old is a sure bet for a Top-10 finish at the Red Bull Hare Scramble 2009. The third rider in the team will be fellow Englishman Martin Craven from Doncaster, who also managed to finish the Hare Scramble on his first attempt in 2008 - coming out of third row!

The list of prominent challengers for the podium doesn't stop here: Youngsters like Cory Graffunder (CAN, KTM) and Kyle Redmond (USA, Yamaha) can't wait to rub their shoulders with experienced Erzberg veterans like Graham Jarvis (UK, Sherco), Ralf Scheidhauer (GER, KTM), Stefan Müller (GER), Rene Dietrich (GER, KTM), Goncalo Reis (POR, KTM) and Miha Spindler (SLO, Husaberg). All of them have crossed the finish line of the Red Bull Hare Scramble before.

All 5 Factory Husabergs qualify in the front row (top 50) for todays Erzberg Hare Scramble!!!

Final Qualifying Positions:

21st Thomas Gunther - Germany
28th Shane Cuthbertson - Canada
35th Erich Brandaeur - Austria
45th Jared Thomas - Canada
50th Dieter Happ - Austria

Interestingly, the top qualifying Husaberg was Slovakian fast guy, Miha Spindler who qualified 9th on a FE570! :shock:

That makes for a total of 6 Husabergs starting in the front row!!

I also have to mention Canada's Cory Graffunder who has continued to build on his list of impressive results in International events over the last couple of years by qualifying in 7th position. Cory is on a KTM 300 XC.

I also had high hopes for young Noel Bolso from Canada but unfortunately he dislocated his shoulder (without crashing!) while on the Endurocross course. Erzberg has not been kind to Bolso as last year he had mechanical problems while running a 525 KTM that prevented him from finishing the race.

The race should be finished by now. Can't wait to see the results.

I have to admit that I'm pretty bummed out for Shane and Jared. It will be interesting to hear from them on what went down.

Jared made it to the finish line last year but did not get an official finish because he was 30 seconds past the cut off time!! I know because I was standing there screaming my head off and cheering for him when he showed up and then went into shock when they said he missed the cut off by 30 seconds. I was yelling so loud that I did not even hear the big horn that signifies the end of the race! He wanted an offical finish bad this year. Shane is an animal and I really thought he would finish especially after coming off a top 10 finish at the 2008 Red Bull Romanics race.

Regardless, it was an amazing effort by all of them and it was cool to have 6 Bergs qualify in the front row.

Very, very impressive result by Cory. He just keeps getting better at every event. He is young and has a great future in racing. Can we please get this dude on a Berg!

:notworthy:

Here is the official press release:

Erzbergrodeo XV Press Release
Erzbergrodeo XV Press Release
June 11th - 14th 2009, Eisenerz - Austria


Hattrick at the "Iron Giant": KTM's Taddy Blazusiak (POL) dominates the Red Bull Hare Scramble for a sensational third consecutive time!
"Tougher than anything I've ever ridden!" Taddy Blazusiak's first words after reaching the Red Bull arch inside the Erzberg-Arena need no further explanation. It was definitely the hardest Hare Scramble of all times and Taddy crowned his Erzbergrodeo success with an unbelievable margin of more than 40 minutes (!) over second placed Briton Graham Jarvis (Sherco). Jarvis had to start the Red Bull Hare Scramble out of third row andmanaged to overtake 114 other riders on his way to the podium. BMW factory rider Andreas Lettenbichler from Germany piloted his G450X to a third place finish, and even though he had no mechanical problems this year, Lettenbichler had to go far beyond all physical borders to reach the finish line.


21 riders from 11 nations finish the toughest motorcycle race in the world!
Out of the 500 riders who started at 12:00am, only 21 brave athletes made it to the finish within the four hours race time. Considering the prolongued and dramatically selective racetrack, the high temperatures of today and the ammount of high-profile riders in the starting-grid, it's plain to see that these 21 riders have put their profile on the top of the world's offroad racing scene.


Abort and Re-Start
Trial-Superstar Dougie Lampkin (UK, Beta) had to call it quits at the infamous "Gerichtsgraben" section before he could reach Checkpoint 17 out of 20. The 12-times Trials Worldchampion collapsed because of total exhaustion and had to be rescued by helicopter. Race director Karl Katoch immediately stopped the riders behind Lampkin to secure the rescue-mission and then re-started the race from this section.


Last year's third place finisher Paul Bolton (UK, KTM) also had to quit his race due to exhaustion before CP 15. Brothers Ben and Dan Hemingway from Leeds, UK made up for quite a sensation by finishing fourth and seventh at their first ever Erzbergrodeo entry. 21-years old Cory Graffunder (CAN, KTM) proofed once again his riding abilities and placed a career best 5th place at the Iron Giant.



Results RED BULL HARE SCRAMBLE:
1. Taddy Blazusiak (POL, KTM), 1:41:46
2. Graham Jarvis (UK, Sherco), 2:22:05
3. Andreas Lettenbichler (GER, BMW), 2:25:17
4. Ben Hemingway (UK, Gas Gas), 3:27:48
5. Cory Graffunder (CAN, KTM), 3:37:50
6. Rory Mead (NZL, Yamaha), 3:38:02
7. Dan Hemingway (UK, KTM), 3:54:24
8. Chris Birch (NZL, KTM), 3:55:01
9. Gerhard Forster (GER, BMW), 3:58:21
10. Kyle Redmond (USA, Yamaha), 4:08:16
11. Mark Jackson (UK, KTM), 4:08:49
12. Melchior Faja Beltran (ESP, Gas Gas), 4:12:43
13. Erich Brandauer (AUT, Husaberg), 4:14:45
14. Piero Sembenini (ITA, Gas Gas), 4:17:26
15. Jade Gutzeit (RSA, BMW), 4:19:05
16. Darryl Curtis (RSA, KTM), 4:21:21
17. Ralf Scheidhauer (GER, KTM), 4:28:00
18. Andrew Reeves (IRL, KTM), 4:30:39
19. Armin Falk (AUT, KTM), 4:32:32
20. Martin Craven (UK, KTM), 4:39:33
21. Louwrens Mahoney (RSA, KTM), 4:47:25

Glad you got home safe Fry! Can't wait to see some pictures.

Just got off the telephone with Jared Thomas. Some good stories for sure. My 8 month old daughter decided that she was more important than Doctor Thomas and cut our discussion short but I will post a full interview with Jared, Moose (Shane Cuthbertson) and the infamous Fryguy as soon as possible. The UHE does not really care about your jet lag Fry....answer your bleeping phone!!!! :roll:

Here are some comments that were posted on www.rockymountaindirtriders.com by Richie Cox. Richie has been at Erzberg the last two years as part of the support crew for the Cornergrass Husaberg Race Team

"Well, I just need to say that this was one crazy event. The shock and awe of some of the sections on that course can’t possibly be put into words, and believe me the pictures do not do it justice. When guys like Taddy are overheard saying that was too much, Carl may be very close to getting his wish of having only one rider finish the race. While talking with Chris Birch (8th) after the race, I asked how hard he thought the course was compared to last year. After pausing to consider this for a moment, he decided “if last year was a 5 on the difficulty scale, this year was a 9â€Â

Offiical press release from the Husaberg web site:

15.06.2009
Erzberg Rodeo XV
Tougher than ever, the Red Bull Hare Scramble at Erzberg took the top enduro riders of the world to their limits, and beyond.



Due to the WEC round in Finland on the same weekend, Husaberg was represented by some top privateers and nationally supported riders.

Of course the local Austrian supported riders Erich Brandauer and Dieter Happ (both FE 570), both already veterans at the Erzberg Rodeo, and German rider Thomas Günther (FE 450) took on the challenge by riders from all over the world.

Two of those travelling far to Erzberg were Canadian CGRT Husaberg riders Shane Cuthbertson (FE 570) and Jared Thomas (FE 450).
Shane finished the Red Bull Romanaics Rally on a Husaberg FE 450 in 9th place last year, and was also supposed to rider Erzberg in 2008, but he broke his leg not long before the race, so his teammate Jared Thomas took his spot, who finished in 39th position, missing to make the finish just by seconds.

Another fast Husaberg rider at Erzberg XV was Slovenian Miha Spindler on a Husaberg FE 570. He made the finish in 2008 in 22nd position. He was the fastest Husaberg rider in the prologue finishing it in 10th position. Also all other Husaberg riders made the first row by making it into the top 50 (Günther 22, Cuthbertson 29, Brandauer 36, Thomas 46, Happ 51). Dieter Happ took the last spot in the first row because Cyril Despres didn't ride the Hare Scramble on Sunday.

On Sunday unfortunately it didn't run as smooth as in the prologue. Erich Brandauer was the only Husaberg rider to make the finish in time, he was the best Austrian rider finishing in 13th position. As only 21 riders made it to the finishline, next Husaberg rider in the results was Thomas Günther at checkpoint 16 in 31st position out of 500 started. He didn't have any major problems, but ran out of time coming to the next section, because of the overall time limit of 4 hours.
Dieter Happ was running not far behind Thomas Günther, but he decided to retire before checkpoint 15, because he was totally exhaustet. As he started with number 50, he also finished the race in 50th position.
Miha Spindler had to retire one checkpoint earlier and finished the race in 77th position.

For Shane Cuthbertson it was not a good day at all. He had a good start and was going with the top guys until he had a big crash before checkpoint 1 because of hitting a spile of the track boundaries which made him go over the bars. The real problem was, that this spile destroyed the bike's spark plug connector. It took Shane more than 45 minutes to get the bike running again, and in the meantime he was passed by almost all 500 participating riders. As he got going again he made a good pace, but in many passages it was too tight to overtake other riders, so he lost a lot of time. Nevertheless he overtook a couple of 100 riders and decided to retire before checkpoint 14, which meant 90th position overall.
Shane cought up with Jared Thomas, who was struggling a bit with the tough conditions, and Jared joined Shane in retiring at the entrance to "Carl's Dinner" passage. He finished in 97th position.
Both of them were quite disappointed after the race, but Shane will do the Red Bull Romaniacs again this August, and he for sure wants to come back to Erzberg next year, to finish the toughest offroad race in the world.


Pics: GEPA, D. Werner

There are a few pics there as well

http://www.husaberg.com/Erzberg-Rodeo-XV.23.7.html?nodeID=325&cHash=f2c1490c98