Munich, Germany – Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Taylor Robert won his first ever Enduro X Gold medal at X Games Germany. He had to survive one of the toughest Enduro X courses ever as well as outlast a tough field of International riders. In the end, Spain’s Alfredo Gomez took the Silver medal and Poland’s Taddy Blazusiak earned Bronze.
Several days of rain forced the event to be delayed by a day and the wet dirt produced an rutted course that proved to be extremely difficult, especially an uphill rock section that had all of the riders stuck or crashing at some point. Robert passed KTM’s Mike Brown on the first lap by cleanly climbing the rock uphill while Brown got stuck. But Robert also had his problems with the climb and was forced off the side of the section twice and crashed hard on the penultimate lap. The crash allowed Gomez to close to within striking distance but Robert blitzed the last lap to get the win.
“It was really hard because the mud still came up through all the dirt. Pretty much every obstacle was wet, and when they get wet, they get really slippery” Robert said.
Blazusiak had a few off track excursions of his own but rebounded to take the bronze medal. Graham Jarvis, arguably the world’s best Extreme Enduro rider finished fourth and Brown survived for fifth. California’s Kyle Redmond finished sixth ahead of Canada’s Cory Graffunder. Great Britain’s Jonny Walker fished eighth and was followed by Gary Sutherlin and Colton Haaker, who rounded out the top ten.
2013 X Games Enduro X, Munich, Men’s Final Results
1 Taylor Robert
2 Alfredo Gomez
3 Taddy Blazusiak
4 Graham Jarvis
5 Mike Brown
6 Kyle Redmond
7 Cory Graffunder
8 Jonny Walker
9 Gary Sutherlin
10 Colton Haaker
Maria Forsberg got back on the top of the Women’s Enduro X podium with a win in Munich. The American has won Gold at X Games LA twice but had been shut out so far in 2013. Forsberg seemed to be on a mission in Germany and took the lead on the first lap and held it to the finish despite a few close calls, including a tip over in a rock section on the final lap. Spain’s Lai Sanz, the winner of the previous two X Games events in Spain and Brazil closed to within feet of Forsberg on the last lap before she had her own problems in the same rock section and stalled. Sanz still held on for the Silver medal and Sandra Gomez Cantero, the sister of the Men’s Silver medalist, took the Bronze. Maria Franke and Rachel Gutish rounded out the top five.
2013 X Games Enduro X, Munich, Women’s Final Results
Maria Forsberg
Lai Sanz
Sandra Gomez Cantero
Maria Franke
Rachel Gutish
Chantelle Bykerk
Tara Geiger
Kacy Martinez
Steffi Laier
Jolene Van Vugt
The top EnduroCross riders will head back to the United States for the Los Angeles X Games event that will take place on Sunday, August 4th. Enduro X will conclude four days of X Games action that run from Thursday to Sunday.
For more information, please visit www.EnduroCross.com.