Romaniacs : Inscription
First things first, once you arrive in Sibiu, you’ll have to make it through Inscription. What looks like chaos is actually a highly coordinated machine that gets competitors through a dozen different stations in preparation for the race. The energy is palpable as you have a mix of first time racers and experienced hard enduro pros. The registration area smells like excitement and sweaty dudes.
The race organization has staffed aids specifically tasked with walking around looking for confused competitors. Once you confirm your registration, you’ll go from station to station until you make it out the other end with your swag bag and a sense of utter relief.
Safety First: Red Bull requires that you have a mobile phone with service able to call one of their many support crews. As expected for a hard enduro, they have medical and mechanical assistance in addition to sweeps.
Stickers: obviously you need stickers, there is a whole station for them
GPS: each rider is required to bring their own GPS. The race organization collects them prior to each off-road race day and then delivers them wiped of all data and pre-loaded with just the tracks for the day. This is not a navigation rally, but when you find yourself meters off trail because you lost traction on a steep off-camber side hill, you’ll be grateful for the GPS
Accommodations: coordinating 700+ competitors and their support crews is a unique logistical challenge when you place them in a relatively small city in the middle of Romania. And the new marathon stage this year adds an extra hurdle to get those competitors paired up for an off-site stay while their crew remains in town. Staying at a race hotel is not required, but staying out at the marathon stage is. The accommodations coordinator is absolutely phenomenal and somehow remembered everyone’s personal situations.
Race License: if you’re not already licensed by your home country’s race organization, Red Bull has coordinated with FIM to provide on-site licensing for the event. This is no local race and requires a physical to ensure that you are fit enough to race.
Photo & Interview: this is a huge race with lots of surprises. You never know which racer might end up leading the pack so photos and videos of all competitors are collected up front.
Every racer needs to go through inscription, which means you get to run into a lot of familiar and sometimes famous faces. It’s a chance to talk racecraft and strategy. Everyone continues to watch the weather and you can hear the split between racers who thrive in the mud and those that are praying for dry conditions.
The motorcycle world is small and the hard enduro world even smaller. Despite this being our first time at Romaniacs, this was a bit of a reunion and a welcome reminder that even when racing halfway across the world, we’re amongst friends.
