Day three saw a few important
casualties. Kabakchiev had to
withdraw after hitting a tree and
injuring his wrist, and Alfredo
Gomez pulled out with a broken
bone in his hand.
Bolt, in second, was down
nearly 14 minutes to Lettenbi
-
chler going into the final day and
was unable to close the gap. In-
stead, Lettenbichler set the pace
off the start and never looked
back for the day's and overall
win, his sixth at the Romaniacs.
Bolt got off to a rocky start
but still finished second on the
day, handing Lettenbichler the
victory.
Roman was third on the day,
giving Sherco third overall.
"This feels unreal," said Letten
-
bichler after securing the overall
victory. "My team deserves this
win just as much as me. I had
some doubts at the beginning
of the week, purely because I
haven't been able to train as
much as I would have liked com
-
ing into this event. I felt under
quite a lot of pressure this year.
The pace was super high from
everyone, and the conditions and
heat here in Romania only added
to the challenge. I kept my cool
all week, though—opened up a
bit of an advantage on day one
and was able to maintain that
to the finish. This has definitely
been one of the toughest Roma
-
niacs I have ridden. I think if the
weather hadn't been so dry, the
race could have been very differ-
ent. It's amazing to take six wins
here now; I just need one more
to equal Graham [Jarvis], so you
can be sure I'll be back next year
to try again."
"Of course, second place is
not the position I strive for, but
I am happy with the result, the
race, and how my riding went,"
Bolt said. "It's always been a
difficult run for me here, but this
year I feel I got it right and made
big improvements in this race.
It's been a positive week for me
in Romania. Starting out with
a win in the Prologue and then
winning the penultimate day is
brilliant, but overall, my consis
-
VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P45
Billy Bolt won a stage,
but it wasn't enough
to keep pace with
Lettenbichler en route
to second overall.
