Tag Archives: Mario Roman

Pro riders, Rider info

Prequalified pro riders invited for 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout; Lettenbichler, Hart, Roman, Webb, Young, LeBlond and Jarvis top list of riders aiming for 2024 TKO win

The fourteenth annual Red Bull Tennessee Knockout (TKO) will take place at the Trials Training Center on the weekend of August 23-25, 2024. The event will be the only FIM Hard Enduro World Championship race in North America this season and it will also serve as the seventh and final round of the AMA US Hard Enduro Championship.

One of the unique features of the TKO is that the top pro Hard Enduro racers from around the world as well as the top riders in other off-road disciplines earn an invitation that gets a free entry into pro class. The top 35 finishers from the 2023 TKO automatically make that list as well. Past TKO main event qualifiers also earn an invitation. A total of 120 riders have earned a spot on the Sunday prequalified list and 35 of those riders are expected to compete.

The 2024 TKO will attract the top international riders such as Mani Lettenbichler, Mario Roman, Wade Young and Teodor Kabakchiev from the FIM championship who will take on the top North American riders including Trystan Hart, Cody Webb, Ryder LeBlond and Will Riordan.

Mani Lettenbichler just won his fifth Romaniacs Hard Enduro to go along wins at the Erzbergrodeo and Valleys Hard Enduro. The German won the TKO back in 2019 and finished on the podium in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Red Bull KTM rider will be looking for his second TKO win in 2024. Photography by Future7Media.

Lettenbichler has dominated the FIM Hard Enduro championship for the past two years, but Hart has managed to beat him at the last two TKO events, so we can expect an epic battle for TKO supremacy between those two.

FMF KTM’s Trystan Hart will be aiming for a third consecutive TKO win in 2024. The Canadian will have to beat a strong group of riders to get his fourth career win at the prestigious event. Photography by Sean Finley.

And don’t count out six-time TKO winner Cody Webb for the win. The FactoryONE Sherco rider is having a great season and currently leads the AMA US Hard Enduro Championship series.

Cody Webb won the TKO six times in a row from 2013 through 2018. Injuries and tough competition have kept him off the top step of the podium for a few years, but the Sherco rider is having a strong season in 2024 and leads the AMA US Hard Enduro Championship. Perhaps he can get his seventh TKO win. Photography by Ryan McCasland.

Graham Jarvis has also added his name to the list of pro riders planning to compete at the TKO in 2024.

Graham Jarvis prefers longer races than the sprint format of the TKO but the 49-year-old British rider finished fourth at the Erzbergrodeo in June and plans to be back for another shot at a TKO podium. Photography by Future7Media.

Top 120 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout Prequalified Pro Riders

1. Trystan Hart
2. Manuel Lettenbichler
3. Cody Webb
4. Wade Young
5. Will Riordan
6. Mario Roman
7. Ryder LeBlond
8. Teodor Kabakchiev
9. Colton Haaker
10. Billy Bolt
11. Graham Jarvis
12. James Flynn
13. Alfredo Gomez
14. Mitch Brightmore
15. Jonny Walker
16. Matthew Green
17. Cooper Abbott
18. Logan Bolopue
19. Danny Lewis
20. Quinn Wentzel
21. Branden Petrie
22. Jordan Ashburn
23. Pat Smage
24. Tim Apolle
25. Josh Roper
26. Gauge Logan-Key
27. KAMAKANA WAIWAIOLE-KAHALEPUNA
28. Dominik Olszowy
29. David Cyprian
30. William Hoare
31. Steward Baylor
32. Josh Toth
33. Hayden Mosa
34. Craig DeLong
35. Michael Walkner
36. Liam Draper
37. Grant Baylor
38. Max Gerston
39. Mason George
40. KAWALO HUDDY
41. David Knight
42. Taddy Blazusiak
43. Francesc Moret Clota
44. Spenser Wilton
45. Marc Riba Lazaro
46. Suff Sella
47. CREED KISLING
48. Ryder Guest
49. Ricky Russell
50. Didier Goirand
51. Dan Peace
52. Adam Hartnagel
53. Anthony Johnson
54. Vaclav Nedved
55. Mark Fortner
56. Vaclav Nedved
57. Cody Barnes
58. Nick Fahringer
59. Ben Kelley
60. Jarrett Mohn
61. Ruy Barbosa
62. Jack Price
63. Ryder Lafferty
64. Radford Ghugg
65. Michael Witkowski
66. Cory Graffunder
67. Justin Hoeft
68. Angus Riordan
69. Alexander Myers
70. DYLAN SANTORO
71. Mason Semmens
72. Jackson Davis
73. Dante Oliveira
74. Josh Strang
75. Will Myers
76. Norbert Zsigovits
77. Wanja Morlinghaus
78. Jonathan Johnson
79. JARED LAMBE
80. Thorn Devlin
81. Ryan Surratt
82. Mateo Oliveira
83. Alexander Niederer
84. Varga Zsolt
85. Grant Davis
86. Austin Walton
87. Tyler Lynn
88. Jonathan Girroir
89. Daniel Blanc-Gonnet
90. Casey Satterfield
91. Chris Satterfield
92. Marc Font Torres
93. Milos Novakovic
94. DEVIN STEPHENSON
95. Jesse Ansley
96. Evan Smith
97. Cole Martinez
98. Zach Bell
99. Cole Culins
100. Cody Miller
101. Ashton Brightmore
102. Nathaniel Tasha
103. Ali Ai Hiasat
104. LOGAN CIPALA
105. Mitch Carvolth
106. Tallon LaFountaine
107. Samuel Fastle
108. George Kowalski
109. Kyle Flanigan
110. Noah Kepple
111. Ryan Sipes
112. Daryoush Ghorbani
113. Travis Teasdale
114. Keith Curtis
115. Wally Palmer
116. Chuck DeLullo
117. Alex Bedley
118. Russell Bobbitt
119. Ty Tremaine
120. Mike Brown

In addition to the top pro riders, up to five hundred amateur riders will take on the TKO course aiming for the AMA Grand Championship titles and class wins. The top thirty amateur riders will also earn the opportunity to compete with the world’s best riders during the Sunday pro racing. The ECR eMoto (electric motorcycle) class will also be back for the third year with riders and electric motorcycle manufacturers competing for an AMA Grand Championship title.

The free electric motorcycle demo rides, sponsored by Surron, will be back again in 2024 and open to anybody that wants to give one of the bikes from multiple brands, including Surron and Electric Motion a test ride.

To kick off the weekend, the top sixteen pro riders will compete in a head-to-head prologue on a man-made straight rhythm inspired enduro course in downtown Nashville on Thursday, August 22nd. The 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout will again be a three-day format with a Hot-Lap on Friday to set amateur racer starting positions followed by two rounds of amateur racing on Saturday. The pro riders will kick off their weekend with a Hot-Lap on Saturday afternoon and a three round Knock Out format on Sunday. The multiple rounds of racing and course layout provide a full weekend of exciting, spectator-friendly racing.

Riders can enter the 2024 Red Bull Tennessee Knockout here. (If you are signing up via a smartphone, it will help if you close other tabs that are open in your website browser software.)

Announcements

Post-TKO Hard Enduro Master Class offered by Cody Webb and Mario Roman on Aug 16 at the TTC

Enduro pros Cody Webb (@codywebb2) and Mario Roman (@marioroman74) will be offering an all-day Hard Enduro Master Class at the Trials Training Center (@trialstrainingcenter) on Monday, August 16, the day after the TKO.

See the details on the Eventbrite page.

Pro riders, Results

Lettenbichler Takes 2019 Tennessee Knockout; Roman and Young round out international podium

Manuel Lettenbichler (@m_letti304) has had an amazing 2019 season of Extreme Enduro racing. The twenty-one-year-old German dominated the Kenda Tennessee Knockout on his KTM 300 XCW TPI. This was just a few weeks after winning the four-day-long Red Bull Romaniacs, to go along with a runner-up finish at the Erzberg Rodeo. Sherco-backed Mario Roman (@marioroman74), from Spain, put up a good fight but settled for second in his third straight podium finish at the TKO. Fellow Sherco rider, Wade Young (@wadeyoung55), from South Africa, rounded out the podium.

Manuel Lettenbichler (center), won the 2019 Kenda Tennessee Knockout over Mario Roman (left) and Wade Young. Photo: Larry Mayo

The ninth annual Kenda Tennessee Knockout had almost 400 entries that started with a prologue to set the starting positions on Friday, followed by two rounds of racing for Amateur riders on Saturday. The top thirty of those amateur riders earned a spot in Sunday’s racing, which also included twenty-seven pre-qualified pro riders. Nate Smith won the Saturday morning race. Seventeen-year-old Ryder LeBlond took the Amateur win over Smith and Jarrett Mohn to earn the AMA Amateur Extreme Enduro Grand National Championship and move forward to Sunday.

Lettenbichler had a nearly flawless day at the 2019 Kenda Tennessee Knockout. Photo Larry Mayo

Sunday includes four rounds of racing for the fifty-nine riders and starts with a Hot Lap on a mile-long “short course”. Lettenbichler set the fastest time with a 4:26 lap. Roman was second with a 4:32 followed by Rockstar Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker with a 4:43 and Young rounded out the top five with a 4:47 time.

Mario Roman battled with his Sherco teammate to take second at the TKO. Photo: Larry Mayo

Knockout round one takes place on a nineteen-mile long loop with the top twenty-five riders moving on to the next round. The riders take off in thirty-second intervals and race against the clock. Lettenbichler again set the fastest time of 1:01:28. Haaker was second fastest with a time of 1:03:49. Roman was third at 1:04:55. Am-Pro Yamaha’s Ricky Russell showed impressive speed with a fourth-place finish in 1:05:07. Trail Jesters KTM’s Ben Kelley rounded out the top five with a time of 1:05:53.

Wade Young had a solid day to round out the podium at the 2019 Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Larry Mayo

Knockout round two switches from a race against the clock to a head-to-head format with four groups of five riders and one group of six after a twenty-sixth rider earned a spot in the next round after out-dueling three other riders in the last chance qualifier. In this round, those five groups would be competing for the fifteen spots in the final by finishing in the top three in their respective groups. This was back on the nineteen-mile long course with a few more challenging sections added in. Lettenbichler won group one over Trystan Hart and Liam Draper. Haaker won group two over Grant Baylor and Ronnie Commo. Roman won group three over Beta’s Max Gerston and Nick Fahringer. Young won group four over Russell and Quinn Wentzel. Kelley won group five over Nate Smith and Mitch Carvolth. Smith had raced both races on Saturday and still managed to earn one of the coveted spots in the main event. Notably, Young had the fastest time during round two at 1:06:29 to serve notice that he may have the speed to challenge for the win.

The main event moved back to the short course with a 30-minute plus one lap battle, which ended up taking Lettenbichler 37:10 to complete. “Letti” jumped out to the early lead and managed to maintain it for the entire race, which ended up being 8 laps. The battle for second included Young, Haaker, and Roman in the early laps. Roman passed Haaker and then he and Young battled back and forth for a couple of laps before Roman was able to work his way into second. In the end, Roman was unable to make much of an impact on Lettenbichler’s lead and ultimately finished nearly two minutes back. Young dropped back to nearly four minutes behind the winner. Haaker held on for fourth place but went a lap down. Hart recovered from a pretty big crash to round out the top five.

Kelley finished in sixth position on his KTM. Russell finished seventh on a Yamaha YZ250X. Gerston was eighth on a Beta. Baylor finished ninth on a KTM and Commo rounded out the top ten on a KTM.

Lettenbichler had finished a close second to six-time TKO champion Cody Webb at the 2018 event and he used that experience to win in 2019. “It is a completely different kind of format than I normally race. You race four times during the day with high intensity. And the main event is so difficult because the pace is so high. I liked the loops but it is much hotter and more humidity than I am used to from home so it makes it very challenging. I was happy to have a comfy lead at the end of the final race so I could back off a little.”

Roman finished third in the 2017 and 2018 TKO events and improved to second this year. “I think I am getting more experience year by year in this race. This is a special kind of race because you have a couple of hours in the morning just to qualify and then the main one is thirty minutes with high intensity and high humidity. I didn’t have time to prepare much because we just came from Romaniacs. Letti was no mistakes and he was gone after I battle with Colton and Wade in the beginning but I am happy to improve and have a good result with the help of Sherco USA.”

Young had a pretty serious foot injury that forced the defending Romiacs champion to pull out of this year’s event. But he was here in the USA for his third attempt at the TKO. “I didn’t feel so well on the bike this morning since I just got back on the bike when I arrived in the USA. But by the third round, I was starting to feel really good but when the final came around, my fitness was not so good due to my time off the bike. So I was not able to battle for the win but overall, I am happy, I would have liked to battle for first but this was the best I could do with the time off.

The Women’s class had a total of 14 riders that tried to earn a spot in the main event by completing the morning race within the two and a half-hour time limit and ten of those riders moved forward to the main with three of the women finishing within the top forty overall among the 242 riders. Beta’s Rachel Gutish took her third TKO win with a dominant performance. Shelby Turner and Nicole Bradford both had minor mishaps in the first few corners that put them behind but they rebounded to finish second and third respectively.

2019 Kenda Tennessee, Knockout Main Event Results

  1. Manuel Lettenbichler, KTM
  2. Mario Roman, Sherco
  3. Wade Young, Sherco
  4. Colton Haaker, Husqvarna
  5. Trystan Hart, KTM
  6. Ben Kelley, KTM
  7. Ricky Russell, Yamaha
  8. Max Gerston, Beta
  9. Grant Baylor, KTM
  10. Ronnie Commo, KTM
  11. Quinn Wentzel, Husqvarna
  12. Nick Fahringer, Sherco
  13. Mitch Carvolth, Sherco
  14. Liam Draper, KTM
  15. Nate Smith, Husqvarna

Detailed results can be found here.

Keep an eye on this TKO blog for a video recap within a few days.

Pro riders, Results

Webb tops Lettenbichler and Roman for sixth straight Tennessee Knockout win

FMF KTM Factory Racing-backed Cody Webb  (@codywebb2) won his sixth straight Kenda Tennessee Knockout despite a recent injury and stacked field of talented riders from around the world. After four rounds of racing that added up to nearly three hours, Germany’s Manuel “Manni” Lettenbichler (@m_letti304) finished second on a KTM and Spain’s Mario Roman (@marioroman74)   rounded out the podium on his Sherco.

Webb (center), Lettenbichler (right) and Roman earned the top three postions at the 2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Darrin Chapman

The multi-round Tennessee Knockout started with 262 Amateur entries competing on Saturday in a two-race format that allowed the top thirty riders to move forward to compete in the four round Sunday competition that included thirty-one pre-qualified pro riders. That pre-qualified list included the top North American and International Extreme Enduro racers. Hawaii’s Kekoa Estrella took the Amateur win to earn the AMA Amateur Extreme Enduro Grand National Championship and move forward to Sunday.

The Sunday morning program started with a Hot Lap on a mile long “short course” and Webb started the day off with a 4:33 lap to earn the first starting position for the next Knockout round. Wade Young, the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs winner, set the second fastest time at 4:43. Lettenbichler got off to a good start with the third fastest time at 5:12. Roman had the fourth fastest time at 5:26. Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker was rounded the time five with a 6:06 lap.

The second round sent the riders out on a fourteen-mile loop in thirty second intervals, based on the hot lap times. Young and Lettenbichler erased their gaps to Webb and the three riders battled closely for several miles before Young finally opened the gap in the last few miles. Young set the fastest time at 1:08:54. Lettenbichler was second fastest at 1:09:30 and Webb was third at 1:10:20. Roman set the fourth fastest time at 1:15:47 and Austria’s Lars Enockl was fifth at 1:19:57. Only the fastest twenty-six riders moved on to round three and the remaining riders were knocked out of the competition.

Round three switched from the riders racing the track against the clock to a multi-rider head-to-head format. The fastest twenty-five riders were split into five groups of five and a 26th rider was added to group six as the LCQ alternate. The straight-line LCQ competition was not held due to race one taking longer than expected due to the difficult course. Haaker, Lettenbichler, Webb, Roman and Enockl won their respective groups to earn front row starting positions. The second and third place finishers in each group also moved on to the fifteen-rider main event.

The main event moved back to the short course and would be a 30-minute plus one lap battle, which ended up taking 41 minutes and 31 seconds for Webb to complete. Haaker jumped into the lead off the start and led the field into the woods and held that spot until he struggled to make it up a tough climb exiting the water fall that would prove to be one of the most challenging obstacles for all the riders. Webb capitalized on Haaker’s mistake to take the lead and quickly opened a small gap on the field. Roman and Young were not far behind as they completed the first lap while Haaker and Lettenbichler were another 20 plus seconds back in fourth and fifth. On lap two, Young and Haaker struggled again on the same hill allowing Lettenbichler to pass both of them and Young also passed Haaker in the melee.

The top five remained the same for several laps with Roman closing in on Webb. At the halfway point, Roman began to fall back from Webb and Lettenbichler ended up passing him for second on lap five of seven. This ended up setting the final top five results, with Webb finishing 1:28 ahead of Lettenbichler. Roman was 2:15 behind the leader and Young ended up finishing fourth, 5:17 back. Haaker went a lap down on the final lap but held fifth.

Webb broke his foot at Erzberg in June, so he had limited preparation for this event. “I was definitely worried, especially with all the competition coming over from Europe,” Webb said. “Some of Hard Enduro’s biggest hitters came over here and I had eight weeks of couch surfing and only eight days on the bike since my injury so I was happy to get another win. I kind of conserved some energy in those early races and I think that helped me for the main, but I still felt like I was going to die out there.”

Cody Webb has been unstoppable at the Kenda Tennessee Knockout for the past six years now. Photo: Darrin Chapman

Lettenbichler, the twenty-year-old German who has had great season, including podium finishes at Erzberg and Romaniacs was impressive in his first TKO visit. “It was a nice event, I really enjoyed it, the main event was super gnarly with the slippery rocks and humidity, it is not like this in Germany,” Lettenbichler said. “I am super proud of second place and I passed Mario a few laps from the end, so I am stoked about that.”

Germany’s Manni Lettenbichler was impressive in his first Tennessee Knockout appearance. Photo: Darrin Chapman.

Roman finished third at the TKO for the second consecutive year. “I came here with more preparation because last year I suffered a lot, so I prepared more for the short, sprint main event,” Roman said. “I have to thank Sherco USA and the friends I met last year for helping me for this event.”

Mario Roman finished third at the TKO for the second consecutive year. Photo: Darrin Chapman

Team SRT-Husqvarna backed Trystan Hart had a pretty quiet day to finish sixth in his first ever TKO. Enockl finished seventh on his GasGas. Tennessee’s Jordan Ashburn finished eighth on his Beta. Ben Kelley took ninth on his Trail Jesters KTM and Chris Satterfield rounded out the top ten on his KTM.

Benjamin Herrera Ried, from Chile finished eleventh on a Beta. Casey Satterfield (Chris’s brother), finished twelfth on a KTM. Quinn Wentzel rode a Husqvarna to finish thirteenth. Grayson Gonsalves rode another Husqvarna to fourteenth and Chuck DeLullo, a former GNCC ATV Champion rounded out the top fifteen.

Beta’s Rachel Gutish  (@rachel_gutfish) took the Saturday Women’s class win ahead of Nikki Russell and Allie Dorsey. The women put on an exciting race for the fans as the technical obstacles challenged the riders, but they proved to be incredibly resilient.

Rachel Gutish earned the top spot in the Women’s class. Photo: Darrin Chapman
Gutish (center), Nikki Russell (right) and Allie Dorsey put on a great show on the tough track to take the top three spots in the women’s class. Photo: Darrin Chapman

2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout Main Event Results:

  1. Cody Webb, KTM
  2. Manuel Lettenbichler, KTM
  3. Mario Roman, Sherco
  4. Wade Young, Sherco
  5. Colton Haaker, Husqvarna
  6. Trystan Hart, Husqvarna
  7. Lars Enockl, GasGas
  8. Jordan Ashburn, Beta
  9. Ben Kelley, KTM
  10. Chris Satterfield, KTM
  11. Benjamin Herrera Ried, Beta
  12. Casey Satterfield, Husqvarna
  13. Quinn Wentzel, Husqvarna
  14. Grayson Gonsalves, Husqvarna
  15. Chuck DeLullo, Husqvarna

Keep an eye here on the TKO blog for a video recap within a few days.

Complete 2018 TKO weekend results from Full Gas Timing and Scoring now posted here.

Pro riders

Wade Young & Mario Roman confirmed for 2018 TKO; Sherco factory riders are among the world’s best Extreme Enduro racers

Sherco has confirmed that both Wade Young (@wadeyoung55) and Mario Roman (@marioroman74)  will be competing at the 2018 Kenda Tennessee Knockout on August 19th. Both riders are past podium finishers at the TKO and will be a serious threat to take the win.

Wade Young just took the win at the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs so he has momentum coming into the TKO

Young just won the 2018 Red Bull Romaniacs event, arguably one of the toughest Extreme Enduro events in the world. The South African, who is still just twenty-two years old, has previously won the Hells Gate Enduro in Italy and has won the tough multi-day Roof of Africa in his home country two times. Young finished second to Cody Webb at the 2016 TKO and will be gunning for the top step this time around.

Spain’s Mario Roman made the podium at the 2017 TKO and like Young, he learned a lot about the terrain and format that should help in 2018.

Roman transitioned from traditional Enduro to Extreme Enduro racing a few years ago and already has a few major wins to his credit including Ales’Trem and Hells Gate. The Spanish rider made a last-minute decision to compete at the TKO last year and joined Cody Webb and Graham Jarvis on the podium with a third-place finish. He too will be back looking to apply what he learned last year to earn the win.

Look for more top riders to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Pro riders, Results

Webb Tops Jarvis and Roman for Tennessee Knockout Win; USA, UK and Spain represented on the podium

Cody Webb (center), Graham Jarvis (left) and Mario Roman shared the 2017 Kenda Tennessee Knockout podium. Photo: Adam Booth

FMF KTM Factory Racing-backed Cody Webb (@codywebb2) withstood a heavy international assault from the UK’s Graham Jarvis (@gforcejarvis)  and Spain’s Mario Roman (@marioroman74) to take his fifth straight Kenda AMA Tennessee Knockout win. The American was once again unstoppable on the tough terrain at the Trials Training Center, winning all four rounds despite intense pressure from Rockstar Husqvarna’s Jarvis.

The multi-round Tennessee Knockout started with 250 Amateur entries competing on Saturday in a two-race format that allowed the top thirty riders to move forward to compete in the four round Sunday competition that included twenty nine pre-qualified pro riders from around the world. Jarrett Mohn topped the Amateur competition to earn the AMA Amateur Extreme Enduro Grand National Championship and move forward to Sunday.

The Sunday morning program started with a Hot Lap on a mile long “short course” and Webb started the day off with a 3:53 lap to earn the first starting position for the next Knockout round. Sherco’s Ramon proved a quick learner to set the second fastest time at 4:15. SRT Offroad backed Kyle Redmond was third fastest at 4:17. Jarvis was fourth at 4:18 and SRT backed Cory Graffunder fifth at 4:39.

The second round sent the riders out on a fourteen-mile loop in thirty second intervals and Webb was again fastest with a 1:10:28 lap. Roman continued to impress with the second fastest time at 1:14:30 and Beta USA’s Jordan Ashburn (@jashburn7), who is a Tennessee native, was third with a 1:16:16. Jarvis (1:16:25) and Graffunder (1:21:52) rounded out the top five. Fifty-six riders started this round and only the fastest 25 riders moved on to the next Knockout.

Round three, switched from the riders hitting the track by themselves to a multi-rider head-to-head format. The fastest twenty five riders were split into five groups of five but before that, one last rider was added to the mix in a one-on-one elimination straight line dual between the 26th to 29th place riders. Chuck Dulullo earned that final spot to join group five. Webb, Roman, Ashburn, Jarvis, and Graffunder won their respective groups to earn front row starting positions. The second and third place finishers in each group also moved on to the fifteen rider main event.

The main event moved back to the short course and would be a 30-minute plus one lap battle. Webb quickly moved into the lead followed closely by Jarvis and Roman and those three opened a large gap on the first lap. Roman then got stuck in the notoriously tough water fall that had stopped many of the other riders on lap one.

Jarvis kept the pressure on Webb and even managed to take the lead for a second or two a few times only to quickly lose it back. This went on for six laps in what turned out to be an eight lap race. Then Webb managed to open a small gap and squeeze by a few stuck riders while Jarvis took a more cautious wait and see approach that ultimately allowed Webb to extend the gap. Webb took the win after nearly forty minutes of racing while Jarvis finished a little over two minutes back. Webb lapped Roman on the last lap but the Spaniard managed to hold on for third position.

FMF KTM’s Cody Webb managed to defend his home soil by taking a tough win over Jarvis at the 2017 Kenda Tennessee Knockout. Photo: Adam Booth

“The day was fantastic, after Erzberg, I felt like I let everybody in the States down by having some arm-pump issues so it was great to get the win,” Webb said. “After training a lot on the EnduroCross course, that paid off because I am used to the high intensity and Graham and Mario are more used to longer events but it feels good to take the win and this one was the toughest yet since Graham pushed me really hard.”

Rockstar Husqvarna’s Graham Jarvis proved again that he is tough to beat. Photo: Adam Booth

“The Knockout stages are pretty straight forward but that last race was probably the most intense race I have ever done but it was fantastic,” said Jarvis. “I gave it everything I had and it was not enough to keep up with Cody for the whole race so congrats to him.”

Spain’s Mario Roman was impressive at his first ever Tennessee Knockout, ultimately taking the final podium spot. Photo: Adam Booth

Beta’s Max Gerston (@maxgerston) had a pretty quiet day but managed to pass his teammate Ashburn on the last lap to take fourth. Ashburn was right in the battle for third with Roman for most of the race but a few mistakes in the closing laps cost him two spots and he ultimately finished fifth.

Graffunder, Ben Kelly, Mitch Carvolth, Quinn Wentzel and Grayson Gonsalves rounded out the top ten. Gonsalves had made the long trip from Hawaii to compete in the Amateur day and advanced into Sunday so his top ten was an impressive result. Fellow Hawaiian’s Kealoha Estrella (11th) and Chris Satterfield (15th) also made the main event proving that the Aloha state residents know how to ride the tough stuff.

Beta’s Morgan Tanke (@mtanke31) took the Saturday Women’s class win over Victoria Harcy. They were the only two female riders that finished the morning lap and faced off in a main event on a special short course.

2017 Kenda Tennessee, Knockout Main Event Results

  1. Cody Webb, KTM
  2. Graham Jarvis, Husqvarna
  3. Mario Roman, Sherco
  4. Max Gerston, Beta
  5. Jordan Ashburn, Beta
  6. Cory Graffunder, Husqvarna
  7. Ben Kelly, KTM
  8. Mitch Carvolth, KTM
  9. Quinn Wentzel, Husqvarna
  10. Grayson Goncalves, Husqvarna
  11. Kealoha Estrella, KTM
  12. Josh Rooken-Smith, KTM
  13. Noah Kepple, GasGas
  14. George Kowalski, KTM
  15. Chris Satterfield, Husqvarna

Keep an eye on this blog for a video recap within a few days.

Complete results for all competitors for all races on both days can be found here.

Pro riders

Spain’s Mario Roman in for 2017 TKO; Red Bull Romaniacs runner-up shooting for TKO win

Mario Roman (@marioroman74) is one of the top Extreme Enduro racers in the world and just proved that with a second place finish at the 2017 Red Bull Romaniacs. The Spanish rider is backed by Sherco and when his teammate Wade Young, who finished second at the 2016 Kenda Tennessee Knockout was injured, he suffered from back pain so the team sent him to the Arrowhead Clinic Marietta, Georgia Chiropractor, the Sherco team decided to send Roman over to compete.

The twenty seven year-old Spaniard has several years of Enduro World Championship racing under his belt but has shifted his focus to Extreme Enduro events. Roman already tasted victory in North America earlier this year with a win at the AvandaRocks Hard Enduro in Mexico. This will be his first attempt at the TKO.