"To say I'm thrilled that an actual Romaniac has given me his experience in words to share with you all is an understatement.
Young Force Accessories Hard Enduro rider Billy 'the Kid' McCulloch is one to watch!
That he has taken the time to capture his 2022 Romaniacs experience and shared it with us is our absolute good fortune.
Read and enjoy!"
There’s a certain feeling of landing in a foreign country to race dirt bikes; the anticipation, nerves, excitement and feeling of the unknown all wrapped into one. Being my first time, I wasn't sure what to expect. The emotions were quite high on all levels, but at the end of the day it just adds to the experience.
The first three things I noticed when I arrived? The countryside was unbelievably beautiful, the roads were sketchy and the drivers even more so! It wasn't an uncommon site to drive past a rolled truck or a totaled car on the skinny seemingly back roads, which were in fact their highways.
After settling down in Sibiu for a couple of nights to get adjusted to the weather, time zone and beer, I met up with my service crew who had prepped up my bike. I had hired a brand new 23 model Gas Gas 300.
I bought with me the essentials: Force Accessories (https://forceaccessories.com.au/) bike protection to ensure it made it through the race, Alltech (https://www.facebook.com/alltech.suspension) suspension to make it feel like you're riding a couch and a Two Stroke Performance (https://www.twostrokeperformance.com.au/) head and ECU to give it some more grunt and a clean revving feel.
With the bike set up, local rider Shane Moss took me out for some 3 days leading up to the race. Shane’s an Aussie who lives in Romania with his wife and has been involved with many different aspects of the race over the last 12 years. Needless to say, he has plenty of local knowledge of the countryside.
After years of waiting and training in anticipation, the feeling of getting out on the bike in Romania was quite surreal. It felt like a dream come true to just be riding there, experiencing everything the terrain had to offer. There are extremely long downhills and uphills, more tree roots then your heart could desire and mountain views that made you think you were riding in the Swiss Alps. All this wraps into one to make it the coolest place to ride - ever.
All this as it was, you would be excused for thinking that the excitement is at its peak, but it really hits next level when you see the Prologue track under construction in the middle of the city in Sibiu. Built from man-made obstacles laid down in the main road and constructed out of some 130 ton of rock, 80 ton of logs and enough truck tyres to leave every truck in Romania on its rims, it is quite the site to behold.
The first official event for the race is the “Nations Parade”. The beginning is at the competitor’s paddock on the outskirts of the city. From there it is a parade through the medieval city center where it finishes at the Prologue track on main street.
It was about here, at the very beginning, that things didn’t go well for me. There was some miscommunication as to where my bike was being stored and, with that, I ended up being dropped at the wrong spot just as the event was starting. I hailed down a cab, flew through to the other side of the city, picked up my bike and blasted back through the city to meet the parade, narrowly avoiding about five road collisions along the way. I made it just in time to join the parade coming into the Prologue area. Fortunately, I was present and accounted for as the most important part of the parade got underway - the burnouts.
After the fiasco that was the Nations Parade the Prologue kicked off. We had a track walk at 7:15 and our one run at 7:30. If we placed in the top 35, we qualified for the “main event” which was taking place at 4 o'clock that afternoon.
Unfortunately, after some silly mistakes and an overly timid ride, I narrowly missed out on the main placing. 39th gave me a 7.5-minute penalty to take into the start of the Off-Road days.
The long anticipated Off-Road start was finally here!! The first day start was situated atop a hill overlooking the valley in which Sibiu is situated. Quite a spectacular way to start the race, it only got better as the days went on. The trails for the first day were a mix of technical single track with a few tougher sections. There were also some very fast fire trails where the throttle was regularly pinned in either 5th or 6th gear. After the service point on day one the difficulty was upped as we crossed the valley and headed up into some steep off-camber sections with some short pinches and long chopped-out downhills.
Safe to say that, by the end of the day, I was quite happy to sit under the Red Bull tent and eat some pasta. Placing 20th for the day I was happy to have made up some positions as I got into the groove.
Day 2 kicked off very early!
We were up out of bed at 4 am with a long drive to the Off-Road start among some classic congested Romanian traffic. Start time for myself was 6:59 and I was “full-noise” as soon as I left the Red Bull arch. I made up some good time early in the morning, but as the tracks started to head into the alpine regions the terrain developed some crazy long downhills - sections where you would be going down one hill for 15 minutes straight, dropping 600 meters of elevation at least.
Not long before the midway mandatory service point, I had a massive crash!
I lost control on a downhill after clipping a tree with my bars. I ended up with a very painful corky in my quad and a slightly bent up bike, but in reality, this was the best-case scenario for a situation that could have been a whole lot worse.
After the service point, the day started heading much higher into the Alpine regions giving way to some insanely spectacular views. How to describe it? If the Swiss Alps made a baby with the Victorian high country, it would look like the hills of Romania. Scenery aside, I pushed through the pain and made it to the finish in 25th for the day. I was absolutely wrecked, but quite happy to see the day out.
Day 3 started from the Ranca Skii resort atop the grassy slopes; sitting at some 2300 meters of elevation!
It was quite a picturesque ride to the start line following the iconic Trans Alpina Road over the hills with the sun emerging on the horizon. The third day was very similar to the second; amazing scenery, fast rocky paddocks, long descents, long ascents and sheep dogs the size of small ponies. Feeling much better on this, the third day, I felt I rode well. I expected to make up time and was quite surprised to find that I crossed the line in 26th place.
Not a lot of sleep was to be had the last night of competition leading into Day 4!
Nerves and anxiety were quite high, which made it feel rough to get out of bed and into the car. The final start was from the competitor’s paddock where we rode through the city out to the official Day 4 start on the outskirts of town.
I started the day like a bull at a gate, but soon found that the overnight dew had made the grass quite slippery. The result? I went down on the second corner!
I got up with one thing in my mind. “I need to make up time” and that basically was my mantra for the whole day.
But I didn't feel great on the bike; the residual fatigue from the previous four days was clearly having an effect on me and I was making lots of small mistakes. On top of that were a number of “OH SHIT! That could’ve been bad” moments.
The final morning was comprised of uphill creek beds, downhill creek beds, flat creek beds and some flowy single track with the odd hill mixed in. After the service point at 10:30 the tracks got fast.
We headed down into the flats of Sibiu and made our way across the city riding along footpaths, nature strips and along the edge of a riverbed. This was all quite different to anything we had seen thus far, but quite the experience. These trails eventually bought us out into the famous “Gusterita” Hillclimb where the finish line was set up.
All I can say is "wow".
I can remember rolling into the final sections and seeing the thousands of fans waiting in anticipation, thinking how surreal it felt. The huge sandy hill with the Red Bull arch atop!
It seemed just moments ago; the nerves of starting the race, then the challenge of making it through each day and all of the sudden I'm 'staring down' the final hill.
The next 10 minutes was an absolute blur; getting up Gusterita and then cleaning the rest of the final sections and crossing the finish line all seemed like a dream in motion.
When I finally crossed under that final arch, I wasn't quite sure what to think. Should I be happy? Sad? Proud? It was wild, but in the end, it was a crazy mix of emotions that, looking back in hindsight, is like nothing else.
So, in short, Romaniacs is the most epic thing I've ever done. I certainly won't forget it!
To anyone that's ever thought about competing in it, give it a go! You certainly won't regret it!
"Thanks to Billy for taking us on that journey. He and fellow Aussies Callum Ceglinski, Wade Ibrahim and Josh Ibrahim are all on the eve of taking on Erzberg 2023.
We can't wait to follow their progress and bring their stories to you!" (Ed).
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