Beta Racing's Ruben Chadwick has already taken out the Australian Hard Enduro Championship for 2023.
But, judging by the way he threw himself at the prologue at Wildwood, it was pretty clear to me that he wasn't content with his achievements for the year-to-date.
Young Victorian Hard Enduro icon Billy McCulloch called it that the Queenslanders would do well in the dry this year at Wildwood, and he wasn't wrong. Ruben ran away with the victory after a real ding-dong battle with the pack in the early stages of the race.
Powerful, precise and on point, he got across the finish well ahead of last year's winner WRD's Wade Ibrahim and Sherco racer Tim Coleman, who came in third.
Going out on a limb, I'll suggest that Ruben's prologue performance was literally like a red (Beta) rag to the Bull.
Ibrahim charged out of the gate so fast that he overshot some dodgy track marking tape on the very first switchback corner into the prologue. But pivot turning the bike on a dime, he managed to stay in the game. At that point Twist lost the lot of them in the dust and noise.
So, we did a Gold Class dash through the thistles and cow turds and managed to get into a prime position at the Peter Stevens Rock Garden, where we saw Ruben come into the valley of pain first, with a clear lead on Tim Coleman and the Bull.
Loving the spectacle, we dug in at the Rock Garden to see where the race went from there. That turned out to be a great call as things had changed significantly by the second lap around the paddock.
Wade had dug a horn into Chadwick and managed to drag him down by their second pass. In doing so, he posted the fasted lap of the event!
But the Beta racer refused to have a bar of it and fought his way back to the lead, over taking the Bull on Fender Bender Hill, when Wade found himself in a shit storm of dust, noise and negligible grip.
Having put the title holder on the ropes, Ruben started to pull away in the fourth lap (his fastest of the event). Keen to catch him, the Bull full leaned into it.
He was putting the head and shoulders down right up until the point that the most random and insignificant of rocks took his left foot clean off the peg, breaking two of his toes.
After that the race slipped away from him and his chances of a second consecutive title seemed lost.
Ruben just kept on ploughing, smooth and consistent extending his lead further and further from other riders, such as Anthony Solar who finished fifth behind Tom Woodhouse. By his own admission, Solar just had a crappy day at the office.
Putting in as many laps as the top of the podium in Gold, young Kogan Lock had a smashing (literally) ride in Silver. He knocked the radiator hose off and smashed his water pump cover. But a trackside fix, and some parts from a fellow rider kept him in the race.
Kogan has been all over it this year, receiving the Red Plate (Pro Class) in the Vic Off Road Championship series. The win in Silver at Wildwood was a massive achievement for the lad on a Gas Gas.
Housten Walters came in second on the same number of laps, and WRD rider Jakob Petrig was only one lap down in third.
Wildwood really is an iconic event and one that is absolutely brilliant for the spectators. And there is no doubt that it is the spectators that keep the riders going; keep them pushing to do the inhuman and achieve what is hard to perceive.
But I do need to have a little rant (please permit me).
If you are out there shouting advice to some of the newer riders, do please (PLEASE) make sure that you know what the hell you are talking about.
On Peter Stevens Rock Garden, Twist witnessed a couple of spectators consistently miss-directing Bronze riders away from a perfectly legitimate line that was fast and, quite often, free of congestion.
This cost a lot of the Bronze riders a lot of time being prompted to take the more common line only to rear-end a pack going nowhere!!
Screaming in the wind and waving like a lunatic from the other side of the valley, I am pretty sure we managed to set things right (if it wasn't us, it was someone). The ill-informed were silenced and the riders ran whatever route they saw fit to ride.
Love the sport - please, yes! Know the rules - yes, please!
Rant aside, I can honestly say that you could not have had more fun in a day than chasing crazy-mad hard enduro riders around a 12km course. Show me another event where you can get that close to that much action in a day.
And to see these riders come across the line, battered and on broken bikes, but still willing to smoke it up on the finishing pipe is next-level.
Some of them barely had enough energy to hold the front brake on lock!
Thanks Wildwood! See you in '24!
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