Graham Jarvis' incredible run of form continues with a dominant performance at the 7th edition of the International Tough One Extreme Enduro
Now in its seventh year, for ’11 the event was held for the first time at the demanding Back Cown Quarry north of Manchester and despite heavy rain early on race day all three hours of the main Tough One event took place under clear and sunny skies.
Graham knows the venue well from his trials days, so felt confident it would be hard enough for him to have an advantage over his rivals. His main competition proved to be Extreme specialists Paul Bolton (2nd Erzberg 2008, 2nd Hell's Gate 2008) and Andreas Littenbichler (1st Red Bull Romaniacs 2009, 2nd Erzberg 2008+2006, 3rd Erzberg 2009) who got away much better than Graham, whos running is clearly not as quick as his riding! After the Le Mans style start he got off the line 2nd last. Once again he ripped through the pack and by the end of the first lap had taken the lead.
All the major extreme enduros have their own flavour and the nature of the Tough One is relentless. Although you dont get the severity of sections seen at Erzberg, having to ride the hard bits of the Tough One lap after lap for 3 hours really takes its toll. There are no open flowing sections to take a breather on, its just tricky technical climbs, descents, man-made obstacles and rocks one after the other.
Graham's outstanding fitness (plus his awesome Klim vented clothing and F4 helmet) allowed him to stretch his lead lap after lap, recovering from severe arm pump after an hour to open up nearly eight minutes by the finish.
For full details, check out the report on Husaberg's site.
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