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After watching from the sidelines for too long, the United States finally hosted the world’s top enduro riders at the fifth round of the FIM Hard Enduro World Championship (HEWC), the Red Bull Tennessee Knockout (TKO) in Sequatchie, Tennessee. This marks the first time that U.S. athletes faced the world’s top enduro riders on home turf.
The TKO will be familiar to domestic dirt fans, as this event wraps up its 11th year. Many consider the TKO to be the toughest enduro competition in the country, and to back that up, it’s the Grand Championship round of the AMA’s Extreme Off-Road series. Over the course of several knockout races, the competitors are whittled down to a field of top racers before a final battle to close out the weekend. Check out the highlights video to see just how difficult the terrain is.
The format makes TKO an especially exciting addition for the FIM HEWC, as it encourages close racing on some truly gnarly terrain. U.S. riders included Cody Webb (six-time TKO winner), Ryan Sipes (an overall ISDE winner), and rising enduro star Ryder LeBlond. Sunday’s race looked like it would go to Manuel Lettenbichler (KTM), but Billy Bolt (Husqvarna) managed to get around Mani on the final lap for the kind of close racing that earned TKO its spot on the HEWC series. Third place went to last year’s winner, Trystan Hart. A brutal uphill on that final lap ended Webb’s shot at an eighth TKO victory.
“It was hard work. The first and second races were harder than I expected,” Bolt said in a post-race interview. “I finished the first one and thought, oh, this is going to be a long day. Then we had another long race before the main event. The main event is a little different than many hard enduros but I enjoyed it and if you look around, you can see that none of us have anything left so it is harder than it sounds. I enjoyed my first race here in the U.S..”
“The pace was really high today,” added Lettenbichler. “It was really nice to race in front of the American fans. That finish was a bit crazy as I was trying to whip it a little bit at the finish and turned into a pretty big high side but we put on a good show for the fans here. I will need to beat Billy at the next one in Poland to hopefully get some more points back on him.”
The Hero Challenge in Poland takes place on September 11 and 12, followed by the Hixpania Hard Enduro (Spain, October 1-3) before the final round at Getzenrodeo in Germany (October 29-30).
TKO’s first year on the HEWC calendar was popular with racers and fans, so here’s hoping that the United States will continue hosting the highest levels of hard enduro competition in the future. Final TKO race results below.
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