Whangarei Enduro rider Adrian Broughton has picked up one of the biggest prizes in his sport by finishing first in the Expert Single race at the 2010 Red Bull Romaniacs Endro Rally in Romania yesterday.
The Red Bull Romaniacs 2010 proved its reputation as one of the toughest Enduro Rallies in
the world with less than half of the original 165 competitors finishing the race after five days of riding through Romania's Carpathian mountains.
The 37-year-old was exhausted after spending up to 10 hours a day in the saddle, after the shorter prologue section on the first day.
Broughton started the final day with a more-than-handy three-hour lead over his fellow competitors. He finished the day in sixth position but still had a comfortable lead of two and a half hours to take the title.
His combined time was 31h 6m 37s, well ahead of second-placed Martin Wilholt of Germany and Croatian Marko Prodan in third.
"He's absolutely shattered but chuffed at the same time," his mother, Diane, said after Adrian rang her at the completion of the event.
"He's been training hard for this for the last six months with New Zealand Enduro coach Chris Birch and now it's paid off for him," she said.
Birch also had success at the event by winning the Pro-Class event with almost a half-hour lead over second-placed Englishman Graham Jarvis.
The next destination for Broughton is a trip to Canada to pick up his wife Megan and his children, who are visiting their grandparents - before returning home to Whangarei next weekend.
Broughton is a former Purua School and Kamo High School student and currently runs the Kiwi Timber Protection business in Union St.
