Sam Sunderland is a newcomer to hard enduro, but he looked like a natural in his Red Bull Romaniacs debut as the twice Dakar Rally champ became the first ever victor in the Adventure Lite category. He wasn’t the only person from the rally raid world to win in the new Adventure classes either as Pol Tarrés claimed Adventure Ultimate.

New for 2025, the Adventure classes are designed for multi-cylinder motorcycles like Sunderland’s Tiger 900 Rally Pro and Tarrés’ Yamaha Ténéré 700. Sunderland competed in Adventure Lite for hard enduro and adventure bike rookies, while Adventure Ultimate is reserved for those with experience in the discipline.

Romaniacs marked Sunderland’s first official race as a Triumph rider after becoming their off-road brand ambassador in February. While racing a bike that’s certainly a departure from the GasGas RX 450F with which he won the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship and in a much different discipline, the Briton was pretty eager to get to work. In fact, he felt Romaniacs’ five-day format wasn’t unlike what he ran in the W2RC while he’s done longer with the two-week Dakar Rallies.

Indeed, Sunderland looked like a natural. He comfortably finished first in Adventure Lite in the Prologue and all four following days, including beating runner-up Joop Nissink by over 43 and a half minutes on Day 2. In the end, he cleared Nissink by 1:37:31 and third-placed Daniel Fernandez by 2:29:49.

“I really love the spirit of the race,” said Sunderland at the finish. “Everyone’s super happy and friendly and all having a good time. The trails are really cool for the adventure bike as well. A nice mix of tricky and some open places. All in all, a really good week and super happy to win on the Triumph Tiger. I’ll be back next year for sure.”

“Today was definitely a lot more technical and some more single track and a bit slippery in the woods, so it was super fun.”

On the Adventure Ultimate side, his Triumph teammate Jonny Walker duked it out with Tarrés for the overall. Tarrés, a Yamaha Ténéré factory rally raider who stars at the Africa Eco Race, topped the Prologue ahead of Walker before the latter fell behind in Day 1 to a mechanical issue that relegated him to fifth. Although Walker managed to rebound by winning his class across the next three days, Tarrés finished right behind him in each leg to keep him from closing the gap.

He claimed the victory over Walker by 3:43. Dawid Szczotka joined them on the class podium on his own Ténéré 700 behind Tarrés by 49:47. Tarrés had previously been the first rider to complete the Romaniacs’ Silver class, which is populated by 250cc and 300cc two-stroke motorcycles, on an adventure bike last year; he had also become the first adventure bike rider to win the Morocco Desert Challenge overall in 2024.

While coming up short of a sweep, Triumph was more than pleased with how the Tiger 900 fared in its first Romaniacs.

“Red Bull Romaniacs is well known for being one of the toughest races in the hard enduro calendar,” started Triumph’s racing boss Ian Kimber. “For Jonny and Sam to take bikes that are pretty much as they would leave the showroom floor, bar a few race-specific parts, with almost zero prep, and finish where they have is incredible. In the new adventure classes, we have been able to show what the Triumph Tiger 900 is capable of and that it is a true adventure bike.

“Whilst Sam’s lead in his class may look like we entered him in the wrong category, it allowed him to get some time on one of our Tiger machines in tough terrain, in preparation for his round the world record attempt, all without putting him at too much risk of injury. Jonny has shown what a world class rider he is, jumping from his enduro bike to the Tiger, and nearly taking the class victory. I’m sure if it hadn’t been for the issue with one of the additional race parts we used on Day 1, he’d be standing on the top of the box.

“It’s definitely a proud day for us to have enjoyed being part of this event and the excitement in the new adventure classes.”

Sunderland and Tarrés weren’t the only rally raiders at Romaniacs. Sandra Gómez, who finished 33rd in Rally2 at this year’s Dakar, was 13th in the Silver class and one spot ahead of 2025 Original by Motul champion Emanuel Gyenes.

Kirsten Landman crashed five kilometers from the finish and fractured her arm. Tarrés’ teammate Kevin Gallas, who impressed at the Carta Rallye in April with a stage win, tore his ACL in Day 3.

Manuel Lettenbichler scored his sixth Romaniacs overall victory, having won all but one of the past seven editions. Graham Jarvis currently holds the most overalls in the event’s history with seven, and finished fifth in the Gold category.

Winners

Class	Number	Rider	Team	Bike	Total Time
Gold	1	Manuel Lettenbichler	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM 300 EXC	21:41:45
Silver	213	Eddie Karlsson	Stark Future Racing	Stark VARG EX	20:52:27
Bronze	358	Diego Chang	Beta Revolution Bikes Guatemala	Beta 300 RR	19:21:32
Iron	856	Fabio Carvalho	Wordattachment HE	KTM 350 EXC-F	16:49:03
Atom	900	Dmitriy Reznitskiy	Fa-Fa Racing	GasGas EC 300	15:50:03
Adventure Ultimate	1036	Pol Tarrés	Trece Racing Society	Yamaha Ténéré 700	13:42:43
Adventure Lite	1226	Sam Sunderland	Triumph Racing	Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro	13:23:28
eMoto Expert	e62	Sebastian Dudaș	Moto24	Stark VARG EX	9:37:50
eMoto Hobby	e81	Martin Dosch	DOWATEK	Stark VARG EX	7:01:09

Featured image credit: Attila Szabo / Red Bull Content Pool