Pol Tarres Will Torture His Yamaha T7 At The Erzberg Rodeo

[advrider]

Pol Tarres, rider extraordinaire, has a new target for his favorite bike, the Yamaha “T7” Ténéré 700, which he recently rode to above 20,000 feet/6,157m in an attempt to set an altitude record for riding. That may be a cakewalk compared to his latest T7 visionquest: Riding the twin-cylinder ADV bike in the apocalyptic Erzbergrodeo Red Bull Hare Scramble, better known as the Erzberg Rodeo hard enduro, which takes place June 16-19 in Austria.

Here’s a sample of what’s on tap for Pol and the T7:

As you can well imagine, Pol will not be riding a bone stock T7 up the mining pit’s walls of destruction. The heavily modified bike will sport revised gearing, suspension, cooling and the stripping away of most things a rider would need for comfort and endurance. Even then, the T7 is no flyweight compared to the smaller-displacement bikes he will compete against at the seminal race, which will include two-stroke pure dirt machines and high-powered four-stroke singles that are much lighter and more manageable.

But in truth, the Erzberg is more about riding skill than top-line componentry, and Pol will need every scrap of of skill and luck he can utilize just to finish the Erzberg, let alone try to be competitive. But for a guy who rides the T7 like other people ride a KTM 250 (or even a GasGas trials bike), who knows what might happen. Here he is on the T7 last year at the Enduroc event:

Clearly, the skills are there, but will the T7 survive the Erzberg hellscape? Watching this video of Tarres taking the T7 up routes where it definitely does not seem capable of going, I would imagine Pol and his team are getting pretty good at swapping out clutch packs. You can watch the race on Red Bull TV.

What do you think Pol’s chances are? And what do you think of the Erzberg? World’s toughest race? Leave a comment below.

 

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