Sandra Gomez raced 2020 Red Bull Romaniacs Gold Class with one goal in mind- to finish! A historical feat to be celebrated with the Spanish rider achieving accolades as the first female to cross the finish line in Gold Class in Overall 13th place.
With all learning curves experienced racing the ‘Extreme Hard Enduro’ event and not making it to the finish line in 2019, Sandra was more than prepared to push further than ever before, even when she felt there was no more energy left. And that’s just the point of the race. Red Bull Romaniacs is THE test on limits to what a rider can achieve racing terrain that is unimaginable to walk up or down, let alone ride.
Titled ‘Vertical Madness 2020 Edition‘, Sandra approached racing the iconic 5 day-event with the right amount of mental stamina coupled with ‘only focus on what is right in front of you’ which was extreme to say the least. The Gold Class route carved within Romania’s Carpathian mountains reached 35,000 meters in altitude which is almost 4 times the height of Mount Everest.
Sandra: ‘For me Romaniacs is the most difficult race, not the most technical (Erzberg or Lagares,..) but it’s the longest. Honestly when I went last year I thought it was easier and faster but no it isn’t. The experience of last year racing but not finishing days two and three made it super important to finish this year’.
‘This year I think I was more prepared. I trained a lot in the mountains, a lot of hours on the bike and pushing my limit. Training in different places of Spain. In Romaniacs this year it was different because of change to date. Normally the race is in July, so each day was determined by sun time. We started at sunrise and finished at sunset. I just kept thinking the whole week “do not stop the wheels”, even if it’s slow keep going’.
‘Nobody can explain the situation what it is like riding in the forests in the mountains. You need to live it. I can’t write about the moments when you spent six hours on the bike. It’s cold, and still you have three more hours and you don’t know how you will do it. You just try to be faster and keep the wheels turning to maybe arrive at the finish one more day almost in the dark’.
Mentally how much can a human being absorb, push past what is possible to complete the seemingly impossible? Physically, how much can a rider endure, knowing the next slip-up would take even more energy to gather enough momentum to start section all over again?
For sure, Sandra credits having her brother Alfred Gomez, himself a Gold Class competitor and podium holder as first call for support and advice. Learning how to conserve energy when picking bike up from precarious positions to ‘never telling me I wasn’t going to make it…’ were positive words for action from Alfred to his sister.
Yet, as Sandra admits, being a female, slighter build and not as tall meant drawing on her technical ability as World Trials rider to provide base for handling all terrain. Finishing 2nd in 2020 World Women’s Trial Championship at end of September provided necessary confidence boost needed to tackle Romaniacs after disruptive year of racing.
Sandra: ‘For sure my technical skills in trials is very important. I can’t push as a boy, and Romaniacs is a race to push in a lot of places, to stand up on the bike from the ground so I always try to do my best at Trials. About mental stamina, I wasn’t thinking about the five day finish line, I just focused on climbing to the top of the mountains and being safe on downhills. I tried to think positive saying “you can” and “come on” all time to myself’.
With weather playing it’s part in challenging rider’s to overcome another obstacle, Sandra took each moment as presented, overcome and then on to the next section. Fog, cold, loss of GPS, all contributed to overall experience of making it to the finish. What’s more, Sandra realized ‘trusting herself’ to achieve results was as much part of the process of competing Red Bull Romaniacs than crossing the finish line.
Sandra: ‘In Gold Class we always have signals from the track managers (blue tape), but honestly I needed to use the GPS a lot because on the top of the mountains it was foggy most of the days. If not, it was rainy and we couldn’t see the tape well’.
‘GPS determines where to follow the track for this year and also where to go fast in easy sections. Unfortunately I lost one and broke the other with a tree, so I know how it is without GPS and I didn’t enjoy it’.
‘Each race I complete I learn a lot. I need to learn to trust myself more. In Romaniacs I did climbs or downhills that I didn’t know I was able to do. For the future I think it gives me more confidence in myself. For next year I need to go to the mountains again and try to finish every day. (This year I didn’t finish day three because I had problems with the radiator fan).
Special thanks to Sandra for her time. Words: Sharon Cox.
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