Mani Lettenbichler – The perfect season | KTM

Join us as we take a look back over Manuel Lettenbichler’s 2023 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship-winning season.

From pre-season training on his new KTM 300 EXC, through the six grueling rounds, including such iconic events as Red Bull Erzbergrodeo and Red Bull Romaniacs, Mani’s focus never wavered. The young German demonstrated massive determination and true grit, ultimately completing the impossible – an incredible unbeaten season of racing with six wins from six races.

Sit back and enjoy as the man himself takes us through each and every round leading up to his home race at GetzenRodeo.

What a year, what a rider!

Watch highlights from the 2023 FIM Hard Enduro World Championship on Red Bull TV:
https://www.redbull.com/my-en/event-series/fim-hard-enduro-world-championship

00:00 – Hometown
00:09 – The Lettenbichler Farm
00:31 – House Tour
01:03 – Red Bull helmet collection
01:39 – Heart of the spot
02:07 – Garage Tour
03:41 – Pre-Season Testing
04:44 – Round 1 – Xross Hard Enduro Rally (Serbia)
05:38 – Win #1
06:01 – Round 2 – Red Bull Erzbergrodeo (Austria)
08:31 – Win #2
08:56 – Round 3 – Red Bull Romaniacs (Romania)
09:54 – The Storm – “I was so scared”
11:32 – Win #3
12:50 – Round 4 – Red Bull Outliers (Canada)
13:57 – Challenges in Canada
15:00 – Win #4
15:36 – Round 5 – 24MX Hixpania Hard Enduro (Spain)
16:19 – Championship Title Pressure
18:35 – “I just felt like a Gangsta”
18:50 – Win #5 – 2023 FIM Hard Enduro World Champion
19:01 – Emotions
20:59 – Round 6 – 24MX Getzen Rodeo (Germany)
21:12 – Special Fox lederhosen gear
22:09 – Most rock and roll Prologue of the season
25:12 – Battle for the lead
25:40 – “Should we team up?”
26:22 – The battle continues
28:16 – Win #6 – The Perfect Season
29:37 – “We just made history”
29:49 – Credits

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That’s pretty much the hometown, I grew up here. Then we moved somewhere else, and we’re back since 15 years now and it’s still not finished yet, but we’re getting there, and my parents are living there as well. There we go, it’s the Lettenbichler farm. The perfect season for Lettenbichler, doing the impossible.

A historic moment for Manuel Lettenbichler as well as the sport of Hard Enduro. That’s the main house door of my parents. So we live right next to each other, and we go in here into my spot. We’re here! And that’s more or less kitchen and living room.

It’s still pretty unorganized, but we get there. We literally moved in like, a month ago, but also with all this traveling it’s quite difficult right now. Some of my first Red Bull helmets, so like this one is ’17, ’18, ’19, this one is ’21, this one is of the last GetzenRodeo,

Which turned out pretty sick as well, Born in the free state Bavaria. My painter does such a cool job with all these helmets. First Red Bull helmet was pretty cool. The youngster, I think I was 16 and it was quite cool when I got it the first time,

It was always like they always make it surprise. So this is really cool. You just put the boots on and then this is more or less the heart of the sport. I like it, it’s so calm, you see just full-on mountains.

Even if you wake up, in the bedroom and you open the shades and you just see all of this it’s quite cool, There’s still so much nature going on. Even behind the houses, there are horses somewhere as well. Come here, good girl. Good girl. Let’s hum into the garage.

Actually the best thing about this sport is just to have so many parking places, like my big camper, my race van, which we always bring to the races as well. the Panda always have a space, so this is really important. So that’s the heart

Where all the magic is going to happen where we get the bikes ready and all of these things, which is pretty cool. We got like 2 proper working places, one right now we got my training bike, with already the world championship stickers on it, which is quite cool.

And then already the next adventure, my Super Enduro bike. We got all my Romaniacs winning trophies from the last couple of years. This one is also pretty sick, it’s from my dad from 2009 when he won Red Bull Romaniacs. This is also pretty cool

We got my championships bike from last year up there, it was a little bit of a mission because we didn’t have a digger or something just to get it up there, like an elevator, so quite sick. This one is still dirty from the weekend,

Smells a little bit like champagne, but still some dirty clothes, dirty boots, so yes, one day after the race. But I would say it’s time to get going and to talk a little bit about the season. What a season! I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of the year.

We got a new bike this year and I feel like we’ve done a lot of testing, and I wasn’t quite sure where we at right now with the fitness of the bike, if it’s going to be a good year, you’re always nervous

But I felt like it’s going to be a good year again. And it definitely was. The goals were definitely to have another solid year, but I tried to go in it with less expectations as possible because there’s always so much talking and always so much pressure anyways of the people from the outside.

And for sure also myself, I put some pressure on me because I want to do good, and I want to show that I’m capable to win. But at the end it’s not easy to deal with it. But sometimes you just have to also let the emotions go

And just get loosened up again, it’s part of the job. This is the day 1 off road at the Xross Hard Enduro Rally. At Serbia we came into the race, and it was actually pretty cool to start with a rally. It’s a bruiser of a track, 100 km long,

Complete with liaisons and special stages, with the best times counting towards the final result. I feel like in a rally you start by yourself. You have so much time, even if you make a mistake, you can get the time back. I was nervous, but we had such a good race.

The first race day was already pretty good and from then on, we just kept the momentum going and we ended up winning the first round with a pretty good lead. I remember the last 15Ks it was more or less that almost nobody can take the win from me

For sure if something would happen. In the end, no one can catch the flashing fast firecracker, Manuel Lettenbichler. We came into the finish, a nice little stop at the end, and we knew it is time. It’s like a good start into the season, everybody was hyped.

The whole team worked so much during the winter. So I feel like we knew where we are, and we could build from there. Round 2, Red Bull Erzbergrodeo, always some high expectations, I would say, it feels almost like a home race for me. And me as a Bavarian guy

Who is racing for an Austrian brand and to have a race in Austria, is something pretty unique and is something really special. It’s never easy. So many things can happen, especially if you have 50 guys on the line and the start is really key in this race.

Series leader and defending Erzberg champ Mani Lettenbichler is the first up the winding 15-kilometer-long dirt road. We started racing the Prologue more or less, and it’s always pretty nerve wrecking if you go 140Ks per hour up a big river road and you definitely want to be the fastest up there.

And I think I never had such a good result in the Prologue, so I was really stoked in it. Race day, it’s always super nerve wrecking. You go down there into the starting area like 2 hours before the race and you wait and everybody is already getting super nervous,

People are starting to watch you from the top, then the heli comes in. I had a pretty solid run, I feel like I was around third or something like this. And me and Billy, we kind of started battling right away in the beginning

And had a pretty clear run and he passed me back before Carl’s Dinner. I could feel my body was tired at this one point. Billy just pulled that gap, and I was like, Oh man, this is probably not my day, I’m just trying to ride my own race now.

I knew that I’m pretty good in the woods and I knew that when we’re out of the Carl’s Dinner it’s going to be more of my kind of racing. That was tight, that was really, really tight. And we went in there and I could close the gap again

And even overpass him on a sick place. And from there on, I just tried to bring it into the finish. Lettenbichler up and around goes clutch right around pole and just like that we have a lead change. I had no bigger issues with the bike, everything went perfect,

And it was quite cool to get at a back-to-back win at this special race. The awesome 20th edition of Romaniacs kicked off with another party rocking Prologue on the streets of Cebu, Romania. We start actually pretty late this year like the first offroad day now we started like around 8,

So it’s actually a little bit more chill, everyone could sleep in a little bit which is nice. I think it should be a good day and hopefully some good riding. I think the rain wasn’t too bad overnight, so the conditions will be fine, hopefully.

I would say probably it’s my favorite race of the calendar, it’s such a cool race and I’m always really looking forward for it to go there. And I really wanted to show there that I’m really good in this race. It’s nothing but blue skies on the morning of the day 1 off road.

Let’s hope it stays that way. The day has been taking its toll, but it’s about to get even more difficult. As riders continue to storm the mountain, a thunderstorm moves in. Holy cow! This is crazy. I’m in this now. Dude, holy *** When the storm kicked in, I was so scared,

You could really feel, Oh my God, something is going on and something is happening. A really crazy experience to remember also for the future. I feel like I never rode in this conditions and I’m not sure if I would like to ride in these conditions again. In all my years racing this race,

I’ve never seen anything alike, guys, ever. But when all is set and done, Mani Lettenbichler crosses the finish line with the best result of the day. The next couple of days were pretty good because I started out first. In some places it’s good to start out first, but in some places not

Because you also have nobody in front of you with navigation or something like this, so it’s never easy. But I think this year was really good to be one of the big top guys also every day because the group was definitely not bad. So hectic 4 days of racing.

He’s the fastest after 4 days of insane offroad riding nearly 20 exhausting hours on the bike, the new king of the Carpathians. The race turned out so good and we won it with like 1,5 hour more or less and I feel like this gap is so massive.

I think nobody has done it for a while. It was quite cool to win this race now for the 4ᵗʰ time, it’s something special. My dad won it in 2009, so it’s quite cool to share a podium and to share a race win at the same venue with him.

So something really cool and something really unique, I would say, that not too many people can talk about it. 3 for 3 for sure was pretty special. I had this the same the previous year and I was injured, so it was still something where last year I was like,

Oh my God, probably this is not going to happening again. And then we did the same thing again and I was like, Hell yes, it’s going pretty good this year. And I could also feel my confidence went into like a good mood

And I could feel it’s going to be a really good year. Currently, Manuel Lettenbichler has a substantial serious lead while second in the championship Canada’s own Trystan Hart is coming into this race with the home turf advantage. Trystan was also riding really good in this year, and I won it the previous year

And I knew that he really wanted to get his home race win. So I felt a bit nervous, and it was also a little bit of a not strange situation in the team, but it was quite quiet, and everybody just did their own thing. We hit the streets of Calgary, Alberta

To take on the banging knockout style Prologue. We had a sick city Prologue. We had like a mad battle going on, which was pretty cool, and I won a Super Enduro Prologue for the first time in front of Billy. To beat him in a race which he really loves,

It was definitely pretty cool. Welcome to the Alberta Badlands. I had a pretty good start. and then me and Billy, we battled a little bit for a while and Mario was also a little bit in the mix, until the very end I could pull a gap

And in the very last lap they opened a new loop just to make it even a little bit more difficult. I feel like it was like 5 uphills, and I went up the first one, I couldn’t make it. I bent my handlebars crazy. I was so scared at this point

That I hopefully could make it into the finish because I had a pretty solid lead, but then at the end it just went like this. And the bike was more or less riding like this. It was quite difficult to ride. Lettenbichler hits the final hill cloud

But loses momentum and goes back for another attempt. And he better hurry because here comes Bolt. He makes his second attempt and reaches the top. Manuel Lettenbichler wins his second Red Bull Outliers. It was quite cool to get another race win and 4 out of 4 was something really special.

I’m speechless, 4 wins in a row. It’s damn good. The pressure was definitely increasing. I could definitely feel that in the next round that people were like, Yes, you anyways are going to win it. But you know the riders are so strong now

And I felt like I really had to dig deep to win a race. So the pressure was there, but I tried to control it as good as possible. Definitely along the line but we try to stay as relaxed as possible, enjoy the race, make the most out of it for sure.

If we could win another race and clinch the title, it would be crazy and really nice. But if it doesn’t really happen this weekend, we’re going to give it another go at Getzen and hopefully can bring the title home again. Even in the pre-interviews, people were talking about the World championship title there

And I was like, Guys, slow down. Like we have to take what is happening. Mani Lettenbichler is blazing towards a perfect season. If he clinches his 5ᵗʰ consecutive victory, he’ll secure the championship title right here, right now. I was so nervous I couldn’t eat breakfast in the morning. It’s never easy.

It’s so, so difficult to handle all of this pressure. At the beginning of the race, you were in this cave and there were already so many fans out there, so I was super nervous at this point. But at the end if the staff drops, you are getting in a race mode

Where I don’t really think too much about the rest. You’re in this zone and you just want to do good. They’re off. Billy Bolt, followed by Wade Young, Mani Lettenbichler. I had a solid start. I started out third and I passed Billy and Wade in the first lap,

And from there on I tried to control the race. 1,5 hour into the race, he starts to lap other riders. Amazingly, some of them are top talents. I almost pulled a 30 second gap after every lap to the other guys and it was mega.

I knew that we have this final hill climb loop in it as well and I was a bit nervous. With these final loop sections you never know if it’s possible or not and this year was definitely freaking difficult. When I was there at the top, I knew there is only one more downhill

And then the finish line uphill. When I was up there, I was like, okay, we got it. We got it. I was in 3ʳᵈ, and I couldn’t really make it all the way up, so I crashed almost right at the top. I pushed it up, were at the edge

And I had like 3 meters to go, and I was like, yes, guys, we made it, and just give him like a fist pump even. It was such a cool feeling. He asked me actually, after the race, why have I done a fist bump to him? And I said, it just felt right.

I just felt like a *** gangster. Mani Lettenbichler has done it. Another Hixpania title, a serious record of 5 wins in a row. And most importantly, he had clinched the championship title at this race. I came into the finish, and everybody was there, my girlfriend was there, my dad, the whole team,

It was such a hard fight and what a crazy year. So it was definitely something special. And even now I almost have to cry when I’m just thinking back about this thing, because it’s never easy to win a race and never easy to win 5 out of 5 races

And to win a title, it’s pretty damn good. And to go back-to-back at the World Championship is also something which is really special. So, yes, I couldn’t stop my emotions. I literally started crying straight away. I was so relieved, and I was so happy that it was just over.

We got the title in the pocket, a good, good moment. Definitively the team made a pretty good job on the other world title thing. We had some team t-shirts, the bike and all of the shiny chrome stickers they were really cool and something I was quite stoked to celebrate with the whole team

Because at the end it’s also family now and you travel so much with them and you go through so much emotions with them, so it was quite cool to be all together at this position. Winning 5 out of 5 races I feel like it was even crazier than getting another world title,

I feel like this was something so, so special and not so many people have done it before. Coming into the final round, my home race, I was super nervous because there was also that possibility to win every race and to get a perfect season just to make a 6 out of 6

And special gear even, like before the race, which was pretty sick, we filmed some cool stuff right before the race just to get the people high up. I was so stoked on this one already. Straight into interviews to check walk, in the interview talking already about like,

Is he going to win another one, if we can make 6 out of 6, if it’s possible. Like you get there and you’re like, straight, okay, the pressure’s on. We got there and I felt like a rockstar, I was treated like one of the most famous persons in whole Germany.

You show up there and there’re 10,000 people watching you and most of them just come because of you. So, yes, it was wild. No Rider is more iconic to this crowd than Germany’s own Manuel Lettenbichler. And his superstar status is on full display in front of thousands of roaring fans,

The most rock and roll Prologue of the season. We came into the Prologue more or less just rode on like a gravel parking and we had some corners. We went through the beer tent like nothing special, but it turned out so cool. We started next to each other

And went into the same direction on the Red Bull Double Trouble. It was not easy because everybody was on such a low time of racing because it was so tight racing there. I took the win at the Red Bull Double Trouble, and it was such a good start into the weekend.

After his 5ᵗʰ win in a row in Spain, Mani Lettenbichler is unstoppable in the points race and enters Getzen already crowned this series champion. Now he’s hungry for the first perfect season. We showed up there at 8:30, start was at 10 for the 2 hours qualifying race.

Race 1 kind of went off and we started out and I was second, I didn’t have the best start, so I was behind Michi, and we went up in the first uphill and I could pass him straight away. So that was really good. And from there on, I literally rode my own race.

I could pull a little bit of a gap. After 2 intense hours, the German crowd applauds their hero as Lettenbichler confidently crosses the finish line with his second win of the GetzenRodeo. We took the win, so stoked on it. I was so stoke with my riding.

I knew, okay, we can do good on this weekend. And we got the Prologue win, we got the morning race win, it was just straight away, time to recover as good as possible to get into the final race. So Mani, day 2, win the race, how are you feeling? Excited.

There’re already so many fans out there and they haven’t even started yet. So it’s quite cool to see. For sure a bit nervous, home race, you know. I am not going to lie but it will be a good day.

These riders have 80 minutes plus 1 lap to tackle the same track from the morning but this time in reverse. Lettenbichler leads the pack into the woods. Seeing this course from a different perspective for the first time can be unnerving.

It was time to get the 6 out of 6, trying to get the perfect season. It was a hard race. I was the first at the start and Billy passed me at one uphill and we went back and forward a little bit in the first lap,

And he decided to go into the Joker Lane in the first lap, so as I did. At the end, it turned out that it’s so hard. I tried to get up the hill, out of the Joker Lane, couldn’t make it, stuck in there, he asked me, Should we team up?

And I said, Yes, okay, let’s just team up. So he pulled me up. This is super interesting. So Mani and Billy opting to help each other. They know that they’re going to go hit to hit on the end of this race. Out at the top.

In our sport, I feel like even if me and Billy, we were racing on such a good level and we’re like really competitive people, we still have so much respect to each other and I think that’s why we’re also really good friends now. It was more or less a race between us.

It was not easy. We went so often back and forward. There we go, he’s taking the lead back from Billy Once again, overtaking the lead, – Billy Bolt right there. – Lettenbichler, guys take it around. Then in the middle of the race, I was so tired

That I was like, okay, I’m just doing my race now and see what we can do. But I pulled a gap about 1,5 minutes. And at one lap I could pull it in. With only 3 laps left, they are mere seconds apart. – Right there. – Billy has made a mistake.

I was behind him, he fall off a step and I could pass him there and I knew it’s like 2 more laps to go. Can Mani do it? He gets up, no problem. That could have been the clutch moment for Manuel Lettenbichler.

Now when I passed Billy and I knew there’re like 2 laps to go, I felt strong again, I felt like I got a little bit of fresh air, and I was ready to push a little bit more. Just don’t crash, just ride. Ride it safe into the finish.

Moments away, making history, Manuel Lettenbichler. When I saw the finish line, they build something really special. We had to go up this ramp and there was running water down it and I thought it’s not going to be as slippery. Is Lettenbichler having some difficulty getting up, finding that traction?

But when I tried it the first time, I was like, Oh my God, this is going to be really, really difficult. Mani can’t get up there and Billy does. It’s going to be a major, major shift for the books. This is going to come right down to the wire.

How far away is Billy Bolt? I fell, bent my front brake lever, but I parked it again and like I got it at the second go. And he does it. Mani Lettenbichler, GetzenRodeo champ as well as the perfect season for Lettenbichler doing the impossible.

A historic moment for Manuel Lettenbichler, as well as the sport of Hard Enduro. And the fans agree. Magical moment for Mani. We got into the finish, a crazy 6 out of 6 home race. I think there were like 10,000 people just standing there.

How crazy is that, I just won 6 out of 6 races? How crazy is this? I knew that we made some history at this day. It was so cool and to see so many different fans and to win in front of them was unreal. This memory always sticks in my head for sure.

Oh mate, so tired, but so stoked, I can’t describe it. All the crowd, what a *** crowd! I, Mani Lettenbichler, just won 6 out of 6 races, I’m the 2023 FIM Hard Enduro World Champion. And we just made history.