{"id":198010,"date":"2025-10-08T14:58:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198010\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T14:58:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:58:40","slug":"i-tried-to-match-mtb-and-hard-enduro-star-manuel-lettenbichler-in-the-surrey-hills-heres-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198010\/","title":{"rendered":"I tried to match MTB and hard enduro star Manuel Lettenbichler in the Surrey Hills \u2013 here’s what happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mini Rampage
\n\"ManuelTime to make it difficult. Steve Behr \/ Our Media<\/p>\n

At this point, we decided Mani needed to be challenged.<\/p>\n

We had a scout around and found a sandy area with some much larger drops. Not only were the hits bigger, but the run-in was far sketchier.<\/p>\n

Loose, tumbling, gravelly sand isn\u2019t a place to try to regulate your speed before a drop onto dirt.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Mani\u2019s control, borrowed from his immense skills on the moto, came into play.<\/p>\n

We scoped a few lines, picked a spot that\u2019d look great in photos, stamped down the landing a little to ensure his front wheel wasn\u2019t going to disappear into the soft stuff and \u2013 no surprise \u2013 he absolutely stomped it.<\/p>\n

There are a few lines in the Surrey Hills that stand out. <\/p>\n

The Mini Rampage area is one of those, featuring in many video edits from the likes of Fairclough and Wilkins, Sam Reynolds and Daryl Brown, so it was no wonder Mani wanted to test his mettle there.<\/p>\n

We found a technical line, comprising a nadgery roll-in over some roots and into a chute, before a double drop with barely a bike\u2019s length between them \u2013 off a rock, land, then straight into a step-down, with no chance to check speed beforehand.<\/p>\n

I had no interest in throwing myself off there. Even Mani was looking a bit worried.<\/p>\n

We skirted round it for a while, pointing out potential lines, but in the end sense prevailed.<\/p>\n

Mani had a full season of hard enduro to compete in, and we didn\u2019t want to pressure him into riding a line that was marginal at best.<\/p>\n

It was this dedication to the sport that prevented him from taking up the opportunity to represent Germany at the DH Worlds.<\/p>\n

The risk of getting injured and writing off his hard enduro season was too great \u2013 imagine that conversation with KTM!<\/p>\n

Videographer Max and I continued scouting out a final challenge, finding a steep ridgeline that was perfect to finish our grand day out. All of a sudden, there was a \u201cF*ck, yeah!\u201d and a flash of Mani\u2019s kit down below us.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d picked a quiet minute, with no spectators, and sent the line we all thought he\u2019d written off. <\/p>\n

It was a serious challenge and potentially very dangerous, but he\u2019s a man well-accustomed to high-stakes games, and that itch needed scratching.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, for MBUK\u2019s YouTube channel, he\u2019s a proper pro, and turned his GoPro on for the run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mini Rampage Time to make it difficult. Steve Behr \/ Our Media At this point, we decided Mani…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-198010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}