Alfredo Gómez and Wade Young crash out of Red Bull Romaniacs as Graham Jarvis storms to victory on day one in Romania.

The opening off road day of the 2017 Red Bull Romaniacs proved a dramatic one, as two of the race’s favourites Alfredo Gómez and Wade Young suffered individual crashes that would put both of them out of the race.

As yesterday’s prologue winner, Gómez was one of the main favourites for victory as he looked to add a Romaniacs title to his Red Bull Hare Scramblewin from June. However, after starting this morning third, Gómez suffered a race-ending crash shortly after the start.

Hurting his back and leg in the process, Gómez soldiered on, but was forced to call it quits at the final check of the day. Meanwhile, Sherco mounted Young hit trouble early on when he crashed heavily on a downhill section exiting a forest.

He picked himself up and also carried on, but later began to feel pain and was forced to stop. A hospital trip resulted in the diagnosis of two compressed vertebrae and a damaged lung.

In stark contrast, Graham Jarvis has started as he means to go on by being the first home in what turned out to be one of the toughest Romaniacs days ever.

Setting off fourth this morning and chasing the younger trio of Jonny Walker, Billy Bolt and Gómez, it wasn’t long before the five-time Red Bull Romaniacs winner was out front.

Jarvis’s experience and skill enabled him to tackle the tough hillclimbs and muddy off-cambered descents with relative ease. Other riders were not so lucky. Coming back in after over seven hours in the saddle, Jarvis admitted it had been hard.

“I made a couple of mistakes, missing turnings, and had to turn back. That lost me some time,” said Jarvis. “I got to the finish in one piece and the bike is working well. I just need some rest now and get ready for tomorrow.”

Second place went to Sherco’s Mario Román. Despite not having the best prologue the day before, the Spanish rider made very few mistakes on the 125km route.

Competitors perform during the prologue race at the Red Bull Romaniacs in Sibiu, Romania on July 25, 2017.

Coming home third was KTM mounted Jonny Walker, having set off first at dawn. With no other bike tracks ahead of him to follow, it was up to Walker to find his own way.

“I had some troubles today,” admitted Walker. “I had a couple of crashes. Looping the bike on a big hill caused me to smash one of my GPS units. The other one also fell off so I had to find that and then swap the pair of them.

“I made a few mistakes, especially in the wet, so I need to work on that. I’ll have a slightly later start tomorrow so I’m hoping to catch up with the front runners and stick with them.”

Behind the top three, Czech Republic’s David Cyprian put in a ride of note to land a career-best stage result in fourth, with Lars Enockl fifth and Romaniacs rookie David Knight in sixth.