TRAVERSE 165
NEWS
TIGER TRIUMPHS AT ROMANIACS
In the steep, unforgiving terrain of Romania’ s Carpathian Mountains, Triumph Motorcycles took a bold gamble, and came out with something far more powerful than a win. They came away with validation. At the 2025 Red Bull Romaniacs, one of the world’ s most brutal offroad races, Triumph’ s near-showroom-spec Tiger 900 Rally Pro motorcycles didn ' t just survive. They thrived.
Competing in the newly introduced Adventure classes, Triumph Factory Racing’ s Jonny Walker and Sam Sunderland faced five punishing days of rocks, rivers, roots, and climbs— terrain typically the domain of featherweight enduro machines. Yet, against a backdrop of mud-slicked climbs and bar-bending descents, their Tigers not only held their own, they put on a show.
Romaniacs isn’ t a place you bring an adventure bike unless you’ ve got something to prove. It’ s a hard enduro crucible where bikes and riders alike are broken down, rebuilt, and occasionally tossed off cliffs. But for Triumph, the 2025 edition, which introduced the Adventure Ultimate and Adventure Lite categories, offered something unique; a chance to show that the Tiger 900 is more than a capable tourer. It’ s a weapon.
Racing with minimal modifications, the bikes bore the scars and splatter of the wild. These weren’ t carefully prepped factory specials. They were, in Triumph’ s own words,“ pretty much as they would leave the showroom floor.” And they went out to face the most technical, mentally draining, body-beating terrain Europe could throw at them.
For Jonny Walker, the Romaniacs wasn’ t unfamiliar territory, but racing it on an adventure bike? That was another matter. Lining up in the Adventure Ultimate class, Walker was immediately in the fight. A strong second place in the event’ s Prologue set the tone, but the adventure gods weren’ t going to let him off that easy.
TRAVERSE 165