Source: Supplied.

The UK’s Graham Jarvis has clinched his first victory of the 2015 season in the Red Bull Sea to Sky Mountain Race, held in Kemer, Turkey, over the weekend.

Jarvis beat his fellow British rider Jonny Walker to second place, destroying his hopes of winning all six major events within a year and achieving the grand slam in extreme enduro. Wade Young from South Africa secured a podium finish by coming in third.

After a spectacular motocross-like Beach Race on Friday and an enduro-style Forest Race on Saturday, Sunday’s Mountain Race took the riders for 67km going from the beach through the canyon, into the forest and all the way to the top of the mountain Olympos, at an altitude of 2.365m. The riders had a maximum of seven hours to make it to the finish arch at the summit.

All top riders were present on the Mountain Race’s first starting row: Jonny Walker, Graham Jarvis, Andreas Lettenbichler and his son Manuel Lettenbichler, Paul Bolton, Philipp Scholz or Wade Young.

Young took the best start, closely followed by Walker who won the first five major extreme enduro races in 2015 and was on a mission to win Sea to Sky and become the first rider ever to achieve the grand slam. But Jarvis, who dominated in previous years but couldn’t score a major win this year, also came to Kemer with the clear intention to defend his 2014 Sea to Sky victory.

In past editions, Jarvis successfully took it easy in the first and rather fast sections of the track. On Sunday, he played it safe until the last, technical and tiring sections only to attack Walker who had been in the lead.

At the second tank stop, the 40 year old from Ripon, UK, made a bold call – he passed Walker without fueling up, knowing he would find it difficult to pass the 24-year-old in the single trails later on. The decision worked out since Jarvis was able to distance Walker, who came in two minutes and 45 seconds behind Jarvis.

2015 Red Bull Sea to Sky
Kemer, Turkey

Race results:
1. Graham Jarvis
2. Jonny Walker
3. Wade Young
4. Paul Bolton
5. Andreas Lettenbichler
6. Blake Gutzeit
7. Jonathan Richardson
8. Philipp Scholz
9. Manuel Lettenbichler
10. Ben Hemingway