Maria Grigoraș, racing for Master Bike Cluj – NordicaMoto , leaves Hard Enduro Covasna with another important step forward in the Romanian Hard Enduro Championship.
Even though the weekend was far from easy, she managed to move up one more place in the overall standings and is now second in the championship.
We caught up with Maria after the race to talk about Covasna, the problems she faced, and what she learned from one of the hardest race days of her career.
A Difficult Start to the Weekend
The Prolog did not go as planned, and Maria started the first race day from 20th position. From there, things improved quickly—until a GPS problem changed the entire day.
“Covasna was not my best race. The Prolog didn’t go very well and I started Day 1 from 20th position. The first day actually started really well, until I had the GPS problem. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, the GPS units simply didn’t work properly and I ended up getting lost on a Pro loop, where I lost around one hour. The organisers later decided to give us back part of the lost time.”
Rucsac Hidratare USWE MTB Hydro 3 Bronze
“The Hardest Race Day of My Career”
The biggest story of the weekend was not the result, but the physical and mental effort required to reach the finish.
“I can say it was the hardest race day of my career. I reached a very high level of physical exhaustion and there were many moments when I cried, but I kept going and tried to finish the day.”
The accumulated fatigue followed her into the second Offroad Day.
“On Day 2 I really felt the fatigue from the previous day. I was already very exhausted and I also lost time in a swamp.”
Despite all of that, Maria completed the race in sixth overall.
- 1 Marin Bogdan Butiu BLACK RYDERS SIBIU 608 pts
- 2 Maria Grigoraș MASTER BIKE CLUJ 450 pts
- 3 Matei Tudor Bortan CRAZY BIKE SIBIU 440 pts
- 4 Filip Macarie BLACK RYDERS SIBIU 435 pts
- 5 Alexandru Biris MASTER BIKE CLUJ 363 pts
A Result That Still Moves Her Forward
Hard Enduro Covasna weekend was not the race Maria hoped for, but it still brought an important championship gain. She leaves the event in second place in the overall Romanian Hard Enduro Championship standings.
“I finished sixth overall. It wasn’t the race I wanted, but in the end you probably learn the most from days like these.”
That may be the most important part of the weekend. The result was not perfect, the race was not clean, and the problems cost valuable time—but the season-long work is still showing in the championship standings.
Maria continues to move forward, and with every race she is proving that consistency, resilience and hard work matter just as much as outright speed.
