YAK ATTACK - SHOWDOWN in the ANNAPURNA\'S
Hip Hip Hooray for the UK!
Phil Evans (Extreme World Challenges) / 17.03.2008
Day 7 Jomsom to Tatopani; 54km/2700m to 1190mAn air of expectancy and trepidation hung over the start line in Jomsom.
With 54km of rideable downhill, dropping 1600m, the top bikers were hoping to take a big chunk of time out of the runners.
On the other hand the runners were not relishing running a marathon and a quarter off-road in ever increasing temperatures.
Leaving Jomsom on rocky jeep tracks, it wasn’t long before the the mountain bikers had built a formidable lead, but disaster struck Kaji Sherpa in the form of a puncture.
Matt Hart (Torq), seemingly recovered from yesterday\'s ordeal, and putting his Kona Hei Hei to work, took the lead but had a battle on his hands with Ajay Pandit (Creative Mapping).
It was nip and tuck all the way. but in the final few kilometres Matt managed to shake off Ajay and secured a 2nd stage win for the British racers. Kaji came in 7 minutes later and waited with baited breath for the race leader, Phudorjee (Peregrine+First Ascent) to arrive.
There were a number of permutations but basically the top 2 mountain bikers needed to gain about 1.5 hours on the top 2 runners to take 1st and 3rd place, going into the final day.
To everybodies amazement and disbelief however, Phudorjee came sprinting into Tatopani only 1 hour after the first bikers, followed shortly after by UK runner Philip Morris, both completing the 54km stage in a little over 3.5 hours.
This sets up a tense and exciting final stage into Beni, with only 18 mins separating 1st and 2nd and 28 minutes separating 3rd and 4th.
Results for Day 7
1. Matt Hart (Torq) 2:24:16 (biker)
2. Ajay Pandit (Creative Mapping) 2:25:45 (biker)
3. Thagendra Gurung 2:31:46See All Event Posts
