Kona Land of the Yeti Duathlon
Dipak Raj Rai (HeatmaxUK) Takes Clean Sweep
Phil Evans / 09.11.2008
By the time the duathletes left Kinja, the Nepali sun was already beating down. Although the day was down as mainly rideable, it commenced with a 5km 600m carry/climb up to Bhandar.From here chaos ensued as there were a number of options for which trail to take and each rider had their own tactic. The field was spread wide apart with some taking a high route to the north of the main trekking trail, some taking a newly formed jeep track to the south of the trail and some taking the more direct but less rideable trekking trail.
The new jeep track to the south wound its way back up from fertile fields, up through pine forest, offering a brief respite from the beating sun and over a remote pass at nearly 3000m. It was rough and sometimes sandy, often dissected by flowing waterfalls, but was on the whole, had it not been for the weary legs, totally rideable.
Once over the top of the pass the track descended switchback after switchback over exciting terrain for close to 2 hours before finally bottoming out at the riverside village of Those. From here there was another hot sandy climb away from the river, followed by a final 5km undulating track to the final destination of the bustling market town of Jiri
Had the race been closer it may have mattered that the rider’s hadn’t followed the same route. But as maps of the area are highly inaccurate and even the locals seem undecided as to which is the most convenient route it still would have been hard to police. As it was Dipak was already over 4 hours ahead of his closest rival and as the form suggested he was odds on favourite to make a clean sweep of all the stages and overall victory.
He didn’t disappoint. Even with only 1 month of bike training in his legs, he managed to complete this 33 mile stage over 1 hour faster than mountain bike guide Chandra, and nearly 3 hours faster than his closest overall rival, Jobir.
Chandra had put in a valiant effort to try and thwart Dipak’s clean sweep of the stage prizes, pushing himself to the limit and tumbling off his new, but now rathered battered looking Felt on numerous occasions, but the mountain runners desire to win was too strong.
Over the 5 stages from Gorak Shep, some 100 miles and 6828m of cumulative climb away from the finish, Dipak had been consistently faster. Had he had to push himself harder to keep his lead, he may of gone well under 24 hours for the distance, but as it was he finished most stages looking as fresh as when he started.
The Kona "Land of the Yeti" duathlon was one tough event. It didn’t live up to the expectations of the mountain bikers and at times was downright unenjoyable (nobody enjoys carrying a 12kg bike and pack over mountain passes, right?), but it was certainly a great achievement for all those involved and definitely tested the mettle, stamina and fitness of all the finishers to the max.See All Event Posts
