Yak Attack

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Down the Biggest Valley in the World

Phil Evans / 19.03.2010

<b>Stage 9 - Muktinath to Tatopani (70kk, 442m ascent, 2834m descent)</b>

With the arduors of 4 days of solid climbing behind them the "Yak Attackers" were looking forward to an easy 2800m, 70km descent down the deepest valley in the world, but the Himalayas weren't going to give up that easily.

Aussie veteran Phil Hystek fancied his chances on this stage, having ridden most of the course last year and thinking his 29'er would be ideal for the rapidly descending rough terrain. Ajay Pandit had a 27 minute cushion over his second place rival and with his superior descending skills made him favourite to take the stage and overall victory. Kaji Sherpa in second place could only really hope for misfortune to bestow Ajay in order for him to take the Yak Attack title.

From the very start the mountains proved "its not over till the fat lady sings"! Five minutes into the descent from Muktinath, UK rider Andy Foers suffered an "over the bars experience" and sustained some painful injuries to his shoulder, but fortunately he was able to carry on. Not much further into the race, Kaji's eggbeater pedal decided to give up the ghost, which meant he had to ride the final 50km of rough downhill with only 1 foot clipped in. Paul Errington also suffered mechanical problems when his suspension forks collapsed, turning his single speeder practically into a fully rigid, no fun on the terrain on offer today.

After negotiating the fastest part of the descent, first placed Ajay also had a serious crash enabling Kaji and Mangal to pass him. Pushing hard from the off, Phil Hystek had built a considerable lead on the Nepali trio but disaster in the form of a split tyre side wall also thwarted him and by the time he finally decided to fit a tube in the tubeless setup, Mangal Lama had passed him to take first place.

An exciting finale was set up when Mangal crossed the finish line, followed shortly by Phil and then by Kaji. Ajays 27 minute cushion was ticking away and the finishers waited with baited breath, but 4 minutes later Ajay came limping down Tatopani high street hand held high in acknowledgement that at his fourth attempt he had finally taken the Yak Attack title, securing 3 stage victories and staking claim to a new Genesis Altitude 853 mountain bike.

<b>Final Results</b>

1 Ajay Pandit - 22:13:53
2 Kaji Sherpa - 22:37:38
3 Mangal Krishna Lama - 23:18:25
4 Chandra Chhetri - 24:03:02
5 Phil Hystek - 26:02:07
6 Paul Errington - 28:55:14
7 Andreas Danielsson - 34:15:24
7 Martin Stenmarck - 34:15:24
9 Andy Foers - 45:51:45
10 John Williams - 48:20:55
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