Mongolia Bike Challenge

Puddles in the Desert

Cory Wallace (Kona/The North Face) / 03.08.2012

MBC Stage 4: 116 km; 480 km down, 720 km to go.

Day 4. This is where stage racing starts to take its toll on the riders and starts to become a true test of will power as the character of the individuals in the race gets put on the line.  The overwhelming majority of riders in this year’s race are tough as nails and they are built from strong foundations.  There has been very little negative energy around camp and everyone seems to be up for the challenge they are in.  This has created a great atmosphere in camp which makes this whole adventure that much more enjoyable for everyone out here.

Stage Four started off with a series of rolling green hills which put a lot of riders in the hurt lockers early on.  This climaxed with a KOM at km 40 which Pau (Team Buff) put in a solid effort to get but fell short again as us Kona guys are blessed with some pretty speedy Carbon hard tails which are rockets on the climbs.

After the KOM we hit a typical high speed Mongolian descent with boulders and ditches abound.  Kris Sneddon (Kona) fell victim to the first flat in the lead group this year as he missiled down the hill and sliced a hole in his tire.  Wicks (Kona) stayed back to help him and I stayed up with Pau (Buff), Carter (Team MBC p/b Orbea-SMP) and Tuguldur Tuulkhangai (Mongolian National Team) as they charged across an open valley and then through some huge boulder fields.   They put in a solid effort to lose the Kona duo behind but they came up short as Wicks and Sneddon powered back up to the group in just under 15 km after losing 4 minutes in the tire change.

The scenery changed every hour for the first 4 hours of the race today.  Green hills, sand, boulder fields and then out onto the desolate plains.  The last 30 km was hot and a little rough.  There were giant puddles of water which seemed as out of place as a NBA player on hockey skates.   Puddles and piping hot dry desolate landscapes just don't seem to mesh.

It must have monsooned like it was Costa Rica here the night before. The puddles were like landmines as the lead 5 of us zigged, zagged and bunny hopped all over the place in an attempt to keep from having to wash our bikes this evening.  We all failed and are now practicing our zigging and zagging as well as bunny hopping techniques around camp so we can win this battle next time.