Mongolia Bike Challenge

Kaboom! Stage 7 Turns Into a Survival Epic

Cory Wallace (Kona/The North Face) / 08.08.2012

The Queens stage started out under ideal conditions as we were pushed along by a solid tailwind racing across some of Mongolia's most beautiful countryside.  The temperature was perfect, the roads were smooth, life was good.

Things started to go sideways as we headed up to the first KOM of the day at km 70.  The climb started out gradual before pitching up to 20% as the dirt path climbed through some grassy alpine meadows. 

The lead group of 9 which started the climb together was down to just Barry Wicks and myself as we neared the 9,800 foot summit.  1 km from the top the weather turned for the worse and started to spit down on us.  Being proactive, we paused our race efforts for a second to put our wind jackets on and then continued along to the top of the climb where there was a feed zone situated.  We ducked under the tarps and waited for the other riders to catch up as the day was quickly turning into a survival mission.  With Kris Sneddon, Carter Hovey, and Pau now with us, we started down the fast descent into a very remote valley. 

Cruising through some stunning pristine landscapes, we saw about 1 % of what was there for us to observe as we were all tucking our heads into our turtle shells.  The weather was getting worse as the rain got harder and the temperature continued to drop.  Riding bikes through the rain isn't great at the best of times, when you toss in a bunch of mud full of animal crap it really isn't something to write home about.  At times like these there really is only one option and that is to drive on to the finish line where dry tents and warm food await. 

Riding over the second KOM of the day at km 100 was pretty sweet as we rode between some craggy towering rocks around us.  This pass is like something you'd see out of the lord of the rings.  A pretty special place which we were getting to see in some extreme mountain weather.  In the big picture it was probably an average day for up here at 9000 feet plus in the Altai mountains.  I think a lot of us forgot just how exposed we were going to get today.  I know I under packed with only having a light wind breaker as extra protection over my spandex. 

In hindsight I am shaking my head as I know if I went for ride in Canada over 3 mountain passes between 9,500 and 9,900 feet that I would prepare a little smarter.  For some reason a lot of us didn't think this way on this day.  Instead we thought “Hmm, cool were going to bike over some of the highest mountains in Mongolia and its going to be postcard beautiful with a sun and blue skies!”  Let’s go and do it in our spandex with a couple energy bars packed in our pockets!” Rain?  No way.  That’s not possible.