Mongolia Bike Challenge
Discovering Mongolia
Special Report by Cory Wallace / 04.08.2011
At 79 km, and a minimal elevation change we were all thinking it would be a rather gentle way to get the legs going for the 1200 km, 9 stage race. We were wrong as no one told us we would be biking into ferocious headwinds for 95% of the day over corrugated, dusty roads.
A lead group quickly formed at the front with 16 riders taking turns battling the winds. This lasted until last years winner Marzio Deho (Olympia Bikes Italy) put in a hard effort to split the group. It was working so I joined him and we quickly whittled the group down to 4 of us with Craig Richey (NOP Systems/BC Bike Race) and Guillaume Peyronet (France) staying with us.
At the first feed station Deho put in an attack, a bunch of riders caught us from behind and there was organized chaos for a few minutes. Once it settled down Deho had a minute gap on myself and Richey, which he would hold for over an hour before we would finally catch him with 20 km to go in the stage.
At this point Richey and I employed some solid team tactics and worked over Deho with him eventually blowing up trying to chase down one of my attacks, which opened the window for Richey to launch his own attack.
In the end I would take the stage victory by 5 minutes over Richey and 8 minutes over a demoralized Deho.
On the woman’s side, Melinda Jackson (Australia) put in a mammoth effort to take a 40 minute victory over her second placed rival Judith Lochend from Switzerland.
At the finish line I noticed a black shape up on a hill a couple miles in the distance and got excited as I figured it was a Yak. I pedalled over there and when I got closer the black shape split into two as a Mongolian got off the back of his horse.
Biking up to the hardy man I was a little surprised when he rushed over to me, grabbed my hand, gave me 2 minutes of Mongolian wisdom, patted me on the back and then rode away! As I hopped on my bike I looked over my shoulder to wave goodbye but my friend had already vanished.
I’m still not sure if I was delirious from the days ride or if this unreal experience even happened ...
The first 5 days we have spent in Mongolia have been unimaginable. This country, which has the lowest population density of any independent nation in the world, is also home to some epic landscapes.
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