“Today, the Mongolia Bike Challenge shows racers very quickly what this race is all about – a tough challenge set within epic, natural beauties. The track varies between fast and smooth to rough and somewhat technical.”
Stage 2: Geo Mandal Ger Camp to Geo Mandal Ger Camp
Quote Mongolia Bike Challenge race report,
“The second stage of the 2016 Mongolia Bike Challenge saw the riders tackle a visually stunning course of 122km with just over 2900m of climbing, with two KOM points offering time bonuses of 30 secs, 20 sec and 10 secs.
Under grey skies, #71 Martin Wisata took off from the starting pack and led the charge alone whilst the general classification riders took it a little more sedately, knowledgeable of the hard hills that were to come very early into this tough second stage.
At KM20, which saw the start of the first real climb of the day, Wisata was reabsorbed into the chasing group which comprised of the top riders in the race so far, which are Nicholas Pettina, Payson McElveen, Cory Wallace, Yuki Ikeda, Hiroyuki Okamoto and Hans Planckaert. These six riders took the initiative and the lead and pushed on up the hill at a frenetic pace.”
Our team manager likes doing that when his legs are feeling strong in the morning – charging ahead and leading out the pack at the start of a stage. I can just imagine how the peloton fell into place behind his tall statue and comfy wind break like ducks in a row.
In his own words,
“Right from the start I went to the front and was in the lead for a good 30 minutes. For the rest of the day Clayton and I rode together and came across the finish in 14th and 15th position and Clayton claimed third in his M2 category.”
In the official team classification, the Rocky Trail Racing Team now sits in second place behind Team Japan with Yuki Ikeda.
In the individual classification the team results are:
- #71 Martin Wisata, 6th M1 in 06:40:45, 15th overall
- #47 Clayton Locke, 3rd M2 in 06:40:45, 14th overall
- #14 Michael Klemens, 6th in M2 in 07:43:10, 26th overall
After 2 Stages, the overall classification is as follows:
- #71 Martin Wisata, 14th overall in 12:06:40 (+2:18:54)
- #47 Clayton Locke, 15th overall in 12:06:43 (+2:18:57)
- #14 Michael Klemens, 25th overall in 13:14:48 (+3:27:02)
In the Khan category, Cory Wallace managed to take the win at the finish line by one second over McElveen with Pettina just behind. Overall the US rider McElveen is in front with a total official race time of 9:47:46 (which includes KOM time bonuses), Pettina sits in second (+22 sec) and Cory Wallace in third (+0:01:11). In the women’s classification overall, the Russian Anastasiia Veranian is leading with a total race time of 16:25:40 ahead of British rider Sarah Fawcett (18:08:30).
Stage 2 will see the riders tackle 2240 meters over 117km, with 2 KOM points, with dry weather forecast.
Full stage 2 and overall coverage can be found on the event website.
Elevation profile Stage 2:
Photo: Rocky Trail
Photos courtesy of Mongolia Bike Challenge
You must be logged in to post a comment.