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Day 1:

After having a day out with illness I was hoping to get one more ride on the bike before the start of the race. I woke up feeling better, but the heavens opened in a big way so I decided it would be better to stay dry and not ride. We then had a 3 hour drive to the town of Naran which would be our base for Stages 1 and 2.

Our GB team for the race was:

Myself, Rob Friel (Elite XC), Mark Spratt (UK & Euro 24hr Vets champ), Rickie Cotter (UK & Euro 24hr Champ), Mel Alexander (Elite XC). It seemed like a solid team with no weak links and we all knew each other and got on well which was a bonus.

Stage 1 was the longest, highest and probably the hardest for me due to the altitude, as the route goes up the Babusar Pass, perhaps one of the highest road (in a loose sense of the word, as it isn’t paved) passes in the World, going up to 4500m! The heavy rain the previous day probably fell as snow on the top of the pass, so we didn’t know if the route was going to change.

Another short transfer in the morning was needed to the start of the stage at Jalkhad, 3100m altitude. This race is a big deal over here and all the TV stations and media were there at the start which made it pretty exciting. The altitude was really noticeable, just walking around got me out of breath so riding from here to the top was worrying.

With everyone on the start line and the media circus finally clearing a path we set off, the front runners went off really fast, far too fast for me. I made sure I didn’t go above my threshold as the hardest part about riding at altitude is trying to recover from any anaerobic work. I settled into a rhythm, passed a few people who had set off too fast but also got passed by plenty of others. The course was very rocky and it was pretty wet and sandy from the rain the previous day. Apart from a few short sections of tarmac the majority was dirt track. The route had a few short downhills in the first 20km, reaching about 3500m where we also hit the snow line. The final 8km was a climb all the way to the top. While it didn’t look that steep it felt really steep and I was very slow to the top and started getting a massive headache. I reached the top in about 17th position. From here the course was supposed to drop along another track, before hitting a few meadows and singletrack, rejoining lower down but although the snow was clear on the main pass it was too deep on the lesser used track.

So we simply headed down the same way, which was fast for that first 8km, but then seemed flat with some uphills which made it hard work. I managed to pass a few people on the downhill and eventually finished the stage in 14th in a time of 3hrs 18min. Almost 30 minutes behind the winner! As a team though we had done well, with the top 2 men and 1 women’s time counting to the overall result, we were in 4th position but 2nd and 3rd were really close. The top team seemed to be too far ahead to catch.

The stage really gave us an indication of the level of talent racing here, with lots of national champions in several disciplines from all around the World. Top results from stage 1:

1st – Martin Haring – 2nd Slovakia XC Champs 2011
2nd – Altansukh Altanzul – Mongolian National Champion, who lives at 2500m and obviously used to the altitude.
3rd – Irjan Luttenburg – Dutch U23 XC Champion a few years ago and top 40 World Cup racer.
4th – Ulziibaatar Jamsran – Another seriously fast Mongolian racer
5th – Nathan Dahlberg – Tour de France racer in 1988 and winner of several national stage races.

Day 2:

Stage 2 always looked like the stage that would suit us best, both as individuals and especially as a team. It was essentially a long XC race, with 8 laps of a mostly flat 6.5km course and the promise of some technical riding. The only twist, it was held around a lake at 3200m! The scenery was absolutely stunning, the lake was surrounded by snow capped mountains and the skies were clear and bright blue.

After a quick scout lap it wasn’t quite the tech fest we were hoping for, but there were a few sections that might catch people out although we guessed most people here would be fine.

After 2 short 400 metre start laps to split the field we set off onto the main lap and I found myself in the front group of 5 or 6 with Rob and Mel for company. After a few hundred meters a couple of riders had a small gap on the front but that soon came back as they hit the rocks and seemed to struggle, both up or down. The Mongolian rider had to stop and this held both Rob and Myself up. He stayed ahead and the race leader, Martin was with him along with Irjan, although he crashed on a river crossing and dropped back. The gap kept going out on anything flat or easy and came back very quickly on anything technical either up or downhill.

After a while I settled into 4th place, pushing hard but on the one short climb of the lap I felt super slow and lost lots of time to the faster climbers. The following downhill was fast and rocky though and managed to make up time on everyone ahead apart from Rob who was just as fast on the downhills and a little quicker on the uphills. Martin, the race leader was way ahead but I could see Rob had passed the Mongolian rider and I also passed him soon after on a technical climbing section to put me 3rd, a massive difference to yesterday. I kept pushing on, not making any time up on the two ahead but trying not to get caught by riders behind. The altitude was really hurting and any hard efforts or climbs were hard to recover from. I was amazed by how many riders were struggling on the rocky sections, which were not that technical compared to some of the things we ride back home.

The last few laps were really hard and I knew I was running low on energy but managed to keep my position to finish 3rd, which I was over the moon with. Overall us Brits put up a great show and proved that we can ride proper mountain bike courses with Rob finishing 2nd, Mel 5th overall and first women and Mark 6th. The results shot us up from 4th place overall to 1st and leading by 45 minutes!

Day 3:

Stage 3 was the final day and also claimed to be the hardest day, but I wasn’t so sure about that. It was essentially a massive hill climb, 17km in length rising from 1450m at the start near the Kaghan Memorial School all the way up to the finish at 3100m. The race started on a wide road and I somehow managed to find myself right on the front. I was comfortable with the pace so I was surprised that none of the faster riders decided to take it up. I lead for the first kilometre until it turned onto a smaller road where the gradient shot up. One by one the faster climbers started to come by, including Rob and everyone settled into their pace all blowing hard and sweating loads with the intense heat on the more open lower sections.

After a few kilometres I found myself battling with 3 other riders, one from Pakistan the others from Slovakia and Holland. We stayed together for a long time, switching the order constantly. I was suffering on the steeper sections and others didn’t seem be able to up the pace as quickly when the gradient occasionally dropped off. The first 7km were on a broken tarmac road which was pretty steep all the way. From 7km to the top it was on a muddy, rocky jeep track which was much harder than the first part. The Slovakian rider had got away, but I still had Remko, the Dutch rider in sight and had moved ahead of the rider from Pakistan. The mud track was dry and hard-packed for a while so it was fairly straight forward apart from a few sections that needed careful line choice. From about 12km onwards it started to get more and more muddy and slippery and I hoped this would benefit me more than the others.

Moving into the final kilometre of the climb I managed to catch and pass Remko and pushed on to the top when it started to hail slightly. As we reached the top we joined a short singletrack section and then joined a meadow where we did 2 loops of a circuit roughly 700m each. As I made my way down the singletrack it started to thunder and the hail was hammering down and it was the size of garden peas and really, really hurt! As soon as it started I managed to pass 2 riders, including the Slovakian who had got ahead earlier and pushed on to the finish, as I wanted to get some shelter from the hail. As soon as I crossed the line I dropped the bike and ran into one of the tents put up to join all the other riders cowering from the hail and cold.

Some riders obviously felt the cold more than I did, as I was pretty much OK but others were shaking like mad and were starting to suffer. The hail was unrelenting and I felt really sorry for those still riding but I think everyone who started the stage made it to the finish, although probably quite a bit colder! As a team we did quite well in the stage results, with Rob finishing 5th, myself 9th and Rickie 1st Woman and Mel 5th woman we did enough as a team to hold on to the lead and win overall! Mel won the overall women’s race with Rickie finishing 3rd. Rob managed to hold on to his 3rd place overall and I dropped a place to to finish 5th which I am more than happy with.

The results are great, but the experience is what we were here for and the whole event and the time spent in Pakistan has been absolutely fantastic and an experience I will never forget. It is a brilliant country with friendly and enthusiastic people. Before I came out people thought I was crazy with all the talks about security issues, but I can talk for us all and say that we felt totally safe the whole time and never once felt threatened. The scenery we have seen has been incredible and the chance to ride in the Himalayas is very special indeed.