Sangiin Dalai Lake to Orkhorn River
125km and 1,600m climbing
Hamish: 5hrs 47mins
Leah: 7hrs 15mins
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/2626236980
After yesterdays bad legs, I was a little concerned going into today, and as I should have been. My legs were OK, but not great would be the best way to describe them. Today was the second “queen” stage of 125km and 1600m of climbing. This does not should like that much this is Mongolia, and at the end of the day it was a tough day.
Last night we camped, and it was an eventful night! First up as we were going to sleep the threatening thunderstorm eventually hit us with strong winds and heavy rain just as we were going to bed. Our 8 person tent was fortunate as we had a relatively new tent, and it did not leak. I had mistakenly picked the side into the wind, but had the highest ground. We would have been the driest of a wet lot if it had rained a lot, and in the end the wind was worse. We ended up anchoring the side of the military style tent with our bags and tucking the side of the tent under the groundsheet, and it worked pretty well. We stayed dry and had an ok nights sleep, unlike some of the other tents who got wet.
The next morning we woke to a very cold wind and wet roads. You would not have known a bike race was taking place with 5 mins to go, as everyone was hiding in the tents trying the escape the wind. It was a brutal start to the day.
From the gun the Mongolians went again and I settled into the “chase” group, not that we were doing any chasing as they were gone. The stage started with a long steady climb for 30km, and I managed to stay in the group until here, when I was dropped. Fortunately for me, I was with another group over the top, as we had a 30km false flat into a block headwind to get across. If you cannot tell, the wind in Mongolia is brutal and only really eases up once you are in the hills, and today it did not let up until we had battled over the second King of the Mountain point. Here the wind was funnelled down the valley and directly into us. It was tough!!! I tucked in behind Nico, who normally is a much faster climber than me, but with the wind we were equal.
The final section of the day was much more enjoyable, as we got into the high mountain treed areas. We topped out at 2200m today, and the higher we got the better the scenery. Scattered trees and distant mountains were the feature, and looking down over the rolling hills and distant flat grasslands. Definitely the best scenery so far!
The last 30km were flat to downhill, and I worked with 3 others to form a continuous rolling pace line all the way into the camp.
The other highlight of the day were the last 5-7km, as we wound our way through a 20,000 yr old lava field. On a cyclocross bike this would have been a blast, as we followed to tire tracks at 30km/hr twisting and turning their way through the field. Good fun.
The camp tonight is a very plush Ger camp. It is perched beside a popular canyon and waterfall, not that we saw the waterfall as it as a 1km walk away! Our Ger is huge just for the two of us, and also right beside where the bags were dropped. No lugging bags for miles tonight!
Tomorrow is the last stage. 84km and 1,700m climbing so will be a tough day out again.
