Eduard Nikolaev won the 10th stage at Silk Way rally-marathon

The pre-last day of the Silk Way rally-marathon was dedicated to the solemn marathon day. For athletes it is always a challenge, because the team mechanics and the assistance trucks stay at the bivouac and they do not assist them till the rest place at bivouac. As a result, all maintenance is permitted to fulfill by themselves and by the crews, that are in the closed park. And the main task except of the result is to keep the trucks in service. The marathon stage is always featured with extreme difficulties that influence at moral state of the athletes.

Today’s 307 kilometers of the tenth special stage was changing with pebble and rock roads and sometimes with sandy roads, coated with thick plants. And the abundance of bumps and potholes is another reason not to forget how dangerous it becomes piloting of a ten-ton truck with more than 1000 horsepower and developing a speed limit at 140 km/h.

Already on Saturday evening, heavy rain fell over the course, and on the start day the sky was covered with low clouds moving beyond the horizon. The celestial chancellery decided to add additional intrigue to the tournament layout by wetting the already difficult Mongolian roads. Previously dried riverbeds and scour holes gradually filled with water and became a serious obstacle on the way. The risk of falling into a trap and dropping out of the race a day before its end is a blow for the crews when there is nothing left before the cherished podium.

In spite of the weather, the stage became very speedy. And its marathon mode was not so severe. Practically all finished pilots confessed, that there were not serious obstacles – effective and fast special stage without surprises. This is only to the advantage of the leaders of their categories. It is almost unreal to lose much time to the main competitors at speed, and technical difficulties were experienced only by a few participants, and those were connected with punctured wheels.

The winner of the day became Eduard Nikolaev, who was less than a minute ahead of Sergey Vyazovich. Bogdan Karimov is at the third place (+84 seconds). The leader of the truck standing lost a little bit in searching of the right road and showed the fourth result, losing four and half minutes to Nikolaev. Now only seven and half minutes separate Sotnikov from Nikolaev in general classification.

Dmitry Sotnikov, pilot of crew #303: “The special stage was mostly fast. We started first, all 300 kilometers practically at maximum speed. There were a lot of bumps, in one place we didn't immediately see the road and got a little twisted. At the last 50 kilometers it was fast and bumpy, we drove together with Bogdan Karimov. The special stage was of average complexity with different amount of big and small stones. The main thing was to save the trucks, and we coped with it. Tomorrow we will have to drive reliably and bring the result”.

Bogdan Karimov, pilot of crew #306: “It was an interesting special stage, a lot of maximum speed. On the steppe paths we had to work more carefully with navigation. On long bindings, when there are four roads in front of our eyes, it was easy to go in the wrong direction. In the middle of the way we saw Dmitry Sotnikov, followed him and finished quietly. The wipers failed again, it was not easy to drive in the rain, but Dima was a guide for us. The race is coming to an end, we still have strength”.

Andrey Karginov, pilot of crew #305: “Fast and high-speed special stage, but very difficult. A lot of bumps, holes, we had to cut the road. We made a lot of jumps. Riding in such conditions is very risky. Our guys were ahead, none of them needed our help. We rode at our own pace, we never stopped once. The rain made its own adjustments, the wipers worked at maximum and we had to look more attentively at the road. Tomorrow we will give 100% to finish the race with a good result and get a podium”.

The five KAMAZ-master trucks arrived at the bivouac in Mandalgobi, 250 kilometers south of Ulaanbaatar, without technical problems. The scheduled inspection of the trucks by the crews and the necessary routine maintenance work were completed in a short period of time, allowing the drivers to save their energy before the flank march to the capital of Mongolia. Tomorrow is the final day of the marathon and the solemn podium with the presentation of deserved awards.

Truck standings. The results of the 10^th stage

Truck standings. General classification of the 10^th stage