Chinese stage changes overall ranking

14.7.2019

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On the weekend, the Silk Way Rally crews moved to China. And there were things happening! In Sunday's 8th stage, the Belarussian leader Viazovich took a tumble and lost his leading position. The North Bohemian truck with Martin van den Brink finished sixth and moved just below the overall podium due to this incident.

The weekend started with Saturday transport stage, during which the crew crossed the Mongolian-Chinese border. Therefore, the 7th stage from Dalanzadgad to Bayinbaolige was not competitive, the crews have to cover over five hundred and fifty kilometers and had reach the next bivouac. The race continued sharply again on Sunday with stage 8 from Bayinbaolige to Alashan, where the special timed section had three hundred and thirty kilometers. And that was fatal to the leading Viazovich, who had been so far successfully defending from a fierce attack by Russian Kamaz trucks. It was one of the most beautiful battles of the past. The beautiful fight of MAZ against the dominance of Kamaz ended prematurely. Viazovich reportedly had an accident at his 35th kilometer in which his truck went "over the cab." The badly damaged truck did not finish the stage. So Kamaz trucks got an easy way to win. Russian pilot Shibalov was the fastest in the stage and his colleagues Mardeev and Karginov arrived later. Martin van den Brink and his Renault finished sixth with a loss of three quarters of an hour. “The stage was challenging today for navigation and treacherous in many ways. Therefore, Martin was more cautious, and it paid off, even though he lost a bit more time. He describing me the dune that probably was too tricky for Viazovich. Apparently, it was long and then there was an unexpectedly sharp edge, where had not Martin slowed down, he would have taken tumble as well,”said Daniel Kozlovský, van den Brink mechanic from MKR Technology.

In total, the crews covered nearly eight hundred kilometers of this year's longest stage. In addition, the organizers sent the trucks to the first dunes of the Gobi Desert, but there was no shortage of dry beds, gorges, canyons and steppe passages. After the early end of Viazovich, the winner of the stage - Shibalov, has a lead of quarter of an hour over the second Karginov. Mardeev is losing another ten minutes. Martin van den Brink jumped to fourth.

The last two days remain. Monday's 9th stage should be the same as that of Sunday. The special stage is two hundred and ninety kilometers long and it will offer sand dunes and faster gravel passages. In total, the route from Alashan to Jiayuguan is five hundred kilometers.

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