Swedes goes for Rally Mongolia 2013

Well as you can imagine I now have position 6 in the total.

Enjoying the recap, thanks. Mongolia looks like bike paradise. Any photos of the airhead in the background of the above photo?

Deadly99, it is the best looking airhead you will ever get your eyes on.

Some more photos of the airhead, the rider there a very friendly guy in fact we liked him so mutch that we kidnapped him to be our third rider in Rally Raid Sweden for the team competition, well it did not help as we faced a DNF day 5

The owner and rider of the beautiful bike is Yuji Shinohara.

Found 1 more pic of the airhead

Day 6

Special 560 km
Transport 150 km

Two time specials a 280 km each,worried about fuel as this is really close to my limit topped up with 1 liter at starting line.

First part to RCP really fun with a lot of full trottle stages + 160 km several times, managed to stay close to the riders in front of me and pull a gap of 20 minutes to the rider behind me to RCP, first really warm day especilly at RCP.

Day 6

Did not like the second stage, rocky roads and very strong wind. After some time I really started to be tired in neck and shoulders due to the wind. Quite exhausted at finish line.

Brother trying to tell me that if I use the trottle a little bit more I would not be that exhausted, told him that I will try that method tomorrow.

Lost 1 hour to the top guy, but pulled a gap of 40 min to the rider behind me.

Still 6 position total

Day 7

Liaison 100 km
Special 141 km
Liaison 20 km
Special 200 km

What a day or to finish, first you have to finish each day.

Approximately 10 km in to liasion I found rider #31 on the Tarmac with pain in a arm shoulder, helped him up and found out that he crashed with a horse !! A few minutes later one of the race car joined us and called organisation, rider went back to the bivouac to get some medical treatment.

Continued to the start of the special, a great sand track with a few washouts pulled hard at start a catches the rider in front of me and at km 50 we there passing two more riders who been crashing at a washout but both are fine. Started to get the feeling that it could be a podium finish today, but reality will soon be back.

At km 77 I did not recognize myself in the RB and the riders in front of me there also starting to ride around in circles and headed of in different directions, I headed back to km 73 at the last WP and started to follow the RD back again still I could not find the right track tested several options. After some time the rest of the bikes and cars there riding around trying to find the right track. Suddenly I see rider #31 on the track again and he must have been healing fast.

Well after 20-30 minutes I give up convinced that it must be some errors in the RD and I head for the next WP understanding that I will miss the CP at km 100, but I'm fully convinced that the stage will be cancelled due to RD error as everybody is running around as headless chickens.

Close to next WP I see some track coming from left and realize that somebody have made it, well I started to follow the track backwards staying 5 meters to the side of the track as I'm soon start to meet some riders and by the end I have meet everybody in the race. Finally I also found CP 1 and I'm really disappointed to myself, one the way back I there driving like mad beating myself and the Berg to the limit managed to pick 7 riders to the finish line of the first stage as I arrive as bike 16 and have lost 1.5 hours on the top riders.

Still irritated on myself during second stage and I really try to regain time on the riders in front of me, the track there absolutely great with a lot of sand tracks and in the end some dunes at the end I see my brother & Stina out watching the race in the dunes.

Arrived to a quite surrealistic bivouac, kind of a alp village surrounded by sand dunes , it there a bivouac two years ago and apparently nobody been there since that time, a really strange place. We shared one of the alp house with team Korea. No furniture no toilets just a empty building.



Well now to a quite sad story, during the stay in the dunes to check arrival of all riders my brother noticed a rider #31 who followed the leader through the dunes to finish, that rider came back to the dunes without helmet and with a passenger drinking beer, the reason for coming back there to guide another rider through the dunes, this kind of misbehavior and lack of sportsmanship triggered my brother to make a official protest to the rider of bike 31.

The organization treated the protest seriously and found out that the rider of the bike there a rider who retired early in the race and not rider 31 who actually damaged his collarbone.

The rider of bike 31 will not be allowed to start next years race, the rider who got help through the dunes 1 hours penalty and the team a cash penalty of 500 USD, well you could feel some tension from some team members that evening.

In the end of the day I only lost additional 15 minutes on second stage and remain in 6 position but have no chance to reach top 5 after this.

Well still some happy riders despite protest.

Short special 150 km

Last chance to get a podium position, tried my best and came in 5th position 1 minute 40 sec to second place.

Really nice stage sandy tracks in the beginning and some fast stages in the middle, finish there really spectacular like riding on the Chinese wall.

Summary

Not really satisfied with my result targeted a top 5 position, but I'm lacking some speed right now and I need to be more fit for long day's as I can't run anymore I need to bring a bicycle for training in UB.

Anyway best foreigner 1st position in Super production over 450cc, 1st position in non KTM,Honda,Yamaha category.
　
Team manager
Stina managed the team without any problem, paid stolen towels, fixed a Ger instead of a tents, handing out daily food rations, mounted up and down tents, fetched our luggage when the truck arrived, reported to Sweden, cleaned at the service area, photographed enormously but unfortunately, many images were lost due to technicalities.

Now it is very easy to control up Berglund brothers who are known for their social skill agility to solve eventual conflicts and in the same time they are always right :)

Brother
Well once again a great experience together, disappointed due to the technical failure but remained calm and supported myself to the end.

Other participants
Japanese, great group of riders some adventure riders who used the time to maximum, some really good riders. #17 Tomoyasu Ikeda, Japanese endurochamp hired by main sponsor to be in top, but he crashed out day 2 hitting a ground wave in high. Two female riders who made it all the way overall quite good English.

Koreans, also a great group of riders a little bit more money and round belly's a few young guys on Rally converted 690 who needs a little more navigation experience and they will be quick in the future.

Mongols, majority really nice people and some of the riders are really fast and they have a great way of reading the landscape and take the shortest way between two points.

Organization overall a professional team, majority don't speak English and surprisingly nobody speaks Swedish the most popular language in Sweden. They selected a few translators for us and you can't complain if you get Mr Kenjiro Shinozuka 1997 winner of Dakar as your translator at all briefings.

Race structure I would like to see some more dune riding, and if they are really serious in promoting this rally as a race with fair competition they must include minimum 1 secret check point per stage.

Value for money well quite expensive compared with Tuareg, Albania, Hellas etc, but this rally is far more a adventure compared with Tuareg who is more like charter, the Mongolia landscape can't be described you must see it for your self.

Will I do it again, for sure if they add secret check points and I'm still in Mongolia next year. If anybody is seriously interested to join let me know.