Silk Road Mountain Race (SRMR)

Thanks all. that last climb was a monster, the steep bit was a 6h push and climb up scree.

2020 for sure

Well done mate! Phenomenal ride, I am glad you processed what happened and kept riding your race regardless.

This guy. You were amazing!

Well done skinny! A phenomenal ride!

This inverview of Jakub is quite cool too:
https://bikepacking.com/plog/jakub-sliacan-srmr-interview/

• Would just like to run, but is often injured and can't, hence cycling
  
• Thought of racing TCR too, but don't like to ride on the road
  
• Would go and win Tour de France if was a brilliant cyclist, but is not, and is stuck doing SRMR which has lots of variables to being competitive that has nothing to do with cycling
  
• Won't cycle at night. Tried it on the last night, but won't do it again.
  
• Convinced he's dad to buy a Wahoo Roam himself so could borrow it to the SRMR.
  
• Has a PhD in mathematics.
  

Apart from that, I made the mistake of not servicing the fork before coming here and I didn’t have time to send it to Fox. After two days it essentially lost its suspension and was very stiff and noisy. The sounds were quite painful, like something was being damaged

Yikes

You’d blow through the service interval in a few days anyway. The mistake was not replacing the fork with something else!

Good interview, Jakub is a great winner. Very humble in the interview, but what an achievement as a first race. 7/8 hour sleeps too.

FFS...I won't bother now then!

I rode and spike with him up arabel pass on the eastern most side of the route. He couldnt understand why he was up front. Such a nice guy and so strong. As we reached the switch back he stood up and danced off, I was left pushing without legs to follow. It was no surprise to me he won having seen that. I only ever witnessed such prowess from one other racer, Geoffrey dussault.

Well deserved and a wonderful guy.

I liked "It’s a carbon Merida 29er with two wheels and a bar at the front"
Funny, down to earth guy! :)

Canyon stripped my rock shox after ht550, they commented that for 5 days of rain it actually looked really good and didnt need a service, but did anyway.

Worth it for the view

Great ride

Congrats @skinny, amazing ride. What was the vibe like with Lael & Jay at the end?

Such a humble person. Loved the interview. A clear example of ordinary people doing incredible things.

I would stress so much about gear and preparation, he just went for it. (After a well thought out VO2 max oriented training apparently)

As we reached the switch back he stood up and danced off, I was left pushing without legs to follow

Darn!

No idea, I dont involve myself in gossip.

They're both nice people and I've enjoyed talking with both.

So nice to see Ben Hudson is still riding! Singlespeeding all the way! :)

And Marin de Saint Exupery who rode his bike out to Kyrgyzstan before the start.

Just saw the post on insta, been busy all day. Mega congrats @skinny !

Have some #rep @skinny
Amazing as ever!

Reminds me of Goran Kropp

I've just been away for a long weekend so missed the run in to the finish, but typical fightback from @skinny, and great rides from his rivals.

A couple of days later, the main race still goes on! The three other guys I know are all now in the last 200km so may finish today or more likely tomorrow. Stu Edwards should get in tonight, 100km out. Chris Phillips and Karl Speed are both about 100km further back: Chris has been fighting a chest infection, but should nail it after last year's DNF, and Karl seems to have got over his latest mechanical. He had a broken hanger - I think it had ripped right off rather than bent so not a simple replacement fix - not far from the start. He then fixed that and yesterday had a broken jockey wheel. He's bodged that and is moving again.

I think the party isn't until Saturday, so plenty of time for the mere mortal end of the field to get a placed finish.

Apparently Karl Speed was also knocked off the road purposely by a car driver :/

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Let's hope that dickhead crashes into a tree.

Wow. That sounds like a lucky escape if he only ended up with grazes?

What could the motive have been (apart from obvious possible assumptions)?