The beauty of the desert
14 August, fifth stage. The day dawns cold and rainy, I feel right at home. Luckily there’s no wind, so despite the rain I’m in good spirits. Besides, tomorrow is a rest day, and tonight we sleep in a ger camp (no tent to pitch, yippee!!) and we’ll even have hot water. 125 kilometres separate us from the magnificent dunes of the Gobi; the following stages will take us north, through more mountainous country. At 7:30 in the morning we’re sent off, uphill all the way. I set off in high spirits and join a small group led by two Mongolians and an Austrian. We ride very fast over firm, rolling ground and reach the feed station at kilometre 40. That’s when I realise I’m quite far up, because these guys barely stop. So I grab my bottle of electrolytes, take a swig of Coca-Cola and off I go. A few kilometres on we enter a dry riverbed, a very tricky stony stretch that breaks the group up completely. Some go ahead and others drop back, while I get on the wheel of a very friendly Italian I’d stay with for several kilometres. The dry riverbed is followed by a rolling stretch from which we catch sight of the immense valley that leads to the sands of the Gobi. It’s one of those images that will stay etched in my mind for ever because of the sheer beauty of the landscape; the Italian and I can’t help laughing. Then we drop into another dry riverbed, much wider than the last. It’s incredible to see a riverbed 30 metres wide, dry now, which must carry a huge amount of water when the snow melts, judging by the state of the stones, ground down until they’ve turned into sand. The Italian drops back, so I ride on alone. I come out of the riverbed and stop at the last feed station, take off some clothes and launch into the last part of the stage, a stony track sloping gently downhill. To the left, the line of Gobi sands. To the right, the mountains. And camels everywhere. Here’s a photo the organisation’s journalists took of me.
I feel great today, and the MMR Koans Carbon full-suspension bike I’m riding for the first time behaves perfectly. I overtake loads of people on hardtails; you can tell they can’t bear their backsides on the saddle any more. I stay seated, pedalling hard. 5 km to go, I see a Mongolian in the distance and push a bit to see if I can catch him. With 4 to go I reach him; the poor guy is wrecked. Finally, after 5 hours and 45 minutes, I reach the finish, at a ger camp called Gobi Discovery Ger Camp. 20th on the stage and 31st overall. Although, looking out over the landscape and the vastness of the Gobi, my position hardly matters, does it?
In the afternoon they drive us to the dunes. The line of dunes seems endless, and it’s incredibly high. Back in the day, the dunes in Morocco seemed huge to me. Now they’re no more than a beach next to this spectacle. Sitting there, looking at the mountains, the camels and the beautiful blue sky, I realise that I couldn’t be in a better place and that all the hardships were proving worth it.