Sneddon and Tserenlham win stage 9

Image 1 of 5

Racing resumed today at the 2012 Mongolia Bike Challenge after a day of severe weather conditions cancelled yesterday's stage.

"Stage 9 turned out to be one of the best stages of the whole race. Having seen the effort of the MBC organization to keep this race rolling, we made sure we up kept our part of the deal and had one of the hardest days of racing yet," said race leader Cory Wallace (Kona).

"It started out with myself sneaking in an early morning warm-up and then driving the pace out of the gun as the other riders tried to get there cold bodies back into race mode," said Wallace. "My teammate Kris Sneddon followed this up with some solid efforts up the first climbs and all of a sudden we had a race on our hands."

It was hot and dry on the 105-kilometer course that took riders from their lush grassland camp into the pre-desert that separates the mountains from the Gobi Desert.

Pau (Team Buff) tried a few attacks with Barry Wicks (Kona) retaliating with one of his own. The only difference with Barry's attack was it stuck. Wicks put three minutes on the rest of the pack after the first 40 kilometers and was looking especially strong on the climbs.

Around the 50 kilometer marker, Carter Hovey (MBC-Orbea-SMP) took off as well, pulling one minute ahead of the other two Kona riders, Kris Sneddon and Cory Wallace. Around the 75-kilometer marker, Wicks made a wrong turn and lost his spot at the front of the pack. Sneddon moved into the lead and eventually won the stage. He was followed by Hovey in second and Wallace in third.

"It was a rough day as my body was not firing on all cylinders while Pau and Carter were putting in huge efforts to break us," said Wallace. "In the end Kris Sneddon would power away for the win with Carter and I rolling in two-three with Pau few seconds behind."

"The day ended up being probably the hardest fought stage all race and the course was top notch," said Wallace. "It was almost unthinkable that this day could occur when just 24hr earlier we were stranded out in the middle of Mongolia with no known way out."

In the women's race, Solongo Tserenlham of Mongolia made up more time on the leaders by winning today's stage but not enough to pass current leader, Liesbeth Hessens of Belgium.

The last stage of the MBC will run tomorrow, ending 90km later in Karakorum outside the historic Erdene Zuu monastery.

Full Results