Stage 8 cancelled due to extreme conditions

Stage 8 of the Mongolia Bike Challenge was cancelled due to extreme weather. Below is an account from race leader Cory Wallace:

"Due to massively flooding rivers the 2012 Mongolia Bike Challenge was rerouted yesterday on a transfer none of us will forget. As a result stage 8 was exchanged for a 12hr transfer over a high mountain route the organizers had never been before. Our convoy of 13 Russian 'Westfalia-style' vans, five monster trucks and a tired Land Cruiser undertook an epic day of crossing high rivers and glorious mountain passes.

"The first 5km of the 180km transfer took us over five hours. The day started off with the most reliable vehicle in our convoy, a newer Land Cruiser not starting and having to be hooked up and towed for the journey Next up was a monster truck getting stuck up to its nuts in a mud hole. Following that, we hit a roaring river which was pretty high to drive across and required every Russian van to be towed across separately by one of the monster trucks.

"As the Russian vans would hit the main current of the river they would lose footing in the rushing water and get swept downstream, dangling by the towline. It was a show. During this 2hr procedure, we had time to do another stellar yoga session with Ryan Leech, a game of frisbee, and then we walked around visiting Ger huts, tasting some foul cheese and Yak Milk.

"It looked like the MBC was on the edge of defeat but the organizers charged our convoy ahead and pulled off a huge feat and managed to carry on the race today. Willy, the MBC head organizer made a wise call on stopping our convoy at 6:00 pm after travelling a monumental 80 kilometres, well short of our destination. This allowed us racers to have a restful evening and enough time to be able to get ready for a race on stage 9. While us racers got our bikes together and shook off our travel legs, Willy and his crew set out into the night to scout out a race course. They rolled back into camp at 5:30 am, uploaded GPS tracks so we had a stage 9 course profile to look at, and then turned around and headed straight back out to set up the feed stations and flagging. It was an unreal effort."