Steve's Cycling Blog

Day two of off-road riding and it’s a shorter day, with fewer steep hills so I’m sure that people will be into camp in better time.

Stage 14 rider notes and elevation profile

Off with the sun and onto the first of the long steady climbs for the day. To begin with on gravel, but shortly after the multi-roads started and it was possible to select the smoothest of the dirt tracks heading in generally the right direction – eventually the track’ll link you back to where you want to be.

For an hour or so there was a head wind slowing us down, but thankfully that dropped away again and allowed us to continue on upwards. The downhill was less dramatic today (sadly) but none-the-less kept us moving.

The countryside’s changed again today – the hills are rockier and we’re starting to see trees along the watercourses, and there’s actually water in the creeks and rivers!

The last couple of riding hours and it was harder to stay off the gravel and on the smoother dirt tracks but it was worth going a few extra km along the way to do so!

This afternoon we’re camped just on the edge of Bulgan which is a reasonable sized town with it’s brightly coloured house roofs and the most prominent structure in town is a massive grain store.

We’ve still got three riding days to our next rest day but they’re relatively short (average of 115km) and it’s all tarmac which should help with progress.

Both my laptop battery and internet dongle are nearly out of battery, so that’s all for today!

Riding data