Hero MotoSports gets ready for the third round of the FIM cross-country rally championship, the Silk Way Rally. Starting today on July 1, the rally will be flagged off at Omsk in Russia and will end at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia on July 11. The rally will feature a total of 10 stages, and the riders will cover a total distance of 5400 km over the course of the rally. Franco Caimi, Joaquim Rodrigues and Sebastian Buhler make up the attack squad for the Indian team.
The Silkway Rally plays out its 11th edition for 2021 but it is on the FIM cross-country rally calendar only for the second time. Moreover, new routes have been added to the edition for this year. The Altai region of Russia and Mongolia and the Gobi desert in Mongolia are the two significant additions to the route. The demanding route of the Silk Way will cover approximately 5500km which include roughly 3500km of special stages. The first stage of the rally will start in Russia. This will act as warm up session as it consists of only 329km of special stage. By the time the teams enter Mongolia, the stages take a hostile turn and the timed sections stretch out between 340 and 540km at every stage. The new Silk Way route for 2021 shows a radical shortening of liaisons (untimed sections). The aggregate length of liaisons will make up only 37% of the total race distance which is a record figure in the history of the transcontinental Silk Way Rally.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the 10 stages of the race.
Stage One (July 2)
Omsk to Novosibirsk
Total Distance: 661km
Special Stage: 87km
Liaison: 574km
Stage Two (July 3)
Novosibirsk to Gorno-Altaisk
Total Distance: 566km
Special Stage: 132km
Liaison: 434km
Stage Three (July 4)
Gorno-Altaisk to Ulgii
Total Distance: 640km
Special Stage: 110km
Liaison: 120km
Stage Four (July 5)
Ulgii to Khovd
Total Distance: 370km
Special Stage: 340km
Liaison: 30km
Stage Five (July 6)
Khovd
Total Distance: 580km
Special Stage: 540km
Liaison B: 40km
Stage Six (July 7)
Khovd to Altai
Total Distance: 590km
Special Stage: 470km
Liaison: 120km
Stage Seven (July 8)
Altai
Total Distance: 440km
Special Stage: 370km
Liaison B: 70km
Stage Eight (July 9)
Altai to Bayankhongor
Total Distance: 507km
Special Stage: 490km
Liaison: 17km
Stage Nine (July 10)
Bayankhongor to Ulaanbaatar
Total Distance: 615km
Special Stage: 412km
Liaison: 203km
Stage Ten (July 11)
Ulaanbaatar
Total Distance: 473km
Special Stage: 467km
Liaison: 6km
Grand Total
Distance: 5442km
Special Stage: 3418km
Liaison: 2024km
Team KTM’s rider Sam Sunderland was the winner of the 2019 FIM Silk Way cross-country championship, Andrew Short of Husqvarna taking second and Adrien Van Beveren finishing third for Yamaha. Back then, Hero’s Oriol Mena finished sixth and Paulo Goncalves finished seventeenth out of the twenty two participants that year.
Currently, Ross Evan Branch of Yamaha leads the cross country rally championship by 25 points, followed by Matthias Walkner of KTM at 20 points and Adrien Van Beveren of Yamaha at 16 points. With participants from Yamaha, Hero, KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas lining up at the start, it will certainly be an interesting rally to follow. Stay tuned to our website and social media for updates about the Hero MotoSports team’s exploits!