Hero MotoSports gears up for the FIM Silk Way Rally

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!