The 70 finishers of the 2019 Silk Road Mountain Race

As one of six official race photographers, I stayed in Cholpon-Ata to photograph all the finishers. The three control cars were on the course and more photos can be found on the PEdALED Silk Road Mountain Race website and Instagram.

Before the finish, all the riders must tackle Kok-Ayrik — it is the final pass and a new addition to the PEdALED Silk Road Mountain Race. An excerpt from this year’s race manual: “Its main difficulty lies in the quality of the road. This varies from really quite good at times, to utterly destroyed. There are many sections where landslides have completely obliterated the road. There will be quite a lot of walking as you pick your way over the rocks. The descent may well also be rather frustrating as the rough road and landslides will prevent you from cruising down to a lakeside finish. Please note that this was not sadism on our part but rather a means of finishing the race at the lake and avoiding the main road. The pass is also really quite scenic!”

The last 65 km (40 miles) took no less than seven hours and I don’t anyone really anticipated the difficulty of the pass, despite the manual description. There is service in Cholpon-Ata and thankfully it was possible to track every rider as they approached the finish. This resulted in riders arriving at the finish at all hours of the day and night. Some had camped before the pass, on the pass or ridden through the night. I would set periodic phone alarms in anticipation of when riders would arrive at the finish. It was always a guessing game. For some, the last 20 km of road took longer than anticipated — they were dealing with punctures and one rider rolled in after riding on the rim. A few others stopped along the home stretch to grab some ice cream.

I didn’t want to miss anyone and there was always someone to greet the finishers, whether those were the volunteers, other riders, Nelson’s parents or Nelson. Sometimes I would wake up Jakub Sliacan and Lael Wilcox so they could greet some of the night finishers per their request. It was an honor to be at the finish and share in such a special moment with all the riders. There were a lot of emotions and I’m happy to have captured some of it. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.

To wrap up our coverage of the 2019 PEdALED Silk Road Mountain Race, here are portraits of all 70 finishers in the order in which they finished. Below each portrait, find their nationality, completion time, and an Insstagram link to their profile (when applicable). Attention finishers, if you’d like to download your photo as a keepsake, find it in one of these Dropbox folders: Solo / Pair / Pair-Single

1st Solo Jakub Sliacan

7 days, 6 hours and 46 minutes

Nationality: Slovakia  |  

2nd Solo Lael Wilcox

7 days, 15 hours and 23 minutes

Nationality: United States  |  

3rd Solo Jay Petervary

8 days, 11 hours and 21 minutes

Nationality: United States  |  

4th Solo James Mark Hayden

8 days, 15 hours and 44 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

5th Solo Jeff Kerkove

8 days, 16 hours and 32 minutes

Nationality: United States  |  

6th Solo Francisco Montoya Ramirez

9 days, 9 hours and 18 minutes

Nationality: Spain  |  

7th Solo Lieven Schroyen

9 days, 9 hours and 55 minutes

Nationality: Belgium  |  

8th Solo Luca Petrinka

9 days, 14 hours and 10 minutes

Nationality: Italy  |  

attachment_62375

9th Solo Marin de Saint-Exupéry

9 days, 17 hours and 59 minutes

Nationality: France  |  

10th Solo Stephen Wyatt

9 days, 20 hours and 40 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

11th Solo Klaus Thiel

9 days, 22 hours and 6 minutes

Nationality: Germany  |  

attachment_62378

12th Solo Miles Carlson

9 days, 22 hours and 51 minutes

Nationality: Canada

13th Solo Petr Jirousek

10 days, 11 hours and 40 minutes

Nationality: Czech Republic

14th Solo Jesse Crocker

10 days, 13 hours and 5 minutes

Nationality: United States  |  

15th Solo Martin Novak

10 days, 14 hours and 7 minutes

Nationality: Czech Republic

16th Solo Frédéric Chambosse

10 days, 20 hours and 33 minutes

Nationality: France  |  

17th Solo Stu Taylor

11 days, 3 hours and 14 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

18th Solo Dan Hunt

11 days, 5 hours and 43 minutes

Nationality: Australia  |  

19th Solo Eric Scaggiante

11 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes

Nationality: Italy  |  

20th Solo Max Riese

11 days, 7 hours and 44 minutes

Nationality: Germany  |  

21st Solo Brian Anderson

11 days, 11 hours and 50 minutes

Nationality: New Zealand

22nd Solo Oleg Sobko

11 days, 12 hours and 20 minutes

Nationality: Kyrgyzstan

23rd Solo Hayden Stevens

11 days, 13 hours and 4 minutes

Nationality: Australia  |  

24th Solo Patrick Miette

11 days, 20 hours and 52 minutes

Nationality: France  |  

25th Solo Stuart Edwards

12 days, 4 hours and 57 minutes

Nationality: Australia  |  

26th Solo Brandon Camarda

12 days, 6 hours and 6 minutes

Nationality: United States  |  

27th Solo Beat Heim

12 days, 6 hours and 25 minutes

Nationality: Switzerland  |  

28th Solo Raphael Albrecht

12 days, 6 hours and 45 minutes

Nationality: Germany  |  

29th Solo Scott Fisk

12 days, 9 hours and 53 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

30th Solo František Kasanič

12 days, 11 hours and 50 minutes

Nationality: Slovakia  |  

31st Solo Nareshkumar Kondur Nagabhushan

12 days, 13 hours and 30 minutes

Nationality: India  |  

32nd Solo Berten De Canne

12 days, 13 hours and 39 minutes

Nationality: Belgium  |  

33rd Solo Brendan Hills

12 days, 21 hours and 13 minutes

Nationality: Australia  |  

34th Solo Guy Jennings

13 days, 4 hours and 23 minutes

Nationality: South Africa  |  

35th Solo Markus Stitz

13 days, 7 hours and 3 minutes

Nationality: Germany  |  

36th Solo Tobias Fok

13 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

37th Solo Karl Speed

13 days, 12 hours and 7 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom

38th Solo Bjorn Devogelaere

13 days, 14 hours and 41 minutes

Nationality: Belgium  |  

39th Solo Ben Hudson

13 days, 16 hours and 29 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

40th Solo Lamar Timmins

14 days, 3 hours and 52 minutes

Nationality: Canada  |  

41st Solo Chris Phillips

14 days, 4 hours and 3 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

42nd Solo Bengt Stiller

14 days, 6 hours and 55 minutes

Nationality: Germany  |  

43rd Solo Malik Alymkulov

14 days, 8 hours and 59 minutes

Nationality: Kyrgyzstan  |  

44th Solo Conan Thai

14 days, 11 hours and 35 minutes

Nationality: United States  |  

45th Solo Örs Kelemen

14 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes

Nationality: Romania

46th Solo Andrea Dell’Oste

14 days, 13 hours and 57 minutes

Nationality: Italy  |  

1st Pair Ernie & Scotti Lechuga

9 days, 20 hours and 4 minutes

Nationality: United States  |   

2nd Pair Loreto Garcia Fuentes & David Garcia Galvan

10 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes

Nationality: Spain

3rd Pair Michal Plata & Christian Holweck

10 days, 20 hours and 33 minutes

Nationality: Germany  |   

4th Pair Marika Wagner & Sue Paz Thunström

11 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes

Nationality: Sweden  |   

5th Pair David Binns & Ben Brooks

12 days, 3 hours and 24 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom (David Binns) & Ireland (Ben Brooks)  |  

6th Pair Daniel Ralaus & Štefan Pinčák

12 days, 3 hours and 53 minutes

Nationality: Slovakia

7th Pair David Sear & Stefan Amato

12 days, 16 hours and 38 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom  |   

8th Pair Christopher & Michael Lapcevic

12 days, 17 hours and 50 minutes

Nationality: Costa Rica (Christopher) & Canada (Michael)  |  

9th Pair Valerie O’Donnell & John Knapp

13 days, 14 hours and 13 minutes

Nationality: United Kingdom

10th Pair Tim & Brett van Coller

14 days, 4 hours and 16 minutes

Nationality: South Africa

Fabio Lucantoni

continued riding after his partner scratched — 12 days, 18 hours and 7 minutes.

Nationality: Italy  |  

Ciaran Mullan

continued riding after his partner scratched — 13 days, 7 hours and 16 minutes.

Nationality: United Kingdom  |  

David van Eerd

continued riding after his partner scratched — 14 days, 3 hours and 46 minutes.

Nationality: Netherlands  |  

Tai BL

continued riding after his partner scratched — 14 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes.

Nationality: Australia  |  