winners and we should enjoy every moment of it. We’re
looking forward to meeting fellow riders from across the
world and sharing our stories and making new friends.”
It’s this comradery that makes the BMW Motorrad In-
ternational GS Trophy such a special event.
Day One of the Trophy started under cold conditions,
just 10 degrees Celsius after overnight rain and wind, ev-
eryone donning their rain gear, prepared for what might
come.
One hundred kilometres down the highway and the
temperature had already double and so had the intensity.
The competitors took to the first gravel trails and found
that out here the roads can quickly turn to sand. It was a
new experience for many and with it came the inevitable
‘offs’. Welcome to Mongolia.
The landscape was described as stunning and ‘moon-
like’, as the competition took them through the vast plains
of Mongolia, devoid of all human life, except for the odd
goat herder. This was a clear guide as to what the coming
week would throw at them.
Special Test 1 came at the competitors, throwing a
tough rocky loop at them. The riders having to manhan-
dle their bikes while fighting through the rocks and sand.
The course had to be completed as quickly as possible
with time penalties handed to those that put feet down,
dropped the bike or ran outside of the course.
As the first day neared its end “Magic Cliffs” or SP2 was
presented. An on-foot exercise in navigating waypoints
using a GPS, each waypoint contained letters to make a
word for bonus points. The 100 metre high cliffs ensured
that no team would find this exercise easy, especially
within the allotted 20 minutes.
Eleven hours after the day started the teams found
themselves in camp at Tsagaan Survaga and still had to
setup camp, prepare their bikes and get ready for day two.
It had been a tough challenge yet, this was merely just a
warm up.
“We turned on to the trail, crested a rise and it was sand
and gravel hills for as far as the eye could see – suddenly
it all got very real!”, laughed Jocelin Snow of Team Aus-
america.
“It was my and Bettina’s (Nedel) first ride in sand. We
fell a few times, but we look at this way: when we’re done
on day eight we’ll have this sand riding figured out, kinda
the way when you get to 78 you have life figured … !”
The days events saw Team USA on top narrowly from
Argentina and Korea.
Day 2 dawned with the knowledge that 190km of the
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