Atakent - Toshkent - Cycling Simulator

The Tian-Shan Stone City Cup is bringing premium OCM cup-action to central Asia!

And as fans all over the world get accustomed to this new and exciting feature in the OCM-tour calendar, and have for the most part already fallen in love with this fast-paced action-loaded race-format, we will rightfully expect cycling-fans from all over Central Asia flocking to line the streets in and around the Uzbek capital city of Tashkent.

As the first major OCM multi-stage race of the wider region, a more fitting stage for writing history could hardly have been chosen. Let us indulge in the words of a wise wikipedia history-poet for a moment:
"Some scholars believe that a "Stone Tower" mentioned by Ptolemy and by other early accounts of travel on the Silk Road referred to this settlement ("Tashkent" means "stone city"). This tower is said to have marked the midway point between Europe and China."
However much time has passed since the days of the old great silk road gifted the region its first period of economic splendor, these words of an unknown author still call for a modern Homer-like hero's saga. As expectations rise, it is exactly such an hero's epos the riders taking on the roads around the modern capital build on ancient history and the slopes of the mighty Tian Shan mountains towering out over the wide plains in north-eastern direction, will hope to write with themselves starring in most prominent position.

At the start-line of the first stage, which will lead us toward the center of Tashkent, the spectacular heart-beat finales promisingly teasing on the horizon still appear worlds away.
The OCM-race-circus is gearing up on the small tree-lined roads of the small Kazakh border-town of Atakent. Friendly words are exchanged old friendships nourished - all under the watchful eyes of the local Babushkas (grannies). It is a familiarly atmosphere on a tree-shaded summer morning with light gusts of cooling air coming in from over the nearby lakes. It will be the very last of it for the kilometers still to come.

As we leave Kazakhstan for Uzbekistan after the first few kilometers, the roads widen significantly and shade will be a scarce commodity in the run towards Tashkent growing ever larger on the horizon. From about 70kms from the finish, the road will start to slope up ever so slightly which, however, will be hardly felt by the riders.

On this first stage of the Tian-Shan Stone City Cup positioning will trump technical skills on the run in towards the finishing line in front of the famous Barak-Chan Madrasa in the center of the city -
a symbol of Islam in the region and the 16th century equivalent of an eastern university, a center and symbol of academic excellence.

The soviet street infrastructure with its characteristically wide road-surfaces will leave their mark as we can expect a very fast sprint-finish in which positioning within the last 5km will be crucial as in the stretch to the line every bit of energy will be crucial when it all comes down to sheer power-output on the last few hundred meters of this first stage.