The very last stage of the Tian-Shan Stone City Cup will provide fireworks.
Stage 3 is a proper King Stage in the true meaning of the word. It will be the stage that will provide the decision of who is going to be crowned champion - who is going to be king of the Stone City for one season?
And once more the character of the race changes as we once more - and this time for good - leave the gates of Tashkent b...
Read moreThe very last stage of the Tian-Shan Stone City Cup will provide fireworks.
Stage 3 is a proper King Stage in the true meaning of the word. It will be the stage that will provide the decision of who is going to be crowned champion - who is going to be king of the Stone City for one season?
And once more the character of the race changes as we once more - and this time for good - leave the gates of Tashkent behind us.
The race has flirted with the slopes of the Tian-Shan mountains over the past two stages. Now, on the third stage, it is time to get serious. Thus, the road leaving Chirchiq on the outskirts of Tashkent straight north-east towards the high-towering mountains on the horizon.
The roads, however, on this stage are wide. All the way through the climbs between the Chorvoq Suv Ombori Basin and the Sairam-Ugam and the Ugam Chatkal National Parks topping out at over 1700m altitude; and even down the 60km plus 1200m alt. downhill towards the finishing line.
The wide roads are, however, not to be mistaken for making it any easier on the riders. Quite on the contrary, really. Winds up here can be quite unpredictable. And as the course climbs around the bare slopes around the mentioned lake, a full turn of direction is made for the run in towards Quibray is made anyway. No matter how the wind-lottery on the tree-barren slopes the peloton will climb and decent on will play out, it wont make matters easier on the riders. The climbs that are to be mastered on this last stage are true grinders that just never seem to end.
In the end it will be all down to who has got the most left on this third and hardest stage of this energy-sapping race - as it should be. The strongest at the end of three stages will surely take this stage and the overall win.
- Remember how we talked about heroes stories that are were to be written on these roads around the old city on the great silk road? When this stage will finish in Quibray a new hero will have emerged. And - how is that for the epic nature of this race? - when the historic first edition of the Tian-Shan Stone City Cup came to an end in season 49, it was Pole Erazm D?bski that took both this thriller of a last stage and the over-all win.
And, as everything of this first Central Asian OCM-tour multi-stage race already sounded worth having epics written about it when it set out on the very first stage on the tree-shaded roads one summer morning in Atakent, the winner - of corse - had to be riding for the traditional local OCM team Tashkent Browncoats. It all sounds a bit cliché and like a story that couldn't have been scripted better, but you just got to love OCM racing and epic cup action!
Till we meet again in Central Asia on the roads around Tashkent next season for some more exhilarating cycling action!
