2008-07-06

The last stage of the MTB adventure in Inner Mongolia has now come to its end. The last and longest stage was the sunniest and warmest stage of them all. The leader Martin Breuvart was together with Darren Benson outstanding in the men’s race just as in the earlier stages. Darren that had to beat Martin with eight seconds to win the total, won today’s stage, but since the gap was only one second, the MTB king of Inner Mongolia is still Martin Breuvart from France.

However, there is not only a MTB king, there is also a queen of MTB in Inner Mongolia, her name is Liu Tao Tao, and she won all three stages with huge gaps to her competitors. Esther Ruth Hautle from Switzerland that advanced from 4th place in the first stage to 3rd in the second stage, did today beat Zheng Rufang with almost three minutes and came 2nd. However, in the total, she was placed third after Zheng Rufang that also made an excellent event all the way through.

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With many good memories from the last days, some of the bikers are packing their bags to get back to their daily responsibilities. Hopefully they will be back for next year, the big champion; Martin Breuvart that is moving back to France, after spending a few years in Shanghai says that he will definitely try to come back to Inner Mongolia next year.

The wonderful people in Xi Wu Qi spent another day on the city square to welcome the bikers to the finish. Tomorrow will be another long day for them, but that time for cheering the marathon runners that will discover the grasslands and Xi Wu Qi by foot.