It’s once again time to strap in for the Silk Way Rally, as the 11th edition of the off-road adventure departs from Omsk, Russia on July 1. A total of 10 timed special stages lie in wait before the chequered flag flies in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on July 11.
A varied course measuring over 5,000km will take the race convoy over mountains, deserts and steppes. It will be a brutal test for both competitors and their machines on perilous terrain and under a baking sun. New for this year is the race becoming part of the FIA Cross-Country Rallies World Cup, while it also remains on the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship calendar.
Before the starting pistol cracks, let's take a deep dive on what to expect from the 2021 Silk Way Rally.
A marathon in every sense of the word
No other discipline in the world of motorsports encapsulates pure adventure quite like rally-raid. Before the Silk Way Rally even starts, competitors must find their way to the Siberian city of Omsk. From there it's a trek of 5,250km to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, 2,850km of which are against the clock.
The race course takes in scenery as stunning as it is dangerous to traverse, with pitfalls waiting to catch out competitors on every leg of the rally. From the Altai Mountains to the Gobi Desert and across the seemingly endless Mongolian steppes, this will challenge racers both mentally and physical.
Adding to the stress of competitors is the 840km two-day marathon stagebetween Khovd and Altai, which comes halfway through the rally. This will see racers separated from their mechanics overnight and forced to carry out all necessary repairs themselves.
The latest Silk Way Rally course is the brainchild of former overall World Cup-winning skier Luc Alphand. After hanging up his skis, the Frenchman then made his mark in rally-raid, winning the Dakar Rally in 2006 behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi.
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Alphand knows what rally-raiders enjoy and what they don’t enjoy, and he's packed the route with a mixture of both.
"When preparing the route this year, we've learned and taken into account all the lessons of the previous years," he reported. "This helped us make it more interesting, complicated and diversified from the point of view of road surfaces and climatic zones, spectacular from the point of view of surrounding landscapes and, which is equally important for our racers, we've managed to shorten liaisons significantly."
Meet the fab 5 driving for KAMAZ
When legendary KAMAZ trucker Vladimir Chagin announced his retirement from racing after winning the 2011 Dakar Rally, it put his team at a crossroads. How do you replace a driver who's won seven Dakars in a decade? The answer was provided by Chagin himself, as he replaced himself not with one driver, but five – Eduard Nikolaev, Andrey Karginov, Ayrat Mardeev, Dmitry Sotnikov and Anton Shibalov
Since making his decision to retire, Chagin has blooded this new generation of KAMAZ talent. In the subsequent decade rally-raid truck races all over the world have been dominated by these five KAMAZ drivers. Among the honours collected by Chagin's squad in the last 10 years are eight Dakar wins and six Silk Way victories. All five of these former Silk Way-winning truck drivers are entered into this year's edition.
On the hunt for marginal gains
The quest for improvement never stops at the Russian headquarters of Team KAMAZ Master in Naberezhnye Chelny. It's part of what makes them such a feared opponent of other leading rally-raid truck manufacturers such as Maz, Renault, Iveco and Volvo.
Each year, subtle tweaks are made to the KAMAZ race truck to help its drivers maintain the edge over their rivals. From suspension settings to steering wheel columns, nothing is left to chance when the KAMA-43509 heads off to the desert to compete.
New for this addition of the Silk Way will be the K5 Cab on the race truck of current Dakar champion Dmitry Sotnikov.
Over in the bike race, there's a chance for 2015 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship winner Matthias Walkner to take the lead of this year's contest. The 2018 Dakar winner finished as runner-up to Ross Branch at Rally Kazakhstan, the opening round of the new season.
Walkner will be out to emulate fellow Red Bull KTM Factory Racing biker Sam Sunderland, who won the first-ever two wheel contest at the Silk Way in 2019. Sunderland misses out on the chance to defend his title however due to injuries sustained at Rally Kazakhstan.
Matthias Walkner at the start of the fourth stage of Kazakhstan Rally, around Aqtau on the Caspian Sea, on June 12, 2021.
It's a new challenge for me and it definitely looks like it will be a tough one
Making his debut as a Gas Gas factory rider in Kazakhstan was Daniel Sanders and he rewarded his new team with a fourth place finish. Now, Sanders will be targeting further championship points on his first trip to the Silk Way Rally. Stiff competition for the podium places is guaranteed from fellow factory riders representing Husqvarna, Yamaha and Hero, as well as Walkner on his KTM.
"My strength is definitely racing in sand," Sanders said ahead of his trip to Silk Way. "I hope we see plenty of that when we hit Mongolia."
Time to make a move
The Silk Way is an excellent opportunity for any biker wishing to make an impression on the 2021 FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. More points are up for grabs in Russia and Mongolia than at any of the other five rallies on the calendar this year.
The edition also sees the race become part of the seven-round FIA Cross-Country Rallies World Cup for the first time. Expect to see movement in the T1, T3 and T4 Drivers' Championship when the points are tallied up in Ulaanbaatar on July 11.
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