Raid-de-Himalaya truncated

For most of participants, it seemed like a mad dream. After having traversed through one of the toughest...

For most of participants, it seemed like a mad dream. After having traversed through one of the toughest terrains in the Himalayas, covering about 800 km which included the Jalori Pass, Rohtang Pass and Kumzum-La, it all came to an abrupt end.

Owing to heavy snowfall and inclement weather, the eight-day Raid-de-Himalaya was truncated at the halfway stage at Patseo.

After completing the third stage from Kaza to Patseo, the participants were faced with adverse conditions at the Patseo-Baralach La leg of the event. About 250 people, including officials and drivers, had to be rescued from Patseo and were taken to Keylong.

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The rally organisers, Himalaya Motorsports, decided to call off the event at Patseo.

Now the rally’s last stage will be held from Keylong to Manali tomorrow, and the prize distribution function will be held on Sunday.

There were 122 drivers in three categories in the rally — Xtreme, Adventure and Bike (adventure). On the first day, 48 bikes started from Shimla, but there were only 20 left for the second leg which ended at Kaza. Only 15 out of the 38 cars were left for the second leg. At the end, 10 cars in the Xtreme category were in the fray, while 14 bikes were left in the same category.

Yesterday’s leader Suresh Rana was leading the pack in the Xtreme category for cars while Ashish Maudgill was the leader among the bikes.

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All participants, service crew and officials are presently at various rescue centres set up at Keylong, Jispa and Koksar. The rally was originally scheduled to go through Shimla, Manali, Kaza, Patseo, Leh, Srinagar, Kargil and end in Srinagar on October 8.

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