Nepal Action Asia 100km 3 day stage race by Sandro Gianella 2011

Finally back to civilization in Kathmandu after 3 days in the mountains where I had no connection and almost lost both of my phones (that's another story).

Here is my race report :

Pre-Race

After arriving in Kathmandu and check-in into the Hotel on Tuesday night I met with Alex Sybillain on Wednesday (Laos race winner and 2nd in Lijiang Action Asia Ultra) to get some training on Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday morning we left to the secret destination (Langtang National park from Kathmandu) and after a 6 hours bus ride we got stuck in the middle of the mountain by a landslide - everyone had to get off the bus and walk to the other side of the mountain and meet some other bus (truck) that will take us to the village of Dhunche. Unfortunately it started raining really hard and most of the people were not wearing their running shoes or any sort of hiking attire.

The walk ended up being about 15km to the village of Dunche were we arrived at 6 P.M. in the evening completely frozen by the very cold rain. Some that were trying to find shelter had the unfortunate experience of being bitten by some leeches. After arrival quick check-in in the 1 star hotel and briefing and straight to bed for a 4:00 A.M. Wake-up call and 5:00 A.M. race start.

Day 1 39 km

Start at 5:00 A.M. ( I woke up 12 minutes before the start...) fortunately i was all packed. We had a day which started by a 7km downhill road run and followed by another 7km trail run to the first checkpoint. Alex and I came first in 1:46 (Michael told us that we should be there in 2:15) so we managed to push the pace quite hard from the beginning. Right after the check point we got taken over by Claire Price and Cosmo Richards . Two minutes later Romain Riche also join the pack of 5 that ran together. I managed to hold on until the second Riverside check point (22km) and then Alex, Cosmo an Claire went ahead.   Next check point at Sherpagung was just before a climb to Rimche (a climb from 1890M to 2600 M straight up). I was steady and was about 3 minutes behind the leading group. We climbed further to the highest point of the day (2750M) and by then the leaders had about 10 minutes on me. Reached the last Kanjung check point before a 5km descent to Syafru Besi where I finished in 5H 50 minutes with only 3 minutes separating me from Alex S. and 23 minutes separating me from Cosmo and Claire.

Day 2 42km

Start at 5:30 A.M. we started running from Syafru Besi (1467m) on the road crossed a bridge and we started a long ascent to the first check point at Thuman (2338m) then to the top of Nagthali Ghyang (3165 meters). I was leading the pack with Alex and Claire (with poles) and Cosmo were not far behind us. They over took me an Alex managed to stay with them until the Top. I was just 2 minutes behind but I took a wrong turn at the top and had to run an extra 500 meter to the first checkpoint. I was only 3 minutes behind the leaders (Claire and Cosmo) then we stated a long downhill were I caught up with Alex and we ran all the way to check point 3 and the right behind us coming out of nowhere was Romain Riche who overtook us in the longdownhill to the Chilime (1762m) check point 3.  I got lost again at the end of the downhill and fortunately the checkpoint Marshall called me but I ran through a field full of nettles and my legs got completely red with the "bites" it was burning.

I remember giving NRP 500 to a guy and he gave me a scarf to thank me. After that we started a long uphill to check point 4 to Gatlang (2238m) it was getting a little hotter but i could see Alex and Romain in the distance. I was just on their heels at the entrance into Gatlang which was a very beautiful village full of the local nepalese just laughing and cheering us as we passed by their beautiful and simple village. I gave another NRP 500 to a kid who was trying to race with me up the stairs. After that we had about 6km on a long winding flat road until checkpoint 5 (Rongga Bhanjyang (2237m) before a nice knee breaking downhill I pushed as much as I could, but I was stuck behind cows and goats and couldn't overtake them until the farmer gave me the sign to overtake them. I probably lost a 3-4 minutes there... I reached the finish at Shyaphru (1467m) in about 6 hrs 30 minutes and I was absolutely knackered.

Day 3 14km

Start at 5:00 A.M. - I have to say that as soon as I got out of my room I could feel my legs not wanting to move as fast as I wanted them to. I had only 9 minutes over Romain and he was ready to give it a go. He sprinted right from the beginning and I tried to hold on for while until I decided to slowdown. Alex, Cosmo, Claire and Vivien (another French) passed me. I felt like my legs were about 1 ton each. I managed to get back some momentum after 45 minutes and pushed until the end in Dunche (1960m) to finish in 1 hr 33 Minutes. While Romain finished just in front of me by a few minutes. It was very close. At the end and after a long ride back to Kathmandu at the awards ceremony it worked out to be a tie which was fair between Romain and myself as we were just so close for 3rd place overall since he really ran hard on the last 2 days of the race. Day 3 course had to be changed due to landslides and would have meant people missing their same day flight if we did the original route so nobody complained. It also saved over an hour on the drive back which was an experience itself. 

It was a great race as Michael and Action Asia Event team really designed a beautiful course. I met some great people and my heart goes to the Nepalese who have welcomed us into their villages and really made this race a great one.

I was also very happy to be able to hang out with some of the racers on the Tuesday in Kathmandu before heading back to HK.

My legs are sore but it was worth it. - Heading back to Switzerland on Wednesday night - and hope to get some good rest and run in the mountains too :-)

For Team of Paris :

Result : 4th Overall - 3rd Men Overall - 2nd Men in the 30-39 Category.

Sandro

Nepal top 3 category winners after 3 day stage race

100km top 3 overall Men
Name – Team/Sponsor – Country – Time

1.    Cosmo Richards – (Chiru Raidlight) – Australia – 12:38:25
2.    Alexandre Sybillain – France – 13:31:53
3.    Sandro Gianella – (Team of Paris Lafuma) – Switzerland 13:52:01 / Romain Riche – France – 13:52:01
*Tie for 3rd place overall with Sandro Gianella and Romain Riche

100km top 3 overall Women

1.    Claire Price (Salomon Bonaqua Racing) – British – 12:47:12
2.    Nora Senn (Escapade) – Switzerland – 15:12:47
3.    Jinhwa Kim – South Korea - 17:13:25

60km top 3 overall Men

1.    Ian Daly – USA - 11:14:01
2.    Phillip Wallace – British - 12:17:25
3.    3. Loic Le Jannaou – Angry Snails – France - 12:47:55

60km top 3 overall Women

1.    Julia Schumacher-Anderson – Germany - 11:22:06
2.    Rachel Jacqueline – Australia - 12:21:40
3.    Alex Bidlake – British - 12:43:29