There were a couple of very cool endurance events that came to a close over the weekend with winners being crowned after days of racing in amazing, exotic locations.
First up, the inaugural Racing The Planet: Vietnam edition finished up after six days of stage racing across 250kn in a remote region of that country. Yesterday an awards ceremony was held in the Hanoi Hilton to crown Spaniard Salvador Calvo as the overall winner. Canadian Stephanie Case claimed the award for the top female competitor and Robyn Benincasa, Melissa Cleary, and Louise Cooper took home the team prize for Project Athena, the new philanthropic endeavor. You can check out the complete results, including stage winners by clicking here.
From the sounds of things, this was a very challenging event. The cool weather and rainy/muddy conditions took their toll on the racers, most of who had not competed in an environment like this one before. But on a good note, it also sounds like it was a pretty successful event, so expect to see more Racing The Planet races outside of their legendary 4 Desert series.
Speaking of challenging events, the first ever Trans-Mexicana mountain bike race also came to a conclusion yesterday, following seven days of racing from Mexico's Gulf Coast Westward to the Pacific Coast. In all, racers completed 700km of racing over rugged terrain with challenging climbs and massive drops, only to have the race decided on the final day and by less than a minute separating the top two finishers.
When the dust settled Lupillo Cruz took home the trophy, racing on his home turf, but not before he was pressed to the limit by Canaidan Cory Wallace, who stormed through a harrowing final ride that include him running into the side of a pick-up truck. You can read race reports from each staged, filed by Travis Macy of Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure, who finished third by the way, over at SleepMonsters.com.
Two very cool events with some amazing athletes. Hopefully they'll both become annual races.
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