The 11th Hero MTB Himalaya came to a grand finish earlier this month after the riders were put through grueling stages on the high altitude terrains. The race saw a few injuries and crashes during the early stages and in the end only 54 out of the 88 riders completed the race.
Even though our Indian riders performed better than last year, that wasn’t enough to stop the European riders who clearly dominated the race right from the start. Portuguese rider Luis Leao Pinto, who remained in lead right from day one till the end, won the 11th Hero MTB Himalayan Edition 2015 in the open men’s Solo category and also stood first overall. Pinto was also crowned the King of Himalayas for the 2nd time after winning the MTB Himalaya in 2013.
Catherine Williamson from the UK bagged the first place in the women’s solo category. Catherine shared her experience in a personal blog all though the race. Reimund Deitzen from Germany finished first in the master’s solo category. Reimund is a retired professional road cyclist with wins at reputed cyclo-cross championships in Europe.
In the team-of-two category, first prize went to Ajay Pandit Chettri and Bhuddhi Bahadur Tamang from Nepal. Ajay and Bhuddhi pledged to donate 25% of their prize money to help build schools in Nepal as a part of the Nepal earthquake relief initiative.
More detailed information about the race and the results are available on the event website.
