SRMR 2026 Day 3: Son Kul

Three days into the eighth Silk Road Mountain Race, we climb to three thousand meters and the still, impossibly blue shore of Lake Son Kul, where Checkpoint 1 sits waiting at the yurt camp of Sarybulak. The riders arrive late into the night off the brutal push up Tuz Ashuu — salt-stained, nosebleeds and cut sleep behind them, the day's forty-three-degree heat traded for four degrees and hard wind on the passes above the lake. We hear from riders arriving day and night, and what it's taken to get here.

Riders featured:

• Mateo Paez — Cap 217B
• Theo Kelsey-Verdecchia — Cap 217A
• Stéphane Logerot — Cap 102
• Tsvetan Ivanov — Cap 215A
• Dimitar Mihaylov — Cap 215B
• Virgile Dana — Cap 43
• Emma Missale — Cap 210B
• Sean Geivett — Cap 210A
• Markus Barden — Cap 14
• Sven Brenner — Cap 26
• Jimmy Grade — Cap 65
• Cynthia Carson — Cap 30
• Tom Schwemberger — Cap 156
• Felipe Duque — Cap 52

Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Stephen Shelesky

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