SRMR 2026 Day 9: A Parallel Universe

Day nine of the Silk Road Mountain Race, and the cutoff for CP3 is looming. Riders arriving are salt-stained and the fatigue is setting in — peeling faces, wrecked lips, bodies ripped thin on Coca-Cola and M&Ms, one pair swollen with altitude sickness, another kept awake all night by cows licking their tent. We hear from them washing kit and hosing down bikes, still lost in the strange parallel universe of following a little blue line for ten days straight.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Nina Holtrup — Cap 212A
• Verena Walter — Cap 212B
• Philly Koehli — Cap 218A
• Bill Mulligan — Cap 218B
• Niek Bloks — Cap 19
• Antti Laaksonen — Cap 220A
• Teemu Lemmettylä — Cap 220B
• Toon Roebben — Cap 147
• Tom Gibbs — Cap 63
• Stephane van Rooyen — Cap 178
• Anirudh Dagar — Cap 41
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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 Danil Usmanov

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