Top 10 finish for Hero MotoSports Team at Silk Way Rally 2019

Hero MotoSports Team has announced the results of the Silk Way Rally 2019 and the team achieved a top ten finish in the overall rankings this season. The Silk Way Rally is one of the esteemed cross-country competitions in the world and the nomenclature represents the Eurasian nature of the rally which connects the countries in the ancient Silk Route. The first edition of the Silk Way rally took place in 2009 and from 2010 to 2013 around one thousand racers have completed representing 30 countries on the rally. In 2016, to emphasize diplomatic relations the rally route for the first time in history crossed through Russia, Kazakhstan and China from Moscow to Beijing, making the Silk Way rally, transcontinental. 

This year, the rally was flagged off from Irkutsk in Russia on 6th July and concluded in the town of Dunhuang in China on 16th July. The year 2019 is particularly important because it celebrates 10 years of the rally’s commencement. This year the route chosen, was one of the most challenging ones and the route was being developed and recced for more than half a year. 

For the Hero MotoSports Team, Oriol Mena finished in the sixth position while the team’s second rider Paulo Goncalves finished at the 15th position in his first race for the Hero MotoSport Team. Oriol Mena rode consistently during the entire rally and achieved three stage podiums, including the team’s maiden stage win on the world championship stage. Paulo Goncalves had a strong first race with the team and swept four stage podiums in the 10 stage rally. But an unfortunate mechanical failure in stage six deprived him of a more commendatory result.

With the conclusion of stage ten which was in the Chinese city of Dunhuang, the rally stage took the riders for a final run of 556 km including the special 255 km section.