Last week I participated in MTB Himalaya, an 8 day race around Himachal Pradesh in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Was great fun and you can read all about my experience here.

Cheers, Rich

Mountain biking, lovely scenery and a baby monkey on an adult monkeys back. Looks good to me!

How many different nationalities entered this event? also how much was the overall cost?

Most of the folk attending lived in India, apart from 2 Canadians who had flown there especially for the event, and an Uzbekistani who is on a big cycle tour and had ridden from Bangladesh (now currently in Nepal).

Of the ex-pats there were French, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, and British.

Might have missed out one or 2, but that was mainly it.

About 75 participants for the weekend, of which 32 continued for the whole week.

Cost to enter was 25,000 Indian Rupees, so pretty much exactly £300, another £21 ish for the return coach between Delhi and Shimla, plus whatever other flights you needed, mine were about £150 from Hyderabad.

3rd in my category, 3rd overall and best DH rider meant that the prize money more than covered the cost!

Cheers, Rich

Cool!

It’s good to see lots of countries getting into mountain biking, I feel that the expansion of the MTB culture should have taken place 10 years ago, still better late than never.

What are the people like in India and do you need to be careful of the water etc, any dangers?