The Silk Road Mountain Race is our attempt to showcase some of the most beautiful and wild areas of Kyrgyzstan. We strive to create the perfect setting for riders to test themselves against each other within this mountainous wilderness. This year we have a start that has only been featured once before, a few new wild additions and plenty of SRMR classics. The eight edition of the Silk Road Mountain Race will follow a 2,052 kilometre route with roughly 35,362 metres of elevation gain. It will start in Talas, in the northwest of Kyrgyzstan, and will finish in Cholpon Ata on the north shore of lake Issyk-Kul.

This is a year of superlatives and exploration but also one of continuity. It’s the longest ever route and features the most elevation gain by quite a solid amount. It also features only 20% of paved roads, even less than last year. At the same time it’s quite different from last year in that it's not quite as wild. We return to places that we haven’t been for a while but there is a little less out and out exploration.

The longest new section is around 150 kilometres of relatively untravelled wilderness that provides a new way to get from Baetov to the military checkpoint before Torugart. Unlike the long hike last year, this is all rideable, albeit rather steep at times. The final big addition and major challenge is a hike up and over Ukok pass, allowing us to pass by the rather picturesque Kok-Ulok lake. Otherwise, we have a pretty classic SRMR run into the finish over Kegeti and Kok-Ayrik passes to end the race once again in our favourite finish location: Cholpon Ata on the shores of Issyk-Kul. I think it’s a pretty balanced showcase of some of the best Kyrgyzstan has to offer to an intrepid bikepacker.