Justinas Leveika’s Silk Road Mountain Race looks almost inevitable, now that the race is finished.
He finished alone in Cholpon Ata at 01:56 on Sunday morning, 7 days, 16 hours, and 56 minutes after leaving the start in Talas.
But 4 hours and 24 minutes is maybe the number that stands out most. That’s how far behind Omar Martinello Justinas sat at the first checkpoint.
At that point, the rider who would eventually dominate Silk Road was buried in the chasing pack and looking rough enough that other riders were commenting on it. That came after Justinas had spent the build-up talking down his own preparation.
He had a sizeable gap to close and several of the strongest riders in the field still clustered around him.
Less than 500 kilometres later, everything had reversed.
A nineteen-hour swing
The section between CP1 and CP2 is where the 2026 Silk Road Mountain Race was really decided.