Team Southeast Asia’s climb up the leaderboard proves slow, but the mood remains positive

• Joint 16th at end of Day Two
• Team Southeast Asia passes South Korea
• Loses one place to all-female team

MAE SARIANG, THAILAND — Team Southeast Asia enjoyed a day in which the basic elements of the GS Trophy 2016 came together nicely. The riding and landscape both proved spectacular, as competitors rode a most off-road route from Mae Hong Son to Mae Sariang in northern Thailand.

The steep climbs and dusty tracks took riders through rural padi country, tough sections of rocky terrain and a narrow, 20cm-wide strip of ground with a steep drop-off on one side.

A ditch claimed Malaysian Faizal Sukree when he entered a corner slightly too hot, but both bike and rider emerged unscathed from the trip off the course.

But as always, it was the daily challenges that counted with the teams’ placing. Day Three involved three that gave the 19 three-member teams chances to score points.

The first was the photo contest in which teams uploaded their favourite photo for the public to vote on.

The team’s shot (above) proved the sixth most popular, nabbing them a hefty 15 points.

The other challenges involved a quiz within a bamboo forest, and a start-stop contest that saw riders have to cover a set distance and brake inside a box in the quickest possible time.

At day’s end the team’s total points tally reached 58, enough to stay tied with Team Austria-Switzerland in joint 16th place. The All-Female Team finished one place higher with 59 points, while Team South Korea, which has dropped to last. The four teams had been tied on Day Two.

“Today was a good day,” said Peerpat Woratham, the team’s Thai member. “The track was good, and for the exercises we did well. But the other teams did better than us!”

South Africa continues to lead with 124 points , with Latin America’s win at the photo contest helping them to vault to second place on 108 points.

On Wednesday night a second photo contest will give you another chance to boost Team Southeast Asia’s chances, but until then the members are looking forward to a big points haul tomorrow, with three Special Stages (or points challenges) taking place.

“For tomorrow, our approach will be the same: relax, don’t make mistakes, and wait for others to make the mistakes,” said Faizal Sukree.

“We’re improving our position; if we keep this up we’ll get to the top. But the only problem is, we’re running out of days!” said Tommy Lee, the team’s Singapore representative. “We have to do a giant leap forward, but I think today we improved as a team.”

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GS Trophy 2016 Day Two: Southeast Asia overtakes Japan
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