Leh (3500m) to Khardung La (5359m) - bike race

I am Polish, and last years I was living in Dresden. In both of those places the floods happened. More over all my knees doctors were saying that biking is the best sport for me. I guess those two reason convince me to participate in the FIRST ever bike race from Leh to the highest motorable pass - Khardung La. The way is 39 km and constantly is ascending for almost 2000m. The race was organize in order to help the flood victims.

So I decided to joined.

Start line.
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My own aim was to get to the pass on the bike, no matter how long this would take. The day before I manage to find big enough bike for me - which I named Khar (from the place that we were suppose to go together). It was not spectacular bike, but the lower gears worked properly, and it had working V-breaks. On Sunday 7-o'clock in the morning 32 participants gather (both locals and tourists). Apparently I was the only participant from Poland. There was quite a bit of media coverage of our race, there were three different film craws.

Before 8 o'clock we started. The first 20 km were surprisingly easy. I was going with my own speed and did not have to stop for the breathing breaks. There was not many cars on the road, but soon I realize that i do not really see anyone in front of me or behind me.

On my way up.
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Every 10 km there were people standing and were providing some basic refreshment. It was really organize like a race!!! Than the tiredness kicked in a bit and after 25th km the quality of the road decreased, there was no more asphalt, but predominantly sand and stones, more over the road got a bit more steeper. But the most tiring were the last 10 km. The road got really bad, I was getting really tired and the concentration of the oxygen in the air dropped a lot. The closest to the end, the most often I had to make some breathing breaks. And finally there was the end, together with my Khar we manage to climb to Khardung La.