Thanks to Westx1000 for bringing coverage of the Silk Way Rally to the digital pages of Motorcycle.com.
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Stage 5: From Russia with Love
Racers Joust for Rally Raid?s Hand at the Silk Way?s Final Stage
It?s about 90-degrees and humid in Gorno-Altaysk. There?s no reprieve from the sun, the dust or the insects. Even the native spectators seemed to stir a bit in discomfort, not accustomed to the global heatwave in the northern hemisphere. A significant portion of adult men stripped down to the buff, generously covering their bits with tattered cloth believed to be their underwear. Any sane human is asking themselves why they?re here. Why put up with harsh conditions, oppressive flights [read: Charles de Gaulle airport], lengthy liaisons, sleepless nights" The list goes on. The common denominator tying together all these people, beckoning them to suffer in unison, can?t be masochism alone. It?s more like lust, adoration, obsession even. If love makes you do stupid things, then rally raid is the high-maintenance mistress who makes you carry loads of luggage, lay on a puddle so her Louboutins won?t get dirty or stay up all night dealing with mood swings. Her glory is not your glory, yet you?re revitalized when you bathe in her radiation, no matter how much it hurts. Waking up with mystery abrasions is a familiar symptom of a romance with risk. And even with an abridged roster, there were still plenty of infatuated idiots ready to grapple for her, the S...