GS Trophy 2018 Mongolia – Day 7 Recap
Two entertaining special stages through even more beautiful landscapes.

Day 7 of the 2018 BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy saw a return to normal service as the GS riders again took to the off-road trails of Mongolia. Beautiful pistes were ridden that offered a natural flow to the riding while the scenery, as always, delighted. In the morning, the riders ascended a mountain saddle which opened onto a wide plain with a wonderfully open but snaking track. In the afternoon came a ride in the valleys, through verdant green pastures between rocky mountain ridges. “This was the best day of riding, hands down,” AusAmerica says team member Jocelin Snow. “There is beauty in every direction you look.”
Yesterday (Day 6) had been a historic one, as for the first time a female team were the overall winners on the day. Team Ausamerica had placed equal first in the time trial then mastered the archery challenge in the evening, taking the runner-up to give them the day win overall. This followed the first female challenge win that Team Eurafrica had scored earlier in the week. The female teams have certainly found their feet and are proving more than equal to the male teams.
Today, however, was all about the tricolor of Team France as they smashed the first challenge of the day, a slow race, with an innovative approach where they linked their three bikes (placing feet on each others’ crash bars) and thus braced could inch along, or stand perfectly still almost indefinitely – clever thinking! Team USA managed to take second place while Team AusAmerica had an unfortunate setback in the slow race when team member Julia Maguire lost her balance and put a foot down. “I won my first slow race when I was 10 years old, I can’t believe I could not pull it off this time,” says Julia.
Team France backed up their impressive win in the slow race with clever riding too, as they later won the afternoon’s special test — the Shell Challenge — which required them to ride a trials course two-up, with the passenger carrying two petrol cans three times as the riders and passengers changed places each lap. Team USA ran a great time, losing points only when dropping one of the liquid containers. Meanwhile, Team South Africa had their worst and so USA has closed the gap to 43 points going into the final day of the competition. But such is the nature of the International GS Trophy the participants are taking the attitude that what will be will be, and far from retiring to their tents for a good nights sleep, tonight they’re partying into the night as the music plays loud on the terrace at Camp Hoyor Zagal.
Tomorrow is the final day of the GS Trophy competition. There will be a single super test with a possible score of 75 points. This is still anyone’s game, so stay tuned!
GS Trophy 2018 Day 7 Overall Standings:
1 South Africa 278
2 USA 235
3 France 209
4 Latin America 201
5 Mexico 200
6 Korea 182
7 UK 166
8 Russia 162
9 Germany 160
10 Argentina 141
11 Southeast Asia 131
12 Australia 128
13 Ausamerica 122
14 Canada 119
15 China 117
16 Japan 110
16 Eurafrica 110
18 India 98
Catch the Day 7 highlights here:
Check out the GS Trophy Day 6 Recap.
Check out the GS Trophy Final Day (Day 8) Recap.
Special thanks to BMW MOA’s Shawn Thomas for providing updates on Team USA and AusAmerica!
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French team, you rock!!!
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