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Luis struck all the right chords of the Himalayan Raga on Day 7 of the 11th edition of the Hero MTB Himalaya. Pinto, seeded world #9 and #6 in Europe, popularly known amongst the Himalayan riders as Luis ‘Machine’ Pinto has retained the title of ‘King of Himalayas’ well into the 7th day of the race. Luis finished in the first position with Andi Seewald coming in 9 minutes later at the second position followed by Pro Buff rider Pau Zamora 18 minutes behind Luis Pinto.
It’s been a tough competition between the top three riders throughout the entire race for the past 7 days of the race. Luis Leao Pinto, Andi Seewald and Pau Zamora have been the top three riders in the race, maintaining only about five minutes or so between their race timings.
Luis accomplished yet another challenging stage called the ‘Himalayan Raga’ which started from Day 6 base camp at Gada Gushaini in Kullu district to Chindi in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. 49 riders flagged off from the camp at 8:36 in the morning through Kholi, Gatu, Kelodhar, Karsog and finally to the camp at Chindi. The predominant muddy track proved to be a difficult section for many riders because of the tough uphills and downhills.
One of the top five riders at the race, Guido Thaler (Austria) had to quit the race because of some health issues He joined the HASTPA team visiting schools along the race route. Tody, the team has covered over a 1000 students across 3 schools in the Kullu and Mandi district. Guido Thaler, a PhD pursuant himself, interacted with the students regarding the importance of education, travel and mountain bike riding as a sport.
Vanni Balboni (Italy) won the Masters category today followed very closely by Reimund Dietzen. Vanni als bagged the overall 5th position in the race today with Reimund Dietzen in the 6th postion. Catherine Williamson has been the undefeated leader in the Women’s category followed by Ilda Periera. Ajay Pandit Chhetri and Buddhi Bahadur Tamang are the champs in the Team of Two category.
