Silk Way Rally 2019: Hero MotoSports Team Rally keeps it steady in Stage 3

Oriol Mena and Paulo Goncalves finish in the top 10 

The competitors of the Silk Way Rally braced themselves for a long day of riding as Stage 3 went underway today, covering a total of 691 km including the 243km special section. For Hero MotoSports Team Rally riders, it was a day for consolidation as the stage offered high speed riding, challenging navigation, dangerous ravines and river beds. Both Paulo Goncalves and Oriol Mena decided to play it safe and brought the bikes across the finish line to bring one more stage in the books for the team.  
 
Mena continued with his momentum from yesterday to deliver another strong stage finish at 8th place. Paulo lost some time in getting out of a deep hole right at the start of the stage and opted for a more conservative approach after that to finish the stage in 10th place. In the overall standings, Paulo stands at 5th position and Oriol at 6th position at the conclusion of Stage 3. 
 
Stage 3 took the rally into the heart of the Mongolian landscape that challenged the riders with tricky navigation riddled with path crossings and parallel tracks. Some bit of uphill riding and twisty but fast tracks added to the difficulty for the riders as they arrived at the Ulaanbaatar bivouac. 
 
Paulo Goncalves (Comp No: 4) said, “I didn’t have a great start today as my bike got stuck in a big hole just after 2 kms into the stage and I lost some time getting out of there. After that I did not feel that confident about pushing hard so I decided to keep it steady. I lost some time today but what is important is that I crossed the finish line and got my bike safely to the bivouac. It’s still early stages in the rally, so I will continue to keep my focus on taking it one day at a time.” 

Oriol Mena (Comp No: 25) said, “I felt good riding today and enjoyed the Mongolian terrain. I had a small issue with my road book equipment but other than that no issues. Happy to finish another stage today and looking forward to continue in the same way in the next stages.” 

Source Hero MotoSports Team Rally's official press release