Mongolia or Bust - GS Trophy

It may not hold a place in our hearts like the Kootenay region of British Columbia where much of BMW’s global competition, the GS Trophy, took place in 2014 but Mongolia is sure to prove a dramatic back drop to the upcoming 2018 event. There will be two women’s teams made up of international participants to battle the country and intra-country men’s teams. Women from all around the world battle it out in South Africa to become one of the six team members who will compete as two individual teams. The GS Trophy takes place in June and much of it will take place at high elevation in one of the least populated countries in the world.

In addition to the second women’s team there are two other new teams in this year’s competition from Australia and India. Canada placed 14th in 2016 and 9th in 2014. The top teams in 2016 for the Thailand rally were South Africa, Germany and the UK. While some teams are consistent, there is typically variety of teams competing for the top spots at each of the past events going back to the first in 2008.

The GS Trophy isn’t all about the skill of riding a motorcycle as there are off bike events and obstacles that require lifting, dragging and scraping a motorcycle over obstacles. The picture below is one of our favourites from the Canadian rally that seemed to be a competition involving bathing a dirty team member with the rooster tail from a rear wheel while in the middle of a stream. These guys are hard core.