The first stage of 2016 Taklimakan Rally, a loop of 237 kilometers around Tacheng, was supposed to be easy for the competitors. However, the heavy rain which fell down last night has completely changed the expectation. While some got out of the stage with a good pace, some others have already lost hope to win 2016 Taklimakan Rally.
With the quantity of water which fell down in the city of Tacheng, located at fifteen kilometers away from the Kazakhstan’s border, this selective section became obviously more complicated. First competitors indeed arrived at the end of the 120 kilometers stage one hour later than expected by the organization.
On a very slippery and muddy track, the 136 cars, trucks, bikes and ATVs have had a lot of difficulties to reach the flying finish of the selective section located in a green valley as we can find in Mongolia.
Han Wei and Jean-Pierre Garcin got out of the stage first. Even though they have won the stage on their two-wheel drive buggy, the franco-chinese team has had a lot of trouble especially in navigation.  Miao Ma and Min Liao, on board of the Nissan 05, finish second and first four-wheel drive with sometimes a very low visibility due to the mud splash on their wind screen.
The gaps with the other competitors are bigger. Thanks to the lightness and the agility of their vehicle, SSV made an impressive result. In fact, seven SSV are classified in the top ten.  The third place is for the Suzuki of Quanquan Guan and Shanlin Tan, at almost one hour of the yellow buggy with the number 101.
The second HanWei Motorsport car has lost a lot of time. Stucked in the mud at PK40 during few hours, then helped by a tractor, Philippe Gache and Stéphane Prévot have lost more than two hours today and almost all their chance to win 2016 Taklimakan Rally. Like the team 129, 85 cars did not reach the finish and will automatically get a fixed penalty.
Wen Min Su on Jincheng, winner of the warm-up yesterday, has finished second in bike category. Only overtaken by Min Jin Fang on KTM, who get the top of classification, the chinese rider said at the end of the stage he never saw so much water on a track. Armand Monleón, third of the stage, did not take any risk. His goal this morning was just to finish a stage in which it’s easy to loose everything.
Even though they had some trouble, french riders got out of the stage without having lost a lot of time. Thierry Traccan, sixth, had a breakdown of his navigation equipment. Willy Jobard have catched a fence with one of his wheel and lost few minutes because of this incident.
Tomorrow, on tuesday May 17th, 2016 Taklimakan Rally will bring the competitors from Tacheng to Karamay. A day of 470 kilometers, of which 296 kilometers will be timed, comprises the second stage. The weather should also be rainy that might once again make the selective section harder.  

Press: TAKLIMAKAN RALLY