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Wang Lei and Tuguldur Tuulkhangai hammer through the muddy grasslands. [Photo: Grasslandextrememarathon.com]

Mountain bike tires indeed soon gummed up with mud, spraying it up riders' backs, and into the faces of those trailing just behind. The slippery trail was difficult to climb and treacherous to descend. Crashing has never been uncommon in mountain biking, and riders wear helmets for a reason.

Riders faced their commitment to cover 63 kilometers of this terrain, swapping positions with each other in pursuit of the finish line.

Almost two and a half hours later, four riders had an epic finish, all sprinting across the finish line within a scope of two seconds. Mongolia's Altanzul Altansuckh found the adrenaline to edge out the competition by a hair's breadth.

Although some riders couldn't finish the task of completing this stage of the race, most of the contestants managed to trickle into Xiwuqi Cultural Square over the next three hours. Bodies and faces were covered in mud, some hardly recognizable. Drained and exhausted, finishers all found themselves able to smile at their accomplishments.

Kenneth from Denmark described his trek through the muck and rain. "It felt like it was uphill all the time. Headwind and mud: that was about it," he groaned before adding, "I had to lie down five or six times!"

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