Race officials have been forced to cancel Tuesday’s third stage of the China Silk Road Rally on safety concerns.
Communications issues meant that the team had no option other than to nullify the loop stage around the Swan Lake bivouac near Alxa Zouqi in Inner Mongolia.
“We have encountered communication problems and that means there is no communications link between race control and marshals, so we were left with no option other than to cancel the stage,” said clerk of the course Hubert Auriol.
The event is being organised by the China Silk Road Rally Auto Sports Management Company Limited, in association with CCTV Sports and Entertainment Company Ltd. and the Beijing Motorsports Development Company, with the full cooperation of the Federation of Automobile Sports of China (FASC) and the support of the sporting bureaux of several Chinese regions.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), the route heads from Alxa Zuoqi to the city of Ejina Qi and runs for 720.47km. A liaison of 121.91km takes competitors to the start of a fourth selective section and a second liaison guides the field into the overnight halt.
The stage has been shortened from 203.75km to 159km to conserve an area of vegetation and the second liaison section modified accordingly.
Ejina Qi is situated in the former northwest of the province of Gansu and has been a banner of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia since 1956. It runs under the administration of the Alxa League.
