An on-the-ground update on the Ice Run from Mr. Tom.

A local Russian bobby eases Ice Run team Mechanical Mounties's minds with the following anecdote: "Nobody takes the ice roads, they are only for lorries, bears and wolves." and now it would appear Ural motorbikes.

As the teams awoke to another barmyly chilly day in Siberia, thoughts were obviously focused on what they were about to embark on. Live Updates from teams were full of yesterday's briefing from Mr. Tom: "They tried to rescue somebody in this area once. It took five days, so they don't bother any more..." and "We don't know if the route is possible, but you'll figure it out.". However, there was little time to linger, it was time for the Pioneers Ice Run to skid forth.

It wasn't quite the 10am start we had planned but finally the town of Irbit can breath a sigh of relief. As the clock struck 1:30 and the mercury hit -10°C we finally managed to stop the Runners wandering off and shopping, going to the loo or just heading off for no discernible reason and waved an invisible chequered flag. They set off to the splendid spluttering sound of vintage 650cc engines from the Ural Motorbike Factory, Irbit in a neat line for nearly 3 or 4 meters before it all fell apart.

Having rolled his Ural at the test driving on Sunday Chris of team Ice Ice Maybe demonstrated how much he had learned from the experience when he waved at the camera as he drove past. With only one hand on the handlebars he lost control and drove the bike off the side of the road at speed and fell down a 15 foot embankment.

Somehow they were fine, though I think his team mate Rob was questioning the wisdom of choosing Chris as his fellow Ice Runner. With a bit of help we pulled out the bike, dusted them down and set them on there way. With a bit of luck they might make it outside the city limits without having another crash.

8km north of Irbit and the teams had a choice, East or West, the night before was filled with long discussions of which would be best/most fun but since nobody knew anything about either route it proved a touch inconclusive. In the end the field split 6 East and 5 West. Time will tell who was the wisest.

Mr. Tom

Follow the teams live

We'll be posting more updates on the blog throughout the adventure and you can follow the teams GPS locations on the Live Tracking Page.

Take a look at the other Ice Run blog posts: