Peloton Mag

Jambaljamts Sainbayar was born on September 4, 1996, in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. He is also known as 'Jamba' and as 'Elo', a nickname he has since his youth. Today, he is 1m71 tall and weighs around 60kg. He is the son of a military and an English teacher. "I was three years old when I rode a bike for the first time, he says, and I started cycling when I was around fifteen years old in my mid-school sports team." Mongolia is a large country located between Russia and China. With a population of only 3.5M million, it is the world's least densely populated country. Much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Today, Mongolian is mostly written using the Cyrillic alphabet in Mongolia. Around 25% of the Mongolian population is still nomadic or semi-nomadic, but in the last decades, many of the herders have been leaving the countryside to join the capital city. Now, almost half of the country's population lives in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. There are local cycling teams in other regions of Mongolia, where almost half of Mongolian cyclists are coming from, but most of them live and train in Ulaanbaatar. Ulaanbaatar, located at 1350m altitude, is the coldest capital in the world. It is also a very polluted city. Mongolia is sunny, dry and windy, hot in the summer but extremely cold in the winter, with temperature regularly dropping below −30 °C, with an average of -15°C from November to March. During this period, cyclists usually train indoors, and the best ones often go train in warm countries such as Thailand. In the past, the Asian Cycling Championships were often held in January, February or March, which made it difficult for Mongolian cyclists to be well-prepared for one of their most important races of the year. But in the last years, the event tends to be held later in the year, which makes it easier for Mongolia. Mongolian wrestling is the main sport in the country, cycling is not very popular but has been growing in the last ten years. Like in many countries around the world, the Tour de France is shown on TV every year and interest in it has slightly grown since 2015. There is no international race held in Mongolia, but the number of domestic competitions is increasing, there is at least one Road or MTB race every week as from spring. The traffic in the capital city also led to the development of the bike as a means of transport. The Mongolian Cycling Federation is doing a good job to develop the sport of cycling in Mongolia. But the history of Mongolian cycling is old: Mongolia participated in the Olympic Games in 1964, 1980, 1992 and 1996 (at that time, the cycling race was reserved for amateurs). The top finisher in 1964 was Yanjingiin Baatar, who, like many former cyclists in Mongolia, then became a coach. Today, Yanjingiin Baatar, aged 83, is the coach of the Junior Women's national team. One of the most successful Mongolian riders in the past was Jamsran Ulzii-Orshikh, better known as Oggi. Oggi made a very good impression at the 1992 Olympics, and he then signed a contract to join the Italian team Gatorade (the team of Gianni Bugno), but the state of Mongolia denied him to go to Italy. In the 2000s, Oggi raced at Continental level with Giant Asia and Marco Polo Team. You can read his story in this article. Then, he became a coach and had his own club in Mongolia. Sadly, he died in a car accident in 2019. He was "the face of Mongolian cycling" as Jambaljamts had told us, and a very respected person in Asian cycling. Another mentor for many young Mongolian cyclists is 38-year-old Tuulkhangai Tuguldur. Former rider, Tuulkhangai is the coach of the Mongolian Military team where Jambaljamts rides and he also works for the national team. In 2013, Enkhjargal Tuvshinjargal won the Women Elite ITT at the Asian cycling championships in New Delhi. In 2016, Tegshbayar Batsaikhan won a gold medal at the Junior Track Worlds. In the late 2010s, Maral-Erdene Batmunkh was the most successful Mongolian cyclist, taking multiple wins in Asia Tour races. Road is what Mongolian cyclists are known for, but most of them have also done Mountain Biking, that's often how they started cycling in Mongolia. In 2009, Mongolian riders raced the Cyclocross calendar in Belgium, thanks to a program led by  Johan Museeuw. Around 2015, the Mongolian Cycling Federation had launched track and BMX programs, a velodrome was never built in Ulaanbaatar but there are BMX facilities. On the road, multiple Mongolian riders are racing for foreign Continental or amateur teams, and the Mongolian national team also offers racing opportunities, with Continental championships as well as many stage races for Men Elite. In 2022, the federation contributed to the creation of a Continental team called 'Ferei Mongolia Development Team' racing in Turkey and Asia (the racing program was limited because of the COVID pandemic). In 2024, it will be named Ferei Quick-Panda Podium Mongolia Team, and they should recruit experienced Estonian riders, with probably Martin Laas, Mihkel Räim, Gleb Karpenko and Oskar Nisu. The calendar of the team should be extended with strong sprinters like Laas and Raïm. Myagmarsuren Baasankhuu 'Miga', rider of the team himself, explained to us it is "the first semi-professional team in Mongolia, so the first goal is to become a highly valued team in Asia. We aim to learn from Estonian athletes and progress step by step." In addition to the eight Mongolians riding for Ferei Quick-Panda Podium Mongolia and Jambaljamts Sainbayar, Tegshbayar Batsaikhan rides for Roojai Online Insurance (Thai Conti team), Maral-Erdene Batmunkh rider for Nusantara Cycling (Indonesian Conti team), Bold Iderbold rides for SCOM - Taishan Sport Team (Chinese Conti team) and Bolor-Erdene Enkhtaivan rides for Levante Fuji Shizuoka (Japanese Conti team). In Mongolia, road training is very hard in the winter because of the cold, but it can not be considered ideal the rest of the year either, because of the small number of good paved roads outside of the cities and the car's bad traffic manners. There are some rolling hills, but no real climbing roads, so the local races are mostly flat with very few corners. However, the wind is almost always very strong and plays a huge role in the races. The Individual and Team Time Trials are common, and it is not rare that the wind creates so much mess that road races end up looking like time trials as well. There are a good number of cycling clubs in the country, but some of them have stronger riders and there are often teams represented by a majority of riders in front as soon as the race settles.