After a very emotional start ceremony with 500 students from the Punakha Secondary Highschool singing the national antherm of Bhutan the governor of the Punakha district started the race at Punakha Dzong. 36 runners from 16 nations were accompanied by the youngest schoolchildrens on the first meters before running stage one with 30,7 km. Finish was at the Chorten Nyngbo Monastery.

First male was Salvador Calvo from Spain in a time of 2:57h followed by his fellow countryman Manu Pastor. Third was Swiss Stefan Sigron just ahead of Jo  Petersen from New Zealand and Gus Murray from Australia.

Jointly finishing first in the women catergory was Zenia Inselmann from Denmark and Sophie Power from Great Britain. Joint third place went to Karen Wei from Canada and Charla Heimer from USA.

Tomorrows stage will one of the thougest in the week, just 29km but climbing the first 19km  1700m in altitude passing the Sinchula Pass (3400m) before running downhill the last 10km  to the next camp in a local farmhouse.