Wanaka

Lake Wanaka over Easter seems a little while ago now as I sweat through another HK summer... Beautiful and stunning- this cheeky little ride is a couple of kms from super noddysville suburbs, Great way to shake off a hangover! Who cares about KOMs when the scenery is like this???

Climbing Cardrona

As Hong Kong hits a steady stifling 95% 33 degree heat, I am mindful to remember what it is like to climb up to the snow line in dry sunny conditions NZ style. Cardrona promised some of the best slope style single-track the Southern Hemisphere has to offer, but it seems I arrived a week too late- everything was shut, and my attempts to ride the trails in the snow after climbing for 1 1/2hrs were somewhat of a fail...

In the Bamboo

Our esteemed former HKMBA head honcho gets a chance to ride some of the trails he campaigned so hard for. The heaven's certainly opened for Bob's return visit to HK, but we still got some nice riding in.

188 / Huangshan MTB Festival

In Chinese racing, there must be few luckier numbers to pin to your jersey than 188- maybe 088 is better? But 188 should be a passage to good fortune and plentiful riches. 

Lying on the deck, having been side swiped by a kamikaze Chinese bicycle pilot who came hurtling out of nowhere to try and undertake on a cobbled corner by using his body and bike as a brake sliding across the floor, I wasn't so sure. Holding back the urge to hit him with my mini pump, a clearer mind may have deduced Chinese lucky numbers don't apply to Westerners...

Our crack Team Chiru of Pierre, Aron, Mark and I had come to Huangshan for the weekend to check out one of the biggest mountain bike races in China where we would ride the 100km marathon event. We also wanted to see a fairly remote area apparently very popular with mainland tourists, especially since the filming of crouching tiger hidden monkey, where some of the scenes were shot. Of course, the locals are pretty tuned into taxing the tourists, but look past the tat and the fake new pretending to be old and there were some pretty genuine looking old pagodas that would make for some pretty cool 'bikesandbuildings' backdrops, not to mention some lovely landscapes that provide the backdrops for many of the rather more famous classic Chinese ink paintings. Prints are of course available...

The beauty of this town and it's landscape was dulled somewhat on our arrival by the pouring rain that preceded. And we soon discovered on our late afternoon test lap that, what would no doubt be an awesome 20km XC course in the dry, had also been rather destroyed by the few hundred riders churning through there on Saturday morning's races in the heavy rain. Think mud bath so deep in places that the closest reference point I have is the cyclocross and winter cross country races held in the winter I rode as a teenager in south west England. It might have been warmer than a Gloucestershire field in January, but this uniquely claggy gloop made many climbs unrideable and the descents a bit more than sketchy. I don't mind the latter, but a nice bout of chain suck whenever I attempted to use the mud infested inner ring of my otherwise excellent Chiru Pulse was a cruel blow on the semi rideable climbs. With 400m climbing per lap including a fair bit of pushing up gloopy grassy knolls, I've ridden more convincing big ring race courses! 

On the upside there were some great sections through bamboo forest and little villages where the locals had come out to cheer "Gai-Ao" (it means 'fill up' or 'go on' for the uninitiated). 

Waking on Sunday to a beautiful day and looking from the balcony of our rather charming looking new / made to look old hotel in the middle of Hongcun town, our sprints were lifted and the mood was optimistic. I should probably add that this hotel's charm was lost somewhat when you hit the hole in the ground squat loo and passed through muddy cyclist detritus on the floor. But we weren't here to luxe it up in fancy hotels, we were here to race! 

And race we did, to rather varying degrees of success... The drivetrain toll was heavy enough to destroy Mr Leeper's rear dérailleur on lap 1. My fortunes weren't much better with that stupid crash right outside said hotel at the end of lap 1. A subsequent bent disc rotor and gear hanger rather slowed me down for lap 2, after which I retired to take a quick cruise around the town to see some sights rather than keep on listening to my scraping brake. Aron also pulled out at the end of this lap, opting for an early hotel shower next to the squat loo before our mini bus trip back to hangzhou airport. 

Speaking of which, a journey time miscalculation combined with the slower course meant that we would miss our evening flight if any of us three finished this one, so the early retirements were going to happen anyway.

Meanwhile, our superstar Pierre (who wasn't flying home till the next day) was flying on the bike. With the least mechanical troubles and the best handling skills to steer through the gloop, Pierre was having a good day. Working his way up through the field as those around him started to fall (myself included!), we got news on the bus that the 'leisurely antelope' (as google translate would later christen) had battled through to a fine 5th place finish. Chapeau to the Frenchman!

A cruel twist of fate came in the form of some equally epic flight delays, which were more than the extra leeway we needed to finish the race and come home the same evening given the 5 1/2 drive back to the airport, but such is life. 

Story of the weekend came from our Chiru Shanghai representative - Kay, who told us the story of a Chinese construction worker who drowned in a rather larger communal squat hole on site, having lost his footing around said hole. There's ways to go and there's ways to go.... One must always be thankful even if the little things (like getting home at 5.30am on a Monday morning) don't always work out exactly as you hope!

So, a fun weekend in a surprisingly pleasant part of China- thanks are due to Pierre, Kay and the rest of the Chiru team for their hard work in arranging these things. The racing luck and travel logistics may not have quite worked out as hoped for all, but still good to visit these places before they get too Disney'fied. Next time I'll take number 177 and a Monday flight please.

For further amusement, turn on the google translate on the below:
http://www.biketo.com/racing/internal/17386.html

CMWing

A sunny late afternoon Chi Ma Wan test ride on the Chiru Pulse this weekend past with Pierre. All set for this weekend at the Huanshan Mountain Bike Festival in deepest China!

2nd

A bit of a catch up post from one of the races last month, but it occurred to me that 2nd place is my best individual Open Cat race result in HK. Granted, this was a limited field MTB race on a short course (12 laps of Tin Fu Tsai anyone?), but still nice to get close to the top step. It's just a bit ridiculous that we have to race on a course that only takes 7/8 minutes to complete the loop- I was the only guy not to get lapped by the winner!!!

Epic Rides: Tour de Lantau Horse Special

Here is my photo essay of sorts from yesterday's Tour de Lantau 'Horse Special'. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves on what was an amazing day's riding. They don't happen too often, but it's days like this that make living in Hong Kong such a special place. Leaving the city behind you can be on the top of a hill in the middle of absolutely nowhere within a few hours. The odd container ship in the distance, or plane in the sky, is the only clue you are still in one of the most densely populated cities in the world- where did those 7 million people go? And why aren't more of them into that great sport we call mountain biking??? More fool them ;-) Kung Hei Fat Choi!

http://www.strava.com/activities/110130682