Bikedan in Asia

Tour of Ganzhou – China’s Richest One Day Race

Bikedan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:54:04 +0000

Bunch sprint where I finished 2nd (7th overall)

The Tour of Ganzhou – a one day 90km road race was held recently and I was part of the Champion System Team from Hong Kong who went to compete for the big prize money available. 50,000cny (approx $7,352usd) for the winner and then it paid 20 deep. Top ten all got decent prize money. There was a team prize of 60,000cny for the best team.

Malaysian "Pistol" taking a convincing win and the 50k!

A super strong Malaysian rider was imported by Specialized to race at the Ganzhou Tour. He had won stages at Tour of Langkawi and the Tour of Thailand; establishing himself as a deadly sprinter in the peloton! It appears that he will be racing more often in China now that he has signed up with Specialized, although there is also a Malaysian version of Specialized he will race for.

Here I am driving the pace high; succeeding in splintering pack!

I managed to finish reasonably well at the end of the race; taking 2nd in the bunch kick for the line while battling cramp in my right leg! I also had a narrow miss with about 800m to go when someone in front of me slammed the brakes on and caused my front wheel to overlap his and I was lucky to stay up-right. However the sharp re-acceleration caused my right leg to lock up and I spent the final few seconds of the race controlling the cramp while still moving up through the field to finish comfortably inside the top 10 with my 7th placing. I was the second best of my team mates, one of them finished 3rd while two others finished directly behind me in 8th and 9th respectively. If you wish to read the full story of the Ganzhou race, you can check it here: Tour of Ganzhou.

It was a good race after not racing for the past six weeks and the next few weeks will feature racing every week in different parts of China. The next race is the Shanghai Series this Saturday where the battle for the Yellow Jersey heats up.

Shimano XTR Dyna-Sys Testing

Bikedan — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:02:31 +0000

Adrenalin pumping downhill ride!

I have just gotten back from our big trip around China that included Chengdu, Macau, Hong Kong and Nanjing – was too busy on the road to have time to write up-dates to my website, but now that I am back home in Hangzhou you will see some stories published about the cycling in each of the cities coming out in the near future. I had the opportunity to go to Nanjing to test out the new 2011 XTR Dyna-Sys components for an action packed two days at China’s First Botanical Garden. Shimano flew me up from Macau to participate as a test rider with several other media representatives. I have written an introduction report that can be found here and over the next couple of days keep an eye on the www.cyclingnewsasia.com website for further reports that include a detailed report on the Rider Tuned Technology that is available for mountain bike racers and enthusiasts in 2011.

I am talking with Hayashi Katsuhiro from Shimano about the benefits of Dyna-Sys

When I arrived in Nanjing, Shimano very generously provided us with a Shimano duffel bag (perfect for race days!) filled with a complete cycling kit! I was out-fitted with the custom heat mouldable Shimano M310 carbon shoes – they felt amazing throughout the 2-days of riding. We were also given a bunch of other cool products to use for the test riding including a very lightweight OGK Mastro helmet, Shimano eyewear – the new S70R, full finger OGK gloves (KG-15), and the Shimano XTR bib shorts paired with the mountain biking specific jersey. At some point, I will write some reviews on the product that we were given.

The highlight of the 2-days was being able to test out the awesome new drive-train system on awesome bikes such as the dual suspension Giant Anthem XC bike and the Yeti Trail bike. I also had a couple of the Shimano technical guys accompany me on the rides explaining the equipment benefits and differences over the old XTR nine-speed set-up. I can’t wait to get my own mountain bike again equipped with Dyna-Sys and do some more mountain bike racing here in China.

Whizzing by on the single-track

Thanks to Shimano for putting on a very professional test riding camp, a first for Shimano here in China as they attempt to build their market share in the Land of the Red Flag as mountain biking becomes increasingly popular among the Chinese.

Early Mornings: Best Time to Ride

Bikedan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:48:57 +0000

It is well worth the effort to get out of bed at 5.30am to head out for a couple of hours before the heat and the mad rush of Chinese traffic. It is definitely reinvigorating and leaves you craving for more early morning rides. Going with a friend on such rides can help with motivation to get up if you are needing it! Also, getting up the crack of dawn gives you brilliant photo opportunities as the sun filters through the trees such as the photo above. This is a route very close to Hangzhou city and there are numerous roads in the same area to explore. If you are thinking about early morning rides, just do it! You can’t regret the experience you will get.

Epic Ride in China

Bikedan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:04:31 +0000

Last year I wrote a popular article about an Epic Ride in Taiwan

I recently had a ride that could be ranked up there with what you call EPIC rides. As the Taiwan article mentioned, an epic ride has to contain certain factors to qualify as a true Epic. This happened on the same stretch of road the Qinghai Lake Tour raced over for stage two. See Cycling News Asia for some photographs of this stage. The stage finished with a long down-hill after riders climbed to 3300m – once at the top, riders were faced with a technical descent in light rain that made things slightly trickey. But once at a lower elevation, the sun was back out and the roads were bone dry for the rest of the descent to the town of Xunhua. The race report can be found here: Qinghai Lake Tour Stage Two.

Brilliant weather and herdsman rounding up his flock

Each day during the Qinghai Lake Tour I had been getting some miles in on my own bike so when in Xunhua I decided to tackle the 30km climb back to the top where the race came down from. It was a brilliant day – sunny and not a cloud in sight. I started at an altitude of just over 1,800m and it was a good steady climb all the way to the top where it was over 3,200m. I passed through several small villages along the way and encountered a farmer herding his 100 or so horned goats on the road. About 3/4 way up the climb, I was stopped by a local family who were driving up and they gave me a Red Bull and wanted to take pictures with me. I gladly obliged and the Red Bull gave me a fresh injection of energy that helped me fly up the mountain to the summit. It took me almost 2hrs to complete the climb and nearing the top, I noticed this big ominous black cloud floating in rather rapidly. I ignored it and continued to the top. After a breather and savoring the amazing views from the top, I was again asked by locals to pose with them for photographs. The monk dressed in his red flowing robes was particularly interested in how lightweight my Champion System Dura-Ace equipped road bike was. Lifting it and laughing in excitement that he was talking with a foreigner in Chinese. I probably spent too long on the summit with this group of people – as soon as I left and started my descent – which I was looking forward to very much! It was going to be a wicked fast and curvy descent that every road biker craves for. But, it was not going to be this time. That black cloud was well and truly over my head and big chunks of hail bucketed down and never let up. It was so painful that I was tucking my lips in, looking down on the road and trying to get to lower altitude in the hope that the hail would subside. It was my most painful hail experience I have been through especially without wet weather gear (which I left behind at the hotel) and I had red sting marks all over my arms and legs.

With a couple of monks on the mountain top just before the freak storm

Only about 2kms into the descent from hell, I was faced with negotiating a four Yak crossing! Yes, four slow Yak’s were crossing the narrow road in single file and I had no where to go, but go straight into them. I could not yank on the brakes as I knew if I did that, I would slide out on the hail (ice) covered road going at least 40km/h. My only course of action was to un-clip my left foot and use it as a “rigger” and apply more breakage to scrub off the speed as fast as possible without hitting them. Two of the Yak fortunately halted in the middle of the road and the first one had just made it off the road. But the one that was 2nd in line was still in my path. I came within a hairline of hitting the clumsy creature, but somehow I streaked by it with a snow-board style maneuver from me. In the process I scared the living daylights out of the Yak, and all four hooves popped out from under it. The poor creature slammed to the ground onto its belly before picking itself back up and scurrying away. I was relieved.

Freak storm caused this minor road block

The hail continued to torment me and there was no where to shelter. I just continued the descent and I must have been approaching 60km/h on one of the straight sections when I noticed something peculiar about the road ahead. I had to blink twice to make out what it was, it was covered with rocks and bracken caused by overflow from the drains on the side of the road. It was impassable and required a dismount and walk across - cyclocross style – before I could get back on and continue the descent. By this time, I was starting to shiver uncontrollably from the cold. I just wanted to scream my head off from the intense cold and the painful pricks I was constantly getting from the hail.

This is the thigh deep mess I had to walk through...

This is how my legs looked like after walking through the disgusting mess...

I stopped in the village halfway down the mountain and saw one of the Skil-Shimano managers who had been riding and was putting his bike into the back of a taxi to get back to Xunhua since it was not pleasant at all to be riding out in this weather. I pulled up to a convenience store and got myself a bottle of coke and water. I was still shivering like a maniac and the locals there seemed amused by this foreigner (laowai) who was clattering away in Mandarin – I soon had a crowd of about 15 people surrounding me with about half of them checking out my bike that was propped up on the wall next to the shop. They probably all thought I was crazy riding in this weather and shivering uncontrollably. After I finished my Usana Oatmeal raisin bar and the coke, I was on my way again. The hail had subsided a bit but was still intermittently raining down. I was still very cold as I continued with the long descent back to Xunhua, but not without some more drama.

I encountered two more road-blocks – both caused by the flash flood from the storm. The nearby river was raging. The first road-block was passable. I started to attempt riding through it, but was quickly bogged down with the sticky yellow clay mud – was forced to dismount again and pick a line though without getting too much of the mud on me. After negotiating the first road-block, I stopped to chat with some of the local kids – they mentioned that only a few minutes ago, water from the creek was up high and gushing over the road.

The next road-block was the most serious one. It had rendered all traffic immobile and a long queue was building up. The overflowing river had ripped up sections of the road and created a nice oozing mass of thick clay mud. Like the consistency of a thick blended shake – but very hard to clean off or move through. The Skil-Shimano guy was there in his taxi and yelling into his mobile phone about his plight of being stuck. I was not going to let this road-block stop me, so I just slung the bike across my shoulders and started to hike across, like cyclocross racing. I heard the Chinese starting to yell at me, cautioning me not to attempt the crossing; but I kept going. With each step forward, the yellow slush just got deeper and deeper. I was getting a little worried that I might sink down like quicksand and never get out of the mess! The slush got to over knee deep on me and then it started to get shallower as I got closer to the other side. I made it through! But not without my legs getting completly covered in the thick slime and it probably wrecked my cycling shoes. I jumped back on the bike, kicking the mud from my cleats, but it was still difficult to click back into my pedals. I was still very cold – shivering the whole time and I was descending like a mad-man in an attempt to get warm again.

Monks loved my Dura-Ace Bike and wanted to run with it....

I stopped in a town just outside Xunhua and was immediately surrounded by the locals – who again were interested in my bike and my disheveled state from the epic mountain adventure. My fingers were half frozen so that I could not feel my camera and found it very difficult to even press the shoot button to take photographs. My Nikon D90 camera somehow survived the epic hail storm in a bag that was not completely waterproof. The camera was wet and I had gotten some tissues from a pharmacy near where I stopped to wipe it clean so photos could be taken and displayed here for your enjoyment! Further on up the road I was in search of water to try and clean my caked legs and came across a gang of kids that were really amused to see me and hear me speak Mandarin. One of them was going to lead me to water, and I started to follow, going down some narrow alleyway but I decided I should keep going and get the bike cleaned at the hotel.

Dirty filthy bike at the end of ride...

It was quite amazing how the weather just turned like that and if it had happened during Stage 2 of the Qinghai Lake Tour, the stage would have been neutralized – there was no way through for both the cyclists and the convoy. It just happened to create another one of my epic bike tales to share with my readers around the world. Below are more pictures that illustrate my ride.

Gang of kids who were ardent supporters of the Qinghai Lake Tour

Qinghai Lake Tour Stage Nine

Bikedan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:51:37 +0000

One of the biggest cycling races in Asia concluded with a short 66km stage held on the tree-lined streets of Xining (the Capital of Qinghai). It was estimated that a crowd in excess of 50,000 turned out to watch the last day of cycling action. The riders sped through the streets at an average of over 50km/h and no breakaway was allowed to stay away for long. A frenetic bunch sprint ensued and it was Mehdi Sohrabi from the TPT Iranian team taking the win to cap off an extremely successful Tour for the Iranian outfit. They also take home more than $110,000USD in prize money, making for an excellent pay-day for all the riders on the team.

Since the final day was held in the middle of Xining, there is no beautiful scenery to show like the previous days but I will show you some of the race action and the crowds that lined the streets! It was a brilliant 10 days of Tour racing with the stunning backdrop of scenery – as you have seen from my other postings on the Qinghai Lake Tour. It was very hectic as I was the official photographer and reporter for Cycling News Asia as well as fitting in my own training rides at altitude and socializing with the riders.

Askari in Yellow looking very comfortable with the help of teammates

Blurred action from the riders...

Amore & Vita Conad riders cornering together

Medhi Sohrabi winning the bunch kick

The Qinghai Lake Tour Jersey winners

One of the many soldiers controlling crowds in Xining

A cute Xining female cop marshalling on the course

Me with Cycling Legend Mike Carter - he has done all the Grand Tours!

It was a brilliant 10 days of Tour racing with the stunning backdrop of scenery – as you have seen from my other postings on the Qinghai Lake Tour. It was very hectic as I was the official photographer and reporter for Cycling News Asia and Champion System as well as fitting in my own training rides at altitude and socializing with the riders. Stay tuned for more up-dates from me soon!

Qinghai Lake Tour Stage Eight

Bikedan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:50:24 +0000

The Qinghai Lake Tour arrived in Qilian – dubbed as East Switzerland by the Chinese and it was easy to see why. It was a stunning contrast to the wide open green grasslands, endless rolling hills devoid of trees. Now there was trees everywhere and beautiful valleys surrounded by imposing rocky mountains. For Stage Eight, I traveled with the Slovenian Team car. Enjoy the pictures below.

Qilian: East Switzerland of China

Riders lining up for Stage Eight under the watchful eye of Chinese soldiers

Does this picture motivate you to go riding?

Chinese spectators were always numerous

More of the Chinese fans out in force for the riders...

The peloton getting very strung out on one of the downhills

At this time of the year, the fields are covered with yellow flowers

Cowboys in Qinghai lead a nice simple life

This penultimate stage going into Qingshizui was won by Russian National Team rider Boris Shpilevskiy after the hors catagorie climb up to 3,850m failed to crack Shpilevskiy’s legs. The Iranian TPT Team have virtually secured the Yellow jersey for the Tour and the final stage on the streets of Xining will be just a formality.

Qinghai Lake Tour Stage Seven

Bikedan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:11:20 +0000

In Qinghai, there was many landscapes such as this one...

Stage Seven of the Qinghai Lake Tour was supposed to be a decisive stage and the winner of the overall to emerge. But since the Iranians took Yellow already and they had no more reason to go out on the attack, they just paid the Amore & Vita CONAD team to ride on the front to keep the pace steady. The final KOM climb did shake things up a bit, but 60 riders still managed to get over the top and Shlipevsky the Russian sprinter also made it over in the lead group and won the final sprint. Today I rode in the Loborika Team Car – a Croatian Team sponsored by the village of Loborika. I have been travelling in different team cars each day for a different behind-the-scenes perspective of what goes on in the convoy.

The strong Loborika Team led by their Croatian National Champion

After the fireworks of stage six – the Iranian Tabriz Petrochemical Team took all four jerseys that are on offer. The pictures below are of historical significance as they performed this feat for the first time in history.

Iranians with their heads bowed in comptemptlation of their success

Tabriz Petrochemical Team posing minutes before the start of Stage Seven

The Qinghai Lake Tour continues to wind its way through some pretty stunning scenery. Qinghai is definitely a place to visit for those travelers seeking off-the-beaten track experience.

These kinds of houses are few, most places are smaller and nomadic tent style

The peloton makes its way to the base of the KOM climb

Me with Mizbani the "Andy Schleck" like climber!

Podium girls dressed in traditional Chinese costumes for the prize giving

Qinghai Lake Tour – Stage Six

Bikedan — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:24:40 +0000

Stage Six was unbelievable! Three riders ride away from the peloton over a flattish stage and average 49km/h for over 150kms! Two Iranians from the Tabriz-Petrochemical Team were doing all the work and hauling their 54-11s all day long, even going 57km/h at one stage up a hill. Behind them was a full-on chase with all the big teams and they were doing 60km/h for over 2hrs, but still could not catch the trio. Serbia’s Golden Boy was holding on to them for dear life and was crying from the pain in his legs! At the finish, all the teams were stunned and could not believe what had happened.

The main commissaire said that he thought that they were super-strong and he had never seen anything like it in his career of officiating UCI races, including the Tour de France.

The peloton stretched out in their frantic chase...

Flowers in full bloom...

Desperate chasing going on...

Qinghai Lake Tour Stage Five

Bikedan — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:39:28 +0000

Today’s stage was raced in dismal weather conditions. Riders were freezing cold in the rain, sudden drop in temperatures and cross-winds. It was almost like some of the weather we get in New Zealand and today was a much better day for the Subway-Avanti NZL team as they all finished reasonably well. Later on in the day, the weather cleared up and it became a lovely sunny afternoon and I took the opportunity to go training on the bike along the road that traverses along the shores of Qinghai Lake. The photos are worth a thousand words, so enjoy!

Wide-open grasslands with Qinghai Lake in the distance

Monastery at Bird Island

A Lone Monk walks down from the Monastery

Yak encounter on the road...

The sprint finish of the rainy stage!

Peloton rolling by the Qinghai Lake

For more photos and the full report – check on www.cyclingnewsasia.com

Stay tuned for more photos of Day Six action here at the Qinghai Lake Tour

Qinghai Lake Cycling Tour

Bikedan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:50:24 +0000

I am continuing to cover this mega-event here in remote Qinghai – but internet has been limited and when I have been on the internet, it has been to up-load photos and reports for www.cyclingnewsasia.com – you can visit for complete reports and more photos. We are now on Qinghai Lake and tomorrow is a flat race to Bird Island and it will be another day for the sprinters. After the stage today, I went on a brilliant 3hr ride in the mountains that face the lake. Climbed to 3750 metres from 3100 metres and did a total of 1200m for the ride duration. This ride was simply fantastic and any cyclist would die to ride in this type of scenery. I will let the photos do the talking.

Peloton rolling by during Stage 4 to Qinghai Lake