Bikedan in Asia

The Suzhou 120km race sponsored by Look and Mavic was staged last weekend and 149 elite riders lined up on the start line in front of a good sized crowd.  Apparently, the Chinese Cycling Federation have not yet banned radios from amateur level racing like most other places in the world! It was interesting to [...]

Wang Xian 2nd and Daniel Carruthers 3rd Australian rider Douglas Repacholi, who is here to race with the China Trek team at the UCI Taihu Lake Tour, took a convincing win over his breakaway companions Wang Xian and Daniel Carruthers (Velocite Bikes). – How it unfolded – 50 elite riders lined up in blustery conditions [...]

In most stage races (with exception of Grand Tours), a 40km ITT is very long stage; especially when you have it at end of a three day short tour. In reality, the parcours at the Matabungkay Tour did not offer me many opportunities to use my killer sprint. I missed out on the key breakaways [...]

The Tour of Matabungkay was an action-packed weekend for cyclists and I recommend this tour and any other stage race in the Philippines for those of you contemplating racing in new and exotic countries. The growth of cycling in the Asia region has been phenomenal over the last few years, but I think the Philippines [...]

  The three day tour in the Philippines kicked off today with a double stage day that made for a long energy draining day for all 200 plus competitors.  It was a three man breakaway group that finished with strongman Lee Rodgers (Mossimo Cycling Team) edging out Colin Roberston (Franzia Wines) by 10 seconds and [...]

Cycling races that include resort living are on the rise in Asia, races like the Tour of Matabungkay and the Tour of Bintan both offer resort accommodations with picturesque tropical surroundings for riders to unwind after hard racing.  As I type this, I am sipping on ice-cold fresh Mango juice and enjoying the laid-back style [...]

The Tour of Ordos kicked off today with a circuit race in fierce winds and low temperatures.  This is the first time that a cycling tour is being held in this rich town, it is apparently richer than Beijing on a per capita basis. About 85 riders started today and only 62 managed to finish. [...]

Image by:  OTTAVIO TOMASINI Since returning from Mongolia, I have been very busy with various projects on the go including getting started for the new term at Zhejiang University – thus I have not had the chance to completely finish my diary updates on the Mongolia Bike Challenge. Just Stages Eight and Nine remain to [...]

Just a week after the Mongolia Bike Challenge took a train to Ningbo, only two hours away from Hangzhou where I live to take part in a Shimano organized mountain bike race. There was a 20km road hill-climb early that morning but I opted to just bring one bike and race on the Orbea Alma 29er [...]

After the sixth day, we all welcomed a rest day camped in the middle of nowhere; a beautiful setting beside a flowing river and green grasslands surrounding us. It was a nice location to relax and regenerate for the last three stages as we pushed for Karakorum. It was nice to sleep in, enjoy a [...]