Dalian update: Defeated on la "Redoute" !

There are not that many Germans here in Dalian, at least not compared to the number of French expats and students. But last Friday I seemed to be talking more German than any other language. At Hopscotch, a popular bar on the beach in Xinghai Gongyuan, I got acquainted with some university students from Cologne and Karlsruhe, and in the afternoon I met a Chinese girl with daughter on the grandstand of the sports stadium who lives in... Bad Homburg (i.e. in the outskirts of Frankfurt). They were visiting their parents and grandparents in Dalian.

At Hopscotch there was some masked event taking place with several stage performances, organised by a local Chinese student club, which made the evening rather interesting. Otherwise I am starting to get slightly bored with this Friday night bar & club routine. Our Thai classmates and their friends joined us actually for the first time last Friday night. Poor boys & girls are not used to alcohol at all. A Japanese guy had to be carried out of the bar after two beers, and one of the Thai girls even could no longer stand on her legs after 1,5 small bottles of Chinese Tsingtao beer! Totally wasted.

Saturday morning at 10 a.m. I started my bike training with the objective of riding for about 5 hours. I arrived back home at 18.30h after over 8 hours of pure riding time ...

Too much faith in Chinese signposts! On the way back from Lushun, at the most southern tip of the peninsula, I got lost and eventually found myself riding in circles until a Chinese roadworker could finally give me some proper directions. But I had also gone weary of taking chances and once I recognised a place I passed on the way to Lushun I preferred to take the same westcoast detour road back to Dalian that I'm familiar with already. And so I got home just before sunset. Yet, I was tired but by no means dead after my 215 kilometer and 2065Hm marathon ride. A promising sign!

However, less promising - perhaps - was that I got my ass kicked early on the ride by a Chinese guy on the very steep Redoute climb!

On the ondulating roads out of Dalian I came across a Chinese cycling and triathlon club based around Olympic Square. First, only two guys in Italian-style (= very colourful) team outfits. On a 1 km-long climb of 8% on average and a peak of 12%, one of them engaged in dual with me. The guy really pushed me to my limit and I could only drop him in the final 50 metres of the ascent. Wow, finally I meet some other great climbers here! So, I waited for him and his mate and exchanged greetings. We rode trough the tunnel and at the exit I saw a group of riders standing at the side of the road with the same flashy outfits and several high-end racebikes (Look, Merckx, Wilier, Scott, Giant,...). Some of them spoke quite good English, which made conversation easier ;-) There was a girl, too, and her English was fluent. Her name is Xiao Pei ( = little Pei).

Xiao Pei immediately wanted me to join their team. In two weeks there is a big event in Hangzhou (near Shanghai) and they would be delighted if I could race for them. We will talk over coffee this week ;-)

These guys are for real! As soon as we started riding again, the race was on. I countered a move by two guys on a short climb and went in fuga with them, going full-speed in the descent. I knew the roads perfectly as it is my training ground. Then, to my surprise, they took a right turn that leads to the tough Redoute climb that I have already mentioned a few times on this blog in the past weeks. Geez! Just as the road gradually went up before the gradient becomes double digit, four guys came back to the three of us from behind. Again, the same bloke I met first was putting the hammer down. Side by side we were crawling up that monsterclimb. Again he only died towards the end, just before the second 19% bit. However, I could not relax at al because all of a sudden there was another rider next to me who was still able to get out of the saddle and accelerate on that 19% stretch! Damn, I could only respond so much as to reach the top in his wheel ...

We shook hands as we were gasping for breath. He was riding a Team Columbia Scott racebike with Mavic Cosmic Carbon racewheels. Expensive stuff! He was clearly delighted to have beaten the foreignerfrom the German team. He said they are meeting every Saturday at 9 a.m. and said I should come with them. I think I will, indeed!

Some kilometers further I said goodbye to the group, as they were heading back to Dalian and I really wanted to do my long ride still.

The rest of the ride went great, too (apart from getting lost in the afternoon). At my turning point in Lushun, a hill where you can see the "border" between the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea (a Chinese tourist attraction, locals truly claim you can see the change in colour from grey to yellow in the water...), I became the subject of a photoshoot. I cannot tell you how many people wanted to have a picture standing next to the cyclist, but at least one full busload of tourists! I guess my Roeltgen team sponsors will be happy ;-)

At night I slouched on the sofa with gnocchi, red wine and the Giro d' Italia, which is oncemore incredibly exciting this year. The young Sicilian Vincenzo Nibali won the stage over the Monte Grappa and looks really set to become the new star of Italian cycling. Today they hit Monte Zoncolan, the hardest climb in Europe! Curious whether Gilberto Simoni can make it a hattrick and win a third time on the Zoncolan after 2003 and 2007. Based on the form the 38-year old veteran displayed so far it looks doubtful, but for sure Gibo marked this day red in his calendar!

Right, I'm off to a Beaujolais wine event organised by the Alliance Francaise ;-)