Dalian update: Duathlon success at Qiandao Hu

Two weeks ago I travelled south to Hangzhou with about 20 people belonging to the reputed Dalian triathlon club. These are the guys I met earlier in May on that bike ride I wrote about on this blog. Xiao Pei convinced me to join them for the Hangzhou trip, as there was also a duathlon, also called run-bike-run, competition on the programme. A compulsory health certificate was quickly produced and off we went. It turned out to be a great experience!

When the Chinese organise something they do it right. This was again the case for both the sports event and the trip organisation. We flew to Hangzhou via Qingdao and upon landing were waited upon by a rental bus, which would take us in two hours to Qiandao Hu ( = thousand islands lake), venue of the sports event. Our hotel, full-pension, was basic but clean and right next to the beautiful lake. I shared a triple room with Ketill an Peter, both from Iceland and working in Dalian. The three of us were the only foreigners in our team, so there was ample opportunity to speak mandarin during the five days we were all going to spend there together!

The event was part of the ITU Asian Triathlon Cup, and also featured a race for professional athletes on Saturday. I was quite surprised to see such an international starting field! I think all continents had representatives. The whole event took off with a big ceremony - as always in China - and our team also had to line up during the official presentation and opening of the event. After the speeches and the start of the professional race, I had to worry about my rear wheel. Indeed, the weekend started badly for me with a broken spoke on my Mavic Aksium. Taking a racebike on a plane remains a risky affair. A Chinese team member suffered the same fate. Luckily, Xiao Pei is well-known on the circuit after many years of wins and podium finishes, and she managed to arrange a spare wheel for me to use on the weekend. In fact, my spare wheel was better: it was a Ksyrium ;-).

My duathlon was scheduled to commence at 8.20 a.m. on Sunday. It was the sprint version: 5km run, 20km bike, 2,5km run. That means about an hour of maximum intensity. By that time the temperature had already risen to nearly 30 degrees. Some 45 athletes signed up, including a Fin working for Nokia in Hangzhou. Breakfast was not ideal, as expected. As much as I like Chinese food, it is not exactly my favourite pre-sports competition fare. And where the hell was the coffee? All that was on offer was milk and hot orange juice, yes, hot orange juice. I had to make do with a can of iced Nestle coffee, purchased the day before, and two steamed buns. I was on unfamiliar territory: I had never done a genuine duathlon competition before. Only at high school I did it twice or three times. In fact, I have hardly ever run in the past five years. Only last autumn I found my running shoes back and did a few runs, but then I suffered a major foot inflammation on Lanzarote last January, which made me limp about for several weeks. So, I was a little worried before the start two weeks ago.

As soon as the start was given, several Chinese competitors took off like bullets. It was truly quite shocking! I did not even bother trying to follow them: they were simply running way too fast. Also the Finnish guy went ahead. But after 2,5 kilometers it seemed that several had been slightly too enthusiastic. I caught them again, and when we hit the bike stand after 5 km I was lying in fourth place with the frontrunners still within sight. I lost some time during the change from running to cycling shoes, but when I got going I rather quickly took the lead on the windy course, which had to be completed three times and also had an annoying piece of false flat in it. However, I could not hold on to first place long, as suddenly this Finnish guy stormed past me lying aerodynamically on his Cervelo time trial bike! Then I experienced what a major difference such a time trial bike, with its specific handlebar, can make. Drafting was not allowed, and I had a very hard time trying to keep up with him on my standard racebike. In fact, slowly slowly I lost some terrain. I was knackered when after 20 km I arrived back at the changing zone, but found new courage when I started the final 2,5 km run at the same time as my Finnish rival. I did not waste the opportunity to deal him a mental blow and gave it all, setting a running pace he could not match. Once I had the gap it was a question of concentration, really, as I was seriously out of breath myself. But he turned out to be even more, and my margin would increase to about a minute. And so I grabbed victory in my first duathlon event ;-).

People were seemingly impressed by the foreigner, as one after the other local wanted to have a picture with me. Several people asked for my autogram, which I even put on a few T-shirts and baseball caps :-)! Winning in China is sweet!

The trophy and financial reward were also not bad: it got me out of the costs for a week.

So, now I have three more duathlons lined up for the next couple of months. First, Beijing in a fortnight. I hear that one is the toughest of the whole year. Then there will be Huang Shan early August and Wei Hai late September. All events also belong to this ITU Asian Cup organisation.

My Chinese team members also did a great job in the triathlon races (olympic and short distance). Chao even won the olympic distance and confirmed his status as China’s best amateur triathlete! Xiao Pei managed the same feat in the women’s race.

That night we had a great party at the local nightclub.

I have uploaded quite a few pictures on my Picasa page. Have a look:

Zhejiang - Qiandao Hu