Dalian update: First race in China

On the morning of our departure to Hangzhou for the triathlon & duathlon competition, Pei Pei and Holy Brother (a strong Chinese cyclist who runs the Dahon bikeshop and whose name I cannot seem to remember - he is riding for a semi-professional team from Beijing called ‘ Holy Brother ‘ - don’t ask me why) approached me and they started talking about me having to participate in a cycling race in Kai Fa Qu one week after Hangzhou. Kai Fa Qu is the Dalian Development Zone, some 30 to 40 kilometres north of Dalian City. So, of course, why not? I knew I wouldn’t have any training opportunity all week between the duathlon and the cycling race, as I was travelling around Hangzhou and Ningbo. What I did not know is that this was a Shimano Cup race, serious business in China, and several teams from all over Northern China, even as far away as Beijing and Harbin, would compete in this Kai Fa Qu race!

It was a very foggy and moist morning. The team hired a bus to bring us to the race venue, which turned out to be Jin Shi Tan, or Golden Pebble Beach, a popular beach resort north of Kai Fa Qu. There I immediately learnt that this was an organisation like I know it from Germany. We had to show some form of ID to get race tags and a chip for the electronic timing. Sponsors had stands along the start & finish area (Shimano, Pro, Look,...) and, different from Europe, there were even a few Shimano grid girls like in Formula 1. Perhaps an idea for Mr German Cycling Cup :-)

Finally, I also discovered what was actually on the agenda, as previously nobody was able to give me a clear description. We were in the A-race,which would be 8 laps around a circuit of just over 5 kilometres. Some 60 riders signed up for this A-race. There was also a B-race, a separate women’s race, and a race for people on MTBs. In the afternoon, there would also still be a two-hour-long team relay event.

43 kilometers is really too short for an endurance-type rider like me. However, what I liked was the short but steep climb about 1 kilometre before the finish line. That opened perspectives!

Following the Hangzhou trip, there was not enough time to replace the broken spoke on my Mavic Aksium rear wheel, so I had to use Ketill’s spare wheel, which incidently was also an Aksium. However, set up for Shimano, and I use Campagnolo systems. During the warm-up things ran smoothly, but already on the first lap of the race I had gear shifting problems. Most annoyingly, I had them every lap halfway that steep climb as my chain dropped down two or three cassette rings to 53x13. So, instead of sprinting that hill up in the spirit of Gilbert and Boonen, I was struggling up like those Spanish Euskaltel boys who come for the first time to the Tour of Flanders. Bummer!

It was a fun race, though. And I was surprised by the high-level of competition. There were non-stop breakaway attempts and we would finish with an average speed of 41 km/h, but on the last lap we were still 33 riders contesting the victory. An attack by two riders on lap 5 was dangerous, as one of the big Beijing teams was represented in that breakaway. They managed to open up a considerable gap, as in the peloton several riders were taking a breather. I still felt good and started the chase together with a strongly-built rider, who suddenly asked me where I was from. “Belgium?! Oh, I lived in Belgium for four years, in Gent!” And now we were racing together in the Dalian Development Zone.

The wind had picked-up and the backstretch, which also went slightly uphill, became rather tough. We brought the gap down, but the two of us were not going to close it. Still, the two guys ahead did no longer feel comfortable with their 10-15 second lead and decided to quit their effort and waited for the peloton. This was beginning of the final lap. To be honest, I am not sure whether we would have gotten them had they continued their breakaway, but possibly the wind and that climb had began to hurt their legs, of course. Another Beijing-rider immediately made his move. This guy was actually riding a TT-bike with full disc wheel! Don’t ask me why this guy was allowed to use that machine in a normal cycling race. He was slowly dying on the false flat against the headwind, and I decided to use him as a marker. I accelerated, trying to get an advantage before the climb (as I knew my gears would give me trouble again). I looked back and saw I had a gap, but also a rider from some black & white team in my wheel. I asked him to cooperate, but the guy smiled and just stayed glued to my rear wheel! I continued for a few hundred metres, but I was not going to do all the work for him to outsprint me in the final metres, no way. So I pulled over, told him to take the lead, but all he did was smiling. And there was the front of the peloton again as we hit the climb for the last time. I managed not to get too far behind the frontrunners with that 53x13 monstergear, and in the final sprint to the line made up a few places to conclude in 10th place, just behind my young and talented teammate Sun.

Ketill, in his first genuine cycling race, said he had a rough time trying to hang on to the front group, but he did so to finish 22nd. Peter was less fortunate and abandoned after a few laps.

It was very interesting experience, this short race, and it certainly tastes like more! The average level is high enough, and what’s more, the riders were also very well-behaved and I am not aware of any crashes. Yesterday night at the BBQ, Sun asked me to join him to two mountain races in Inner Mongolia, a few days after the Beijing triathlon & duathlon competition. The two of us would travel to Duolon by train from Beijing: could be fun! Duolon, by the way, is also known as Xanadu and was founded by the legendary Mongol warrior and emperor Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. Unfortunately, during the first week of July there will also again be some tests at university... so I need to verify just how important these tests are (in the end what really counts for me is the exam early January).

There are plenty of pictures of the Jin Shi Tan race on my Picasa page Have a look.

Duathlon & cycling competitions

Via this link you can also watch a video of the entire event.

I was also interviewed (mainly in Chinese) for Dalian TV before the start of the race, and apparently it was also broadcast as people from the university saw and told me about it ;-)