Huang Shan pictures online!

While packing my bags for Friday's early morning flight to Frankfurt I have uploaded a few pictures of last Monday's beautiful but surprisingly tough hike in the Huang Shan mountain range. That is: if you also walk all the way down. The entire team's legs still hurt today. The Dalian triathlon team participated in another olympic distance in the Huang Shan area, which is the reason we were all down there. Temperatures in Anhui province also rose way above 35 degrees and the relatively high humidity turned this race into a challenge for all competitors. Even the water of Taiping Lake measured 32 degrees, so the swimming was hardly refreshing. As said before, a duathlon was not on the programme here. The next one will be in Jiayuguan (Gansu) in fact, in two weeks' time. I joined the team as a 'fan' and took my bike along to train in the hills over there. As in the area north of Beiing last month, I discovered some fantastic cycling routes. The preparations for my quartet of events in Europe are now done. Let's see whether it has been sufficient to match my level of the past couple of years.

Tomorrow morning I am taking the bus to Beijing, after which I fly Etihad Airways to Frankfurt via Abu Dhabi.

Anhui - Huang Shan

Gansu photos online!

Just returned from a splendid long weekend in the Huang Shan area, China's most popular mountain range in Anhui. Tomorrow I will be packing up and get ready for my stint in Europe. Meanwhile, I have uploaded some pictures of my trip through Gansu province.

Gansu - Jiayuguan & Dunhuang

Yin Chuan pictures online

While hiding from heavy rain and thunderstorms I have just uploaded the next bunch of pictures of my recent trip. This time those of Yin Chuan, capital city of Ningxia. That is the smallest province or autonomous region in China inhabited mainly by Hui muslims. I found it a very attractive place, and - again - much bigger then one would have expected. I stayed longer in this area than planned, because on the first day I was approached in the street by a student called Ben, who had been given the task of finding a foreigner to play a part in a new Chinese TV series that was being shot near Yin Chuan. Of course I was interested :-). The TV series, which will be on mainland TV this autumn, is set during the Cold War. I had to play a Soviet scientist advising a Chinese military general on the development of China's nuclear arsenal. By pure coincidence, the actor playing the Chinese general came from Dalian as well! We exchanged phone numbers afterwards and we will be in touch again in September. My lines were in English. Foreigners are a very rare occurrence in Yinchuan, and Russian-speakers even more so. I took the liberty of amending the script slightly as here and there the English was a bit 'too chinese'. Nobody spoke much English there anyway, so I don't think anybody noticed :-) The gist of the dialogue was that the Soviet expert warned the Chinese general that China's short-term nuclear development plans were a product of mere enthusiasm and fantasy, but in reality impossible to achieve: he smiled and said 'Chinese people always want to make the sun rise in the west' .

Unfortunately, a Mongol actor walked off with my camera during the shooting of my scene, so I don't have any pictures. On my Picasa page you can see many other pics now, though, including of the mysterious the Xi Xia Wang Ling.

Ningxia - Yinchuan

Dalian update: Nei Menggu photos online

The well-known Dalian beer festival is on this week. Many Chinese and German beer brands are sporting their goods in several tents at Xinghai Square, with performances of all kinds to entertain the visitors. Mainly mini-skirted girls singing and dancing about, but the chinese covers of German schlagers are not ignored! The last show ends already at 22.30, so the whole festival remains quite pleasantly civilised.

Edward, a Briton I know from university, asked me to come along with his friends last night, so I went to take a look. Edward is only one year younger than me and worked in Japan for six years before coming over to Dalian to learn mandarin. His friends were also from university: mainly Japanese and Korean. Previously I never spoke with them as their level of English is very limited, but yesterday it turned out to be perfectly feasible to have conversations in chinese ;-). Travelling in parts of China where they never or hardly ever see foreigners really does wonders!

Upon my return last night, I uploaded pictures of Inner Mongolia on my Picasa page. Here they are:

Nei Menggu - Alashan Zuoqi, Wuhai, Hohhot & Huitengxilu

Dalian update: Beijing & Jin Zhou reports

On the website of Roeltgen Cycling Team you can now read a report - in German - on my four racing experiences (Hangzhou, Jin Shi Tan, Beijing and Jin Zhou) in China so far. Hangzhou and Jin Shi Tan were already covered on this blog before. The duathlon in Beijing took place on the olympic circuit in Chanping, some 40km north of the capital city. Chanping is known for the Ming imperial tombs, which are located in the mountains there. A beautiful spot! And perfect for cycling, too. We arrived on Friday noon, and I did not waste time in getting on the bike for a four hour ride in the mountains. Those were my first real lengthy climbs of the season, after all! I discovered brand new roads, hardly any car traffic and the Great Wall frequently winding its way across the mountain tops. Certainly one the most scenic rides I have ever enjoyed.

The whole weekend was very hot in Beijing, with temperatures around 35 degrees. The Chinese people from the Dalian team seem to have more issues with that than me, though. As they were hiding in their hotel rooms, I went for another ride on Saturday afternoon as soon as we completed all formalities for the race the next day. The course for both the running and biking segment were hilly and contained one short but steep climb. I knew that would be to my advantage normally, and with the Hangzhou experience of a month earlier I was more relaxed prior to the start. However, as in Hangzhou, the Chinese competitors took off like bullets on the first 5km run. After 2,5 km I was well behind in 9th place (out of 50 participants, including also one Australian). But gradually I edged closer and closer to the frontrunners and I even managed to catch them just before we switched to the bikes. This time, however, there were some very strong Chinese riders as well. On the first climb I grabbed the lead, but behind me five guys were tailing me closely. On the second 10km lap I increased the gap to a safer margin and would retain it also on the final 2,5 km run. Second place went to a local Beijing resident, who turned out to be a nice chap and who wants to take me on some long rides in the mountains next time I am in the area.

In the triathlon event there were mixed results for the Dalian team members. Our star triathlete Chao scored a brilliant second place behind a Frenchman, but most of the others suffered too much from the heat.

Unfortunately, I still have not received pictures of the Beijing event. On my Picasa page are a few shots I took myself before and after the race.

Six days later I accompanied Shuang Shuang, the Holy Brother who runs the bike store and the team, and two other Chinese cyclists to a criterium race in Jin Zhou, 400 km northwest of Dalian. I was not in the mood for a short and flat criterium so far away, but they signed me up leaving me with no other choice but to join them. During the long four-hour car drive to Jin Zhou - and on the way back to Dalian afterwards - these Chinese guys talked non-stop about nothing else than cycling. I think about all new bike frame models and wheels were discussed, as well as the Tour de France, the teams, the riders of the past and present (CI-PO-LLI-NI!) and so on. So in China you also find people who are just as crazy ;-)

As we approached Jin Zhou, rain came down from the sky. Great. A wet crit. The event, organised by GIANT, was already underway and our A-race was scheduled to start after the lunchbreak. It was still drizzling when about 45 riders lined up at the start. Many of them I recognised from the race in Jin Shi Tan. A crit is really not my thing and in the wet all I was concerned about was not crashing and jeopardising the rest of my season. The course was dead simple: an L-shape with a strong headwind on the back strait. 10 laps for 30 km in total. After half a lap I went to the front and joined an early breakaway attempt of about six riders. The seven of us had a small advantage over the main group as we turned into the back strait for lap 2. As the wind blew in our faces, I signalled my companions to work together in short stints. But when I hit the front they all stuck to my rear wheel. In the spur of the moment I then swinged left and accelerated from the front and opened up a gap. I thought some riders would follow me in the breakaway attempt, but nobody did. I continued my effort rather conservatively at first in order not to blow myself up. A lap further, however, I noticed I had doubled the gap on the back strait so I decided to go for it. As of then, my advantage increased lap by lap and at the end of the race I took the win, 1'20" ahead of team mate Shuang Shuang, who won the sprint for second place ahead of the winner of the Jin Shi Tan race. This victory was a surprise, and I certainly did not expect to take it with a solo of more than 20km! Let's hope I can continue along this path in August.

Check a few pictures in my cycling and duathlon album on Picasa.

Duathlon & cycling competitions

Dalian update: back after three weeks in the North West

A quick message to say I returned to my appartment in Dalian last night after spending three weeks in the North West of China (Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu regions). I left almost immediately after university classes ended for the semester, but not before doing another cycling race in Jin Zhou, 400 km northwest of Dalian. A flat criterium organised by GIANT Bicycles, which I managed to win to my own surprise. This was one week after the duathlon race in Beijing, where I also emerged victorious to confirm my earlier success in Hangzhou. More on these later.

Several people sent me emails last week asking whether I was still alive ;-). The thing is I did not pack my laptop for my trip, which is why this blog has not been updated for a long time. Blogger is blocked in China, just like Facebook, Youtube and other similar websites. I can access these from my laptop because I installed a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which circumvents the restrictions.

My travels were great and I will be reporting on a thing or two as well as add photos to my Picasa page during the next few days. I will be in Dalian for five days only, as next Friday I am joining the triathlon team to a competition in Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain). Sadly, a duathlon is not on the programme there, but I am taking my bike along to train on some longer climbs. After all, the Oetztaler is approaching now..