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