ACHTUNG: This will be long so better bring some popcorn 😉
Finally back home… that was a long weekend! Friday day off from work to go to Fujian province and prepare for one of the toughest challenges in my short cycling career (and even shorter as a racer).
My friends and Iwent to Shaowu to race in Heros 2016 Wuyishan Gran Fondo. We went the easy way – sent bikes with the bus and went by high speed train. After arriving to Wuyishan East we had to wait for shuttle bus as the race was 90km from the train station. Getting to the bus with other bikes was complicated as again there was not enough space for bikes in the luggage compartment so half of that stuff went into passenger area and we were packed like sardines. After one hour and so we arrived to race hotel. Ramada it was called. Picking up race pack and going to room to chill out as in the morning there will be only pain with pain and additional pain.
I was feeling already so so as I was developing cold. Also my bike arrived very late so first had to check if all ok after my micro crash (i hit a policeman :D) on Wednesday while delivering the bike to the shop. After checking I took Attila for a short ride as I still have my “366 days in a row in the saddle” goal going on. We did 3km and went back. The night was awful… I was mostly coughing and trying to sleep so it wasn’t the best start into race ever but that’s life. Waking up at 5:30, going for a nice breakfast. Getting bike, cycling to the start… As always Elite went first, we went 5min later. And as always pace from the start was fast. Keeping in the peloton was not bad. This time I had my #campagnolo #zonda wheels so had no power meter and that was funny as I am so used to ride to numbers that I don’t care about pain as long as I see my wattage 😉 but that was a good test for me if I actually can ride in proper race enviroment to feeling, not only looking at my #garmin 😉 The peloton group was massive, like 50-70 guys keeping together, road bikers and mountain bikers (damn those guys were freakin’ fast). Due to weather forecast and some problems with route organizers decided that the first stage is to the top of the hill which was around 37km from the start. Over those ~37km we had 13km flattish stuff and 24 climbing with 960m of elevation gain. Damn… Hitting first climb separated boys from men already 😉 Good I was in that second group. Any climb is hard if you are used to ride in Shanghai which is flat like a pool table… I was struggling from the beginning (ok not so much but for sure that was something new for me). Second climb which was basically 700m uphill… that separated men from THE MEN! And again I was in the second group but the peloton was spreaded and separated into small groups of 2-5 people. We were trying to work together as we knew doing it alone will be superpainful. Doing this as a team was painful already… over those 24km i changed few times the group trying to catch up with the front. Last few kilometers were around 6% avg so hitting top of the hill which was the end of stage one was a great achievement for me as there were only two ways how to do it – go home or smash it. After arriving I wanted to get some water but the Elite group drank all 😉 😉
If you are not bored to death yet then there is more to come 😉
Second stage which was starting at finish line of the first stage (quite simple) was neutralised by organizers as that was 25km of quite steep descent (including few uphills of 300m elev. gain total). There was one supply station so I could finally get some water. Stopped for 30s, got two bottles and see ya!
Arriving at the start poinf of stage 3 was nice. Already lots of ppl waiting for the start (mainly elite but also few guys from my group). Waiting for others, recharging batteries (total break was maybe 10min). Few of my guys arrived in time so we could continue together. Third stage was mainly rolling hills with one hidden gem in the middle which was 3.5km (more or less) climb with gradients hitting up to 13%. For some of you this sounds easy but for me was hard. I only climb in Zwift… 😉
After dealing with that nice climb there was only descent. And that was beautiful. In Qiandao Lake Gran Fondo I was scared to death going down, this time I was more confident and it was much nicer… till I hit a #parisroubaix kind of concrete stuff (basically there was a concrete road all the way and in one place it was a disaster). My chain dropped outside and was caught by my pedal at around so it was no chance to get it back while pedalling. Had to stop. Justin Jencks who was all the time behind me on the descent finally had a chance to overtake me and he did it 😉 Putting chain back took few seconds but getting back to the pace after being dead already was hard. In the end I just rolled to the finish line. That was the end of my race… #specializedchina guys were already resting (and most of elite guys as well), also my guys were there so it was good to see them alive. Few crashes on the way, few ppl struggling so much they had to stop in the middle and wait for collector’s bus.
Rest is the history – going back to the hotel, taking shower, going back to the start point (it was in a different place than the finish line), picking up my medal, almost dying by drowning as we were hit by a massive storm. Tents were flying away… I got a bus back coz there was no chance to cycle to the hotel. Unless your name is #jacquescusteau 😉
Conclusion: suppper happy I went there. It was tough but satisfaction after finishing it is enough as a reward. In the end I was fastest foreigner in my Gran Fondo group (and was faster than few elite guys but I guess they were slower than me due to mechanical problems/crashes/whatever). 22nd overall in my group, 20 places higher than in Qiandao Hu Gran Fondo which was way easier compared to this ride. Fastest foreigner in the group. We had a great time with friends, we suffered together, we were partying together. We need to do more of that!
Thanks to Greg Meyland from Halkswood Training Systems for preparing me to be able to cope with such challenges. Thanks to Spinback Fitness Indoor Cycling for letting me to test my performance on their awesome #wattbikepro week before the race.
Thanks to Cyclingmania 輪語 for letting me to be a member of an awesome team! Thanks to Shanghaicycling and Jiakina Customized for giving me a chance of representing them in such a tough challenge.
BTW did you already order your new Shanghai Cycling kit from Jiakina?
TL:DR – second race in my life, came 22nd (out of >100), fastest foreigner in the group, finishing one of the toughest rides ever in my life. Awesome time with awesome people in awesome area during awesome race! AWESOME! Bring it on!
Few pics from the weekend:
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