First New Year Ride

The first ride of the year would be a long road bike ride. I would ride from my house to the Trek Bicycle Shop in SIP. There we would meet a group of guys and ride out to Tai Hu Lake. This ride would be 131 km with five complete hours of riding. There would be eight road riders.

We would ride all the way out the island on Tai Hu crossing the three bridges and then doing a short loop around part of the island. It would be very nice scenery and a very pleasant ride. We would average about 26 km/h with spurts up to 40 km/h.

We would eat lunch on the island before our return trip home. I have a few more food pictures of some new items that we consumed. The first is a nice and spicy fish, followed by the restaurant specialty. Their specialty was an eel or snake dish with pork. The eel was very good and supposedly good for men.

It was really a cold day with temperatures ranging from -2 C to 7 C. I would use full winter gear which includes two jerseys (one with an integrated hood), a wind resistant cycling jacket, glove liners, gloves, and shoe covers. It always feels cold, but the guys say that when we start riding at 30 km/h+ the cold goes away. I agree.

2008 Suzhou Look-Shimano Road Race

Today was the 2008 Look Shimano Road Race. It was held near Green Lake in Weiting. The starting line was less than a half a mile away from my house. The race would be 110 km road race around a 5 km loop. I would consider it like a crit that would be run in the US.

My cycling buddy Zhang Zhong Ming would participate. He works for the local Trek store in SIP and represents Trek in many of the races. He rides an Aluminum Discovery Channel Trek Road Bike. He is a really strong rider and can keep up with the peloton very well. He might not be fighting for the win, but he will be in the main group when it comes to the line. He invited me to participate and I probably would have participated if it wasn't so close to the Hangzhou Half Marathon. So, I decided not to race.

Above are a few pictures of the peloton. Some of the usual big racers from the Chinese Trek Racing Team and the Chinese Specialized Racing Team were present. This race would also be a really fast race. They were doing laps in about 8 minutes per lap, an estimated 38 km/h. I probably would have been able to keep up for about 6-7 laps before I would be dropped from the peloton.

This race was very well organized. All streets were completely closed of from motor traffic. In front of the peloton was a police car and then a police bike. Behind the last cyclist was also a police motor bike.

Zhong Ming in the peloton. He is besides one of the few foreigners I saw riding this race. I can tell by their faces that they are moving really fast. There is alot of concentration.

Another picture of Zhong Ming in the peloton on one of the corners of the race circuit. After a few laps, I no longer would see him in the peloton. He was unlucky and suffered a flat tire. In these races there are no neutral service help vehicles or team cars ready to pass out wheels. A flat usually means game over.

Well, I did not get to see all of the race. I don't know who won or how the final sprint turned out. I was off to a lunch wedding to celebrate a new beginning in the life of one of our engineers! It would be my first wedding in China.

Taicang Jincang Lake International Bike Festival

This last Saturday was the Taicang Jincang Lake International Bike Festival. This event would would be a road racing event for the whole family. Saturday the road racing categories included the Elite Race, Children's Race, Middle School Race, and Open Race. Sunday would be the team events. These would include the Club Relay, Company Relay, and the University Relay.

The event had many sponsors and they would be able to display their products at the festival. The sponsors included Giant, Specialized, and Trek, along with other sponsors for exercise equipment and outdoor gear

I would participate in the Men's Open Division. This race was a 30 km road race. It would be my second road race in China. From my previous road race experience, I knew this race was going to be very fast. I was not sure how fast I would ride. I did average about 30 km/h in the Shanghai Duathlon, so I was sure I should be able to go faster.

Our race would start at two o'clock in the afternoon. We arrived a few hours earlier to complete registration. Here I am taking the bike to the registration area to pick up my race numbers. I was given No. 3.

The whole day had been pretty gloomy. It rained in the morning and I was wondering what the day would hold. I was definitely hoping to race.

Here Freddy and I are at the starting line. Freddy would also race his first road race. We spend a good amount of time at the starting line. The weather was an issue and the organisers were concerned with safety. Finally after, 30-40 minutes, the race organisers decided that we would race. They had a general announcement that the race would begin and they also announced that it might rain, so we must think about safety throughout the race.

We were all ready for the race to begin. Once the race started, the speed went up really quickly. There was one major accident at the start where I saw one guy go down and another guy flip over him. It's kind of interesting, you see it, you pass it and you keep going at 30+ km/h. We hit 43-44 km/h for the first two kilometers. The main group quickly sped up. I ended up with a group of three foreigners and we were working together for a the first 15 km. We actually were doing pretty good. At the turn around, we could still see the main field probably less than a km ahead of us. Then at km 16. I tried to pick up the pace and got a cramp in my calf. I was forced to reduce my effort and for 1/4 km I shook off the cramp. I got back to speed, but remained a distance away from the group that was working with me.

The last 2 km were uphill. A great Spring Classics's finish. Here I come pulling to the finish line with a nice group trying there hardest to catch me. They had been working together for the whole race at the turn around at km 15, I had seen them. When I my calf cramped up, I was sure they would catch me, but they didn't. I was not going to let them take me out at the finish line. I had raced to hard to lose anymore places.

I put my head down and pulled the bike all the way up the 2 km ride. I keep up the pace 33-35 km/h all the way up to the finish line. They were really going to have to ride very, very hard up the hill to be able to catch me.

They didn't catch me. I made it to the finish with a good lead ahead of the next group of riders. I had completed the 30 km race in 50:59. I averaged 35.3 km/h. It felt good.

I had enjoyed the race. I would like to get in the peloton next time. I need to work harder at the road racing and mountain climbing. I think by next year I should be able to race harder. I would say, not bad for an old guy competing against a lot of younger guys.

What's next? Well Hangzhou Half Marathon!