Start - Luo Sha
3km Run
53km MTB
8km Run
20km Kayak
Finish - Ya Chang
Well, day 2 was here. I'd spent the night night before stretching out my left side in the hope that the pain would be worth it for the range of movement the next day, and lathered myself in Voltaren gel. I seemed to be OK, and some soluble Panadol worked a treat to take the edge off. We arrived in Luo Sha for the start and didn't have more than about 20 minutes to get ready. One of the locals had opened up their house for use as a toilet, and walking through really reinforced to me how lucky we are in Australia to have the homes we have. Guy [Andrews] fell through a grate on the way out of the TA and as I gave him a hand out we both muttered about the lack of OHS in China.
The day started with a 3km run through the paddy fields, and again we found ourselves mid pack along with the Peak Adventure (Jarad et. al.) guys, knowing there was no point busting a lung on a short leg designed to split up the teams before the first bike leg. I didn't feel too great, but my pack was fully loaded for the next 6hrs of racing and I've come to learn that you never seem to feel awesome when you weigh 10% more. Into the TA we were just behind Czech AR and with a number of the Chinese teams.
On the bike we quickly climbed out of town, and after a short descent lobbed onto our first 'Tour de China' climb of about 10km @ 7%. Pavel and I got into a good rythym but the road surface was too rough to put anyone on a tow as you had to often dart from one side of the road to the other. The climb was clearly visible ahead of us as we snaked around the valley and it was really interesting to be able to see the teams in front of and behind us on a different switchback, or up ahead. In many cases you could work out how far away a team was based on how long it took between the locals all cheering Jai-Yo, Jai-Yo for the team in front, and then for us!
After a good battle with a few of the teams around us (including the ever smiling guys from Malaysia FTA), we rolled over the highest point of the day (1600m) and commenced the long, undulating descent down to 400m. The descent was quite fast in parts, and my dual suspension Merida 96 just sailed down, soaking up all of the bumps and allowing me to save a fair bit of energy and have a bit of a smile on my face. We were in tea growing country, and most of the terrain was the typical 'stepped' growing fields that you see in the photos. I couldn't get too carried away admiring the terrain though, because the drop-off to the left of the road was a loooooong way down and there's no such thing as a safety rail in China.
We arrived at TA 2 just in time, as a few of us were bordering on being out of fluid after nearly 4 hours of racing. I learnt from the previous days disaster and took my undershirt off, and then took the opportunity to pour some water over my head and arms to 'pre-cool' before we headed out on the run. I opted for straight water for my second bladder so as to avoid stomach problems after taking in nearly 3L of Gatorade on the bike. With my trusty Fluid Movements cap on, we checked out of the TA nervous about what today's run was going to unleash.
Initially, the run wasn't too bad, ranging from undulating to steep. But only about 2km in we realised we had our work cut out for us. The official race book showed about 400m of elevation gain in 3km (13%) however, by the time we got to the top, Sergey's GPS showed we had climbed over 600m. The trail was so dubious I'm sure someone had just hacked it the day before with a machete and laid out a few red tapes. We passed one Chinese team taking a break about a quarter of the way up, and then the highly experienced Kolumb team who informed us they had pressed the 'rescue' button on their GPS tracker. I was at my HR max despite really only walking fast and Sergey was starting to look pretty shaky on his feet.
As we started to descend down the other side I was hoping for some relief but we really just seemed to be falling in a semi controlled way and we had to be right on our reflexes for most of the way down. Despite moving pretty quickly, one of the lower ranked Chinese teams passed us like we were standing still on the descent, taking all sorts of risks. I've honestly got no idea how they were able to move so fast.
When we arrived at the bottom of the hill Serge was looking pretty uneasy on his feet, and eventually just fell down as we were walking taking in some water. We happened to be right near the medical car that I think must have been brought in for the Kolumb guys and a Chinese doctor came over to see Serge. After a bit of a fuss Serge got given some glucose and that seemed to bring him around. We weren't far from the final TA for the day so once Serge was back on his feet Pavel put him on a tow and we made our way slowly down to the kayak TA.
We arrived into the last TA at about the 6hr mark, and the sun was well and truly high in the sky. I was partly expecting them to pull us out for exceeding the advertised cut-off time and because Serge was in a bad way, but the TA was completely un-manned. So we unpacked our boxes and kitted up for the long paddle. The boxes had been sitting in the sun for hours and my PFD was super hot, so I poured a bottle of water into it to try and cool it down. Our boats were a pretty standard sit on top plastic number not too dissimilar to the fishing style kayaks people buy these days. I'm sure they're not too bad for fishing, but they're a long way from the K1 I've been training in. Maria and I were shared a boat to start with, but I couldn't get the bathtub to steer (without a rudder) so we swapped over and I paddled with Pavel.
Initially, I had a lot of trouble in the boat as our feet were higher than our bums (the opposite to a ski or K1) and that was causing my hip flexors to cramp almost continually. I'm not sure Pavel quite knew what was going on, as I kept having to stop and stretch out every few minutes. I realised Serge's camelback was still in the boat so I tried sitting on that just to lift my bum a few centimetres. It seeemed to make a difference and pretty soon I was able to get into a good stroke rhythm and even had some nice leg drive.
We passed the finish on our way down the dam to the turnaround checkpoint and I was feeling pretty comfortable. Likewise, we then progressively passed each of the teams in front of us going in the opposite direction. We cheered Peak Adventure (Aus) on, as they were locked in a real battle with Chiru Endurance (Aus/NZ/France) for third place behind Chiru Pro (France / NZ) and Vibram LaFuma (France). Seeing the other teams kept our spirits high, but as we turned for home the last 8km was just a slog.
We rounded the final headland of the dam, and headed for the waving flag on the beach. Standing up for the first time in over three hours is always a fun feeling and we really only mustered a trudge up the short hill into the village for the finish in 9:21hrs. I was pretty spent, and really didn't feel like eating at all. I mustered a bottle of coke (because in China we were provided bottled water or coke), some chocolate and a winners bar. Serge and Pavel both tried the Chinese Spam style sausage; I wasn't so brave.
One day to go....
3km Run
53km MTB
8km Run
20km Kayak
Finish - Ya Chang
Well, day 2 was here. I'd spent the night night before stretching out my left side in the hope that the pain would be worth it for the range of movement the next day, and lathered myself in Voltaren gel. I seemed to be OK, and some soluble Panadol worked a treat to take the edge off. We arrived in Luo Sha for the start and didn't have more than about 20 minutes to get ready. One of the locals had opened up their house for use as a toilet, and walking through really reinforced to me how lucky we are in Australia to have the homes we have. Guy [Andrews] fell through a grate on the way out of the TA and as I gave him a hand out we both muttered about the lack of OHS in China.
 |
| I love this photo. Guy with one of the locals (courtesy Guy Andrews) |
On the bike we quickly climbed out of town, and after a short descent lobbed onto our first 'Tour de China' climb of about 10km @ 7%. Pavel and I got into a good rythym but the road surface was too rough to put anyone on a tow as you had to often dart from one side of the road to the other. The climb was clearly visible ahead of us as we snaked around the valley and it was really interesting to be able to see the teams in front of and behind us on a different switchback, or up ahead. In many cases you could work out how far away a team was based on how long it took between the locals all cheering Jai-Yo, Jai-Yo for the team in front, and then for us!
 |
| Luo Sha town. Start day 2. Hows the fog? (courtesy Jocelin) |
After a good battle with a few of the teams around us (including the ever smiling guys from Malaysia FTA), we rolled over the highest point of the day (1600m) and commenced the long, undulating descent down to 400m. The descent was quite fast in parts, and my dual suspension Merida 96 just sailed down, soaking up all of the bumps and allowing me to save a fair bit of energy and have a bit of a smile on my face. We were in tea growing country, and most of the terrain was the typical 'stepped' growing fields that you see in the photos. I couldn't get too carried away admiring the terrain though, because the drop-off to the left of the road was a loooooong way down and there's no such thing as a safety rail in China.
We arrived at TA 2 just in time, as a few of us were bordering on being out of fluid after nearly 4 hours of racing. I learnt from the previous days disaster and took my undershirt off, and then took the opportunity to pour some water over my head and arms to 'pre-cool' before we headed out on the run. I opted for straight water for my second bladder so as to avoid stomach problems after taking in nearly 3L of Gatorade on the bike. With my trusty Fluid Movements cap on, we checked out of the TA nervous about what today's run was going to unleash.
Initially, the run wasn't too bad, ranging from undulating to steep. But only about 2km in we realised we had our work cut out for us. The official race book showed about 400m of elevation gain in 3km (13%) however, by the time we got to the top, Sergey's GPS showed we had climbed over 600m. The trail was so dubious I'm sure someone had just hacked it the day before with a machete and laid out a few red tapes. We passed one Chinese team taking a break about a quarter of the way up, and then the highly experienced Kolumb team who informed us they had pressed the 'rescue' button on their GPS tracker. I was at my HR max despite really only walking fast and Sergey was starting to look pretty shaky on his feet.
As we started to descend down the other side I was hoping for some relief but we really just seemed to be falling in a semi controlled way and we had to be right on our reflexes for most of the way down. Despite moving pretty quickly, one of the lower ranked Chinese teams passed us like we were standing still on the descent, taking all sorts of risks. I've honestly got no idea how they were able to move so fast.
When we arrived at the bottom of the hill Serge was looking pretty uneasy on his feet, and eventually just fell down as we were walking taking in some water. We happened to be right near the medical car that I think must have been brought in for the Kolumb guys and a Chinese doctor came over to see Serge. After a bit of a fuss Serge got given some glucose and that seemed to bring him around. We weren't far from the final TA for the day so once Serge was back on his feet Pavel put him on a tow and we made our way slowly down to the kayak TA.
We arrived into the last TA at about the 6hr mark, and the sun was well and truly high in the sky. I was partly expecting them to pull us out for exceeding the advertised cut-off time and because Serge was in a bad way, but the TA was completely un-manned. So we unpacked our boxes and kitted up for the long paddle. The boxes had been sitting in the sun for hours and my PFD was super hot, so I poured a bottle of water into it to try and cool it down. Our boats were a pretty standard sit on top plastic number not too dissimilar to the fishing style kayaks people buy these days. I'm sure they're not too bad for fishing, but they're a long way from the K1 I've been training in. Maria and I were shared a boat to start with, but I couldn't get the bathtub to steer (without a rudder) so we swapped over and I paddled with Pavel.
 |
| Day 2 Paddle-slog-athlon. We seemed to paddle forever (courtesy Jocelin) |
Initially, I had a lot of trouble in the boat as our feet were higher than our bums (the opposite to a ski or K1) and that was causing my hip flexors to cramp almost continually. I'm not sure Pavel quite knew what was going on, as I kept having to stop and stretch out every few minutes. I realised Serge's camelback was still in the boat so I tried sitting on that just to lift my bum a few centimetres. It seeemed to make a difference and pretty soon I was able to get into a good stroke rhythm and even had some nice leg drive.
We passed the finish on our way down the dam to the turnaround checkpoint and I was feeling pretty comfortable. Likewise, we then progressively passed each of the teams in front of us going in the opposite direction. We cheered Peak Adventure (Aus) on, as they were locked in a real battle with Chiru Endurance (Aus/NZ/France) for third place behind Chiru Pro (France / NZ) and Vibram LaFuma (France). Seeing the other teams kept our spirits high, but as we turned for home the last 8km was just a slog.
We rounded the final headland of the dam, and headed for the waving flag on the beach. Standing up for the first time in over three hours is always a fun feeling and we really only mustered a trudge up the short hill into the village for the finish in 9:21hrs. I was pretty spent, and really didn't feel like eating at all. I mustered a bottle of coke (because in China we were provided bottled water or coke), some chocolate and a winners bar. Serge and Pavel both tried the Chinese Spam style sausage; I wasn't so brave.
One day to go....
 |
| Day 2 Finish TA. LtoR Chiru Endurance (red/black kit), LaFuma (red kit), Chiru Pro (white kit) (Courtesy Guy Andrews) |
Guy Andrew's (Peak Adventure) Blog for Day 2
Dougal Allan's (Chiru Pro) Blog for Day 2
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