My racing day started at 6 am, trying to fool the subway woman that my bike was not a bike, but simply parts. I did this by taking the wheels off. I so smart. Off to the park where the Shimano Bikers Festival was held, next to the fifth ring road [like a highway], still in the city.
OK I’ll get to the main events quickly here, photos to come soon where you can view the other bikers which were hysterical, mostly the older women in their pink sweatpants and bicycles with baskets and rat traps on them… too funny. The idea with schlepping up very steep hills is that if you have a light bike, its easier. Pretty easy concept. My bike, purchase at about $176, is NOT light. In fact, my teammates were amazed I could get up the hills at all on my bike.
The first event was the road race, and as we know I don’t have a road bike, but thought I might give it a whirl, only to find out that I don’t like road racing. As far as I can tell, its just sprinting up hills, me beating the other girls, then on the downhills them catching up simply because they have road bikes and road bikes are faster than mine. It was alright, three laps, I came in fifth and won 300 kuai [$40].
The second event was the ever anticipated women’s individual mountain bike race. Alison and I had walked the course during the lunch break, and it looked pretty tough. 3 laps for a total of 7.5 miles. Well that’s the last time I’ll walk the course and not ride it: we started out on the pavement for about 100 feet, then a major off road hill which quickly bottlenecks so the idea is to immediately get in front. Well my janky $176 bike did not like me changing gears on the hill, my chain fell off, and all of sudden I was stuck behind grandma with her basket walking up the hill. the men were also racing with us so that added to the people. After the first lap I wanted to quit to save my energy for the team race, but my teammate Stuart convinced me that I could place if I caught up, so I kept going. It was a really fun course, and I went from 8th place at the end of the first lap to finishing 3rd. I was impressed with my catch up, but I could have made so much more money to buy better bike parts so my bike wouldn’t fall apart like it did if I had had the insight not to change gears right then… Ok, I’m over it.
The team event: I raced with three exceptional men, in the men’s mountain individual they finishing in first, third, and fourth place so I knew I was teamed up with the best! Their strategery was that the best guys would go first, so we could get a lead, then with me and the fourth place guy at the end our position could only get worse. I was third [this is a relay race by the way, we all do one lap] and when Stuart finished his lap the competitor was right behind him, which meant that the girl that beat me both on the mountain and road was right on my tail. I lost her after the second uphill and didn’t hear from her again, giving my team about a 90 second lead. When Siegfried, the last member in our team finished I was awarded a sweaty scruffy kiss [which was somewhat painful to be honest]. So we won that event, and I won some more money.
Grand total of new bike parts [meaning a new derailleur so my gears can change when I want them to, and not fall off at the most important moment in the race]: 1850 RMB or $225.
The day ended with some unfortunate heat stroke that I believe started after the road race: general dizziness and feeling like death, about to vomit, etc, and continued throughout the day [except when I was on my mountain bike, then I felt fine of course] until the evening when I really thought death was upon me, but fortunately Alison took excellent care of me and I made a [somewhat] speedy recovery.
