August 9th Olympic mens road race

August 9th, 2009 - A brisk ride through the hectic traffic of Beijing from the 4th ring to a block near the temple of heaven was to be the starting point of the 29th edition of the Olympic road cycling event.  

Tom Lanhove, the organizer of the cyclosport invited everyone in the group to join but come 9:30am there were only three (Tom, Thomas, and me).  Non the less,  smaller group = mobility.  



At 10:45 am we found a corner about 1km from the start with a good view of the race so we figured this is probably as good as it will get witht he riders slowing a bit for the turn.  Seconds before the peloton's arrival, a entourage of police, buses, vans, cars drove past us in a fast pace.   








Luxenburg support car with the bikes of Andy, Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen.












spectators....













Bunch of kids lined up a few meters behind the tight Chinese security.
















Jens voigt riding way behind the pack... probably reserving his lungs in the smog of the city.















The main pack


























Shimano sponsor cars with shimano 7900 components

Pack being led out of the start by the defending gold medalist of 2004 Athens game Paolo Bettini.  Behind Paolo, the all star Spanish cycling team including kid Contador (2007 TDF, 2008 Giro winnder) and Alexandro Valverde team mate to eventual winner of the day Samuel Sanchez.

August 1st: Pre-ride predictions

Tomorrow is the third ride with the CycloChina group, Weather reaching into the high 90's - with the high of 98, winds 4mph south...  It's going to be hell out there as soon as we hit the climb.  A big group of 30 is anticipated, filling the bus completely.  I will opt. for the 55km of hell instead of the 85 tims time - more tomorrow.

Post ride impressions

The day started at 6am - had a tuna sandwich and soy milk to wash it down before heading down to the pick up spot for the ride. at 6:55am - the bus was already full of people, I was the last person to show up, it was to be a pack of 18 or so riders today. 20 days before the Olympics, saw many sporting events around Beijing, namely a mountain bike race near the great wall that occupied one of our vans that typically carried everyone's bicycles. Left with only two out of the usual 3 cars - the cabin of the bus was packed with bicycles. (pondering the suffering ahead)

Fast forward an hour and half and we're at our usual starting point. Forcast called for scattered thunderstorms but it was not to be until much later in the afternoon. The unloading of the bicycles was a show & tell of sorts with pro rigs of Trek Madones to Cervelo R3's, Ritchey breakaway, campy records, dura ace grouppos to name the flashes of brand represented.

As soon as the group mounted the bikes it was off to a fast start on a gradual ascent. 8am - the heat from the blazing sun was already starting to take full effect as the group heads for steeper ascents. Having not ridden for close to 2 months I was looking to do the 55km route with one steep 9km climb but the group was not having any of that so without options I hung on to the tail of the 120km and 85km group.

10 miles into the ride, the unassuming sunshine , humidity and gradual incline quickly start to have an effect on my moral as I'm riding alone behind the lead group which had left 5 minutes ahead of me. I made up my mind to turn back at the 15 mile mark but started to feel better after after a few climbs. 15 miles in I picked up a straggler that had been separated from the main group. He too had not done his due diligence prior to today and was also paying the price.





This route is different from teh 55km route I did previously in that the climb is gradual at first then hits with a rapid gain in elevation. Two things ran through my mind; one- where is the rain predicted in the forcast? surely that would be a welcoming sight in the scourching, unrelentless climb. The second was the buffet at Todai that Claire and I were planning to have later in the evening.




All in all the new bike handled like a F1 car and climbed like a mountain goat - if only I fired on all cyclinders it would have been a perfect day. On the final 10 kilometers the sky turned dark in a matter of minutes and the group was attacked by large and rapid rain drops as we descent into the valley back to the finish. I shot down the hill at around 40mph with the painful pelting rain on my face and arms - I didn't want to be a hero in weather like this, who knows how far the nearest hospital was. Within minutes I was completely soaked and pounding the pedals at 30mph before finally arriving at where we begain four hours ago.

The Buffet later in the evening was the best I've had in recent memory. I hope to improve on my performance next week - for now I'll need to recover my body.

July 18th - second ride

so tomorrow will be my second Peleton ride of the season - I've test rode the bike after work and all gears and brakes are working fine so tomorrow should be a good test for the specialized tarmac.  the unfortunate side of things is that there is a 80% change of rain in the forcast so I will need to be extra cautious on the roads - on the positive side, perhaps this will keep me cool on the climb in this humid Beijing weather.  

Sold!

Today I parted with the Corratec carbon road frame - Bought the bare frame 2007 and finally put it together this year - took it out for two rides and decided it was too stiff and fast for me.  Maybe the wheels affected the ride?  doesn't matter now... I'm looking forward to my new magic carpet ride - the specialized Tarmac Pro.

My new ride

After few months of search, I finally found my new ride at surf city cyclery in Hungtington Beach California - the Specialized Tarmac Pro.

1st peloton ride

The second group ride of the season came on June 1st - following the Mob road ride, I wanted to test my new road machine on more hills. It was to be a 55km ride with a 12km climb through col de bai yang gou. Brutal and relentless switchback climbs followed by sever head wind. Luckily I had already purchased the compact crankset for the task at hand and this ride proved that it had been a smart purchase.
Photo taken with my blurry iphone camera - this was to be the descent towards the resevoir and 5-10k to the end of the ride.
Couldn't ask for a more scenic and beautiful day to punish your body all over the climb