A Sunday ride

Sunday morning, the morning after the 59km ride, I got up early and prepared myself for another ride. I must say that I am no fan of the idea of setting an alarm clock on a weekend; however, I did not want to be the person that held everyone back.

As it turned out, I remembered that I was not wearing my helmet when I was almost at the start point and felt that there was not time to return for it. In this I was wrong. When I arrived at the start point there was only one other person. The result was the even though we had committed to leave at 07:30 we did not pull out until slightly after 08:00. I have to say that this sense of time is very common in China. About the only thing that is generally, but not always, on time is the train.

We left and went directly to the highway that leads from Zhengzhou to Wuhan. After about 10km on this road the pack separation was already pretty evident. I was with the front runners vying for second and third (out of about 12) and often held back due to the lack of clear directions (I have no doubt that they would have been clear if I had understood what was being said). A few slower riders and a person on a lower grade bike were in the rear, followed by the mechanic on his bike.

Some of the riders

One thing that was interesting was an experiment done to see what the impact of the lower grade bike was having. That rider was permitted to swap bikes with the mechanic on a single leg (the distance between rest stops). He went a lot faster on the better bike. I think a lot of riders on more expensive bikes were glad to see this. After all, when one buys a more expensive bike there is a certain satisfaction in seeing that it really does make for faster riding.

At a rest stop (waiting for the stragglers)

We turned off the main highway at about 15km and then at about 35km we turned on to an even smaller road. While it remained paved, it was a single lane (both directions) road that, after passing under the freeway, meandered through several small villages. At 50km we turned off of even this road and began traveling on dirt.

The dirt road quickly went from being a road to a path. Once it turned to a path we left even the small villages and the only other person we met was a shepherd with a small flock. By this time we were fording small creeks and packing the bikes over short sections.

Eventually it was clear that this path had been more at one time. At one point it had been paved with flagstones; however, at this point it was simply a rough path. This took us to appoint where we parked out bikes by the method of leaning them against the brush and we began to walk.

Where we started walking

The walk was not far and took us to a creek and series of small pools that were surprisingly clear. Part of the reason for the clarity was the waterfall that we walked to. It provided movement that caused a significant amount of air to enter the water. I noticed that this was a very seldom visited place and there were almost no signs of other people: including footprints, broken foliage, and litter.

After resting on the rocks near the waterfall we walked back to the bikes and continued the direction that we had been traveling. This is where the weight of my bike was slowing me down, carrying it. The path turned out to have many unused and overgrown staircases on it. There was no way to ride these sections and we all ended up packing.

I managed to stay second so when we got to the rideable portion the lead rider and I went ahead until we found a nice shaded spot to rest. While there we ate some berries that tasted a lot like green apples (sort of looked like them too).

Back to the ridable sections

It wasn't far from here that the trail turned to a section of double track and allowed for faster riding. This took us to a village where lunch had been planed at a farmhouse. The tree in front of this farmhouse was claimed to be over five hundred years old. One interesting thing was the number of relics at this location. It seems that a small temple had existed on the site and, while it was about three thousand years old, it had been ordered destroyed.

The farmhouse A fellow rider

The result was that the farmhouse had stones that made no sense for a farmhouse, things like multi-ton monoliths being used as foundation stones and ornately carved stones with dragons reaching out being used in the walls. We walked a short distance to a monolith lying on the ground that the farmers were unable to lift and move somewhere more useful. One of the paving stones was covered with centuries old writing.

Look closely at this paving stone, we sure did

We then had lunch in the farmhouse. It was interesting that the farmhouse still had a large screen TV, a satellite dish and a DVD player. The dinner was typical Chinese fare. This means that I did not eat most of it. It simply was heavy in things that I, and most other westerners, simply find unpalatable. There was enough and I did get some food that I was willing to eat; however, it was still a very light lunch for me.

After lunch we lounged about for another hour, one must remember the Chinese habit of sleeping in the afternoon. Most of us did find the latrine and in a reasonable amount of time the guides started asking the owners of the farm house about the way to the next valley.

Lounging after lunch

This is where things went wrong, the farmers think in terms of walking with all loads on their back or across their shoulders. Very simply, they did not think of bikes. The route we were given included narrow levies between rice paddies with deep drops into stagnate water on each side, and steep climbs up dry, seasonal, watercourses. Very simply, we wound up carrying our bikes over the hill and into the next valley. The state of exhaustion was incredible and as a front runner I ended up not only packing my bike, but helping stragglers with theirs.

We finally came out in a small village, where it was possible to start riding again, and were pleased when a man on a tractor told us that we were near a road the would lead to a two lane road. We scooted down that road and eventually did end up in a small town along the road that had a shop where many of us, me included, were able to replenish our rapidly dwindling water supply.

Outskirts of the village where the trail started to improve

While resting here we met another group of riders, from the same club, that had gone on a different ride. The two groups combined and we were off again.

Small town where we rested

It was on this stage that I bonked. I simply ran out of steam. I was unable to keep up and fell to the back. It was a long 10-15km stretch and found myself in the back with a straggler. The mechanic then fell back and pushed the other straggler by putting his hand on her back as he rode, thus forcing her along, and I fell in behind them drafting. I made it to the next rest stop and he insisted that I have two ice fruit bars, they were good and it turned out that it was just what I needed. I left with thee pack as we pulled out of the roadside shop, there were now over twenty of us, and quickly pulled into second place where I stayed for the rest of the ride, about another 10km into town.

You can see where we went trekking from the destination point on the map (Lotus Pond) to road Y030, for that matter, you will also notice that there is no road from X032 Lotus Pond.

It was a good Sunday, exhausting but fun. Total distance not counting the distance from my flat to the shop where I started and ended, which is just at 5km each way, was 97km.

If you noticed a change in style in the middle of this post it is because I interrupted it by going on a 20km fitness ride (with a crazy Dr. who thinks he is going to make me loose weight) and dinner (the reason riding with the crazy Dr. will not cause me to loose weight).