James Chan

On December 25, Christmas day, but it was the race day. Merida Cup XC Race held in Bihu of Lishui City. It was in a wetland park.

This is what I got for 9th place

We started out early from Wenzhou towards the destination in Lishui, as early as 8:30am although it was scheduled to be 7:00am. Anyway, we hit the road and spent approximately 1.5 hours on the freeway. We got there at around 10:00, it was snowing, freaking cold in this winter, I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes. Nevertheless, we unload our bikes, changed our dress, then went to test the track. The track is not long and not so difficult. It was 2 km long, only had some small technical sections, other than it was pretty even. However, we had to go 8 laps, that’s 16 km, basically, we were competing physically at the end. Read more…

By heart breaking, I didn’t mean Fuyang is heart breaking, in fact, Fuyang of Hangzhou city is a nice place. The thing is that my bike’s chain broke right before the race started, which also broke my heart.

The XC (Cross-Country) riding competition in Fuyang was broadcasted few weeks ago, I got very excited and signed up for it when I heard of it. Finally it came and I thought I was ready for it. Early Saturday morning, December 18, I got up and rushed to gather with other friends from the club, loaded the bikes and set out to go at 9. It took us nearly 6 hrs to get to Fuyang due to the freeway was closed for snow left on roads days earlier, and traffic jam here and there.

After circling around to the city for a place to eat, we finally sat down at a small noodle shop and quickly finished it. We then headed to the course, where is located in an island. We changed our gears and went test riding the tracks. The track was good, I liked it but it was not clearly marked and I got lost in it. I was even chased by some bulls. But finally we found the exit and got out.

December 19, race day, it was bright. The view was beautiful, I didn’t really get to see the blue sky like that very often here in China. I got up very early as I thought warmup was very important. I again rode to the track, and yet again, I spent quite some time to get back by when my friends were ready and waiting for me, I felt sorry.
It was 8 already and the race was to start at 8 30. We rushed to the register and checked in. Got the plates, and attached it to my bike immediately and rushed back to start point. I didn’t know exactly the starting line and asked the referees, and surprisingly the answer was no. OMG.
Now the tragedy began, I heard a cracking sound, I got off the bike and checked it out. Usually this happens when chain slips, this time, sadly, it was not, the chain broke. It was 8 20 already and I could not get a chain tool to fix it. I was like f**k, how could this shit happen to me!
So I paid load of money, missed the game. It was a disaster. All right, that’s it, I got back to my room, took a shower, cleaned my bike and waited to go back home. I can never forget this and I have to write it down. The thing I learned is that always do a full check up before any riding to make sure your bike is i good condition. Always!

Posted by Wordmobi

Fu’an of Fujiang Province is a good place to go MTBing, for its terrain diversity and untouched natural paths. I had fun during the two-day riding. In fact, it was the best XC riding I had ever had by far.

From Wenzhou to Fu’an, it took about 4 hours by car, though it was a long and tiring trip, I was very excited. After I upgraded the fork, I had not had a real XC riding as the fork is 100% designated to XC. This was kind of once-in-a-lifetime chance for me and it turned out good.

The weather was not so good, cloudy and humid the whole day but the terrain was still good enough. I didn’t record the route due to that I forgot my GPS in the hotel room. On day 2, the weather was very nice, bright but not so hot, cool but not wet. I wished I could have more time to do it, we only spent 4 hours on the trail.

It was a chance of getting out of the noisy and lousy city and kissing the nature. It is a worthwhile place that you cannot afford to miss.

Right click here and save it as .kml file to view the trail in Google Earth.

Click http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/jchan/99969jfi9f0jfsv4 to view data in Sports Tracker.