The BUTT under the lead of our General was set lose on the roads north of Beijing. A fierce training schedule over six days, beautiful weather and good roads set the framework for the holidays. We set out to improve endurance, work on our jersey-line tan and to get ready for the next few months.

For a gallery of pictures taken during the week, visit the BUTT Gallery

On April 28, 2007, The Beijing Triathlon Association is organizing a Duathlon in Pinggu District 60km to the east of Beijing. If you are interested in participating in this event, please read the following document and download the registration form. The official map of the course is in Chinese and seems to be a relic of pre-digital times. I tried to follow the course in Google Earth, but the image quality of this area is pretty bad.

Please click on the image to view a fullsize picture of the course.

“This guy is crazy! When he enters the limits of a city on his roadbike, he accelerates as if he had a death wish instead of slowing down and looking out for pedestrians.”

A friend of mine likes to point this out to others when we talk about our training rides outside of Beijing. Truth is, I do enjoy the thrill of swerving through narrow spaces and narrowly avoiding crashes by being super-aware of everything around me while pumping with all my legs can give to get from A to B in rush-hour choked Beijing.

Recently I found a website made by a guy who likes to tape his adventures with a helmet mounted camera. After downloading some of his videos, I couldn’t help myself but watched them over and over again.

This kind of camera is very high on top of my wishlist. I’d love to see how scary my rides look from a couch perspective.

Some of you might know that I am a big gadget freak and also spend a considerable amount of time flying through Google Earth during the preparations for my races.

Today I stumbled over the following article in “Wired” (www.wired.com) which talks about real time tracking of athletes during the Tour of California (Feb 18th-25th). Below is a quote from the article:

During this year’s edition of the pro cycling race, the Computer Sciences Corporation, or CSC, will outfit seven contenders with specially designed tracking devices. Information about the riders’ locations and relative positions in the race will be made available as a map mashup during each of the tour’s eight daylong stages.

This is exactly what I have been fantasizing about for more than a year now. I always thought that it would be excellent if for example my (virtual) coach could follow my training on a map or if I could track my workouts without having to manually input all the data from my Polar watch.

Hopefully they will build this stuff in one of the GPS enabled watches soon, I can’t wait to update my stock of gadgets.

Maplinks:

GM:

GE:

Seeing as you are all very eager for the new season to start but probably still a bit weary as to exactly which races you want to incorporate in our pre-season training schedule, I prepared a list of races that might be of interest to some of you.

The list is a translation of a document which can be found on the website of the Chinese Triathlon Association (CTA)

This list will be updated as soon as we get new information. As always, I suggest that those of you with access to Chinese language support head over to the guys at Dongfanghong to check out the rumour mill in the forums (DFH).

Le Col de la “ Shuang Jie Shan”

We may not have an Alpe D’Huez, a Galibier or a Mortirolo to satisfy our sadistic cravings for epic long-distance climbs. Nor do we have stunning Alpine scenery or quaint little stone chapels along the way. And I haven’t seen any names of cycling gods in white paint across the mountain roads. No “Allez Tom Boonen, Der Jan, or Go Lance” around every hairpin bend. At most we get a Mao-era slogan on the cliff-face or a meaningless “慢” (Go slow) sign. But to state that we are starved of a great climb would be dead wrong.

Most of us already know the climb starting just below the Huang Hua Great Wall. It is just 60-something km north from Pinnacle Plaza and a fairly quiet place to cycle. Of course it will take you 30 km of boring flats, an irregular 20km climb from the Xing Shou village at the bottom of the mountain to the scenic viewpoint and about 10 km of smooth valley road just to get there.

The climb is exactly 15,76km long. I start counting from the middle of the bridge next to the convenience store in the valley, and end my meter all the way at the top of the climb (right next to the road sign). There is no way to ascertain the height of the “col” or the average levee, so I take some estimated guesses. I think the top is at about 1300 meters, because the highest peak to the west of the climb is ca. 1500 meters.

I take the liberty of dividing the climb into three parts.

1. From km 0 to 8: The road passes the fantastic scenery of the Great Wall. Every time I look at it, the Wall and the lake become more beautiful. The climb is irregular with some sharp up-swings but mostly long steady “faux plats”. I reckon it has an average of 5% levee until your reach the wood-cutting farm at km 8.
2. From km 8 to km 12.5: Now the road becomes really strenuous. These 4.5 km will test you with an average levee of about 9-10%. Most painfully in my opinion is that you pass the villages during this section of the climb, so they can all see you inch your way forward with bewilderment in their eyes. And a laowai, and on a bike, and in a shiny uniform, and breathing like a horse… They shake their heads in honest disbelief. During these tough kilometers you find no real point to recover which makes it very difficult. From now on the roads start making quaint hairpin bends, worthy of an Alpine climb.
3. From km 12.5 until the top: The road now drops to a steady 7%. The scenery is spectacular on a clear day and the road twists and turns to the summit. The road is quiet but overall quite rough on the tyres. Provided you pay attention to the trucks or cars coming down the mountain (which you should hear them coming miles away), you can cut the corners like the pros. Some 2 km before the end the climb, the road has a steep section towards the concrete viewpoint platform. That is the last main punch of the mountain. Once past that point the road drops again to a tolerable levee.

I have done this climb over 10 times, most of them by myself against the clock. Here is my data for those interested:

Height: 188 cm
Weight (at the time of PB): 78kg
Bike: Trek 1000 (aluminium frame)
Gears used for the climb: 42 x 14, 16, 18, 21, 24
Personal Best (PB): 44’ 18’’.
Personal Worst: 57’
Average Speed over 16km: ≈ 21 kph.
Temperature that day: 24 degrees

By Tom Lanhove

I remember there was once an article in that’s BJ (www.thatsbj.com) that listed all the bike stores in Beijing where you could purchase a decent bike and also would also be likely to find a mechanic who actually knows how to work a wrench and fix a tire. I put it aside no never find it again, so I had to start all over again and put together a list of bike stores all over Beijing. The good thing about it is that it also includes maps and google earth directions, so your purchase is only a click and a taxi or bike ride away!

In the future I might even write a short introduction to buying a bike, so frequent the site once so often to check out the progress.

All locations mentioned in the list below with one click in Google Earth:

Windspeed Dianmen Store

66 Di’anmen Dongdajie, 100 meters west of Nanluogu Xiang, Dongcheng District
Phone: 010 8403 6967
地安门东大街66号,南锣鼓巷往西100米路南
Map:

Windspeed Chaoyangmen Store

Chaoyang District, 10 Ritan Jinghua Road
Phone：010-85622509（Chaoyang Store 朝阳门店）
010-82622915（Shuang Yushu Store 双榆� �店）
URL：http://www.windspeedcycling.com
北京市朝阳区日坛晶华一层10号
Map:

Windspeed Shuangyushu Store

Haidian District, Zhichun Dongli, Building 14
Phone: 010-82622915
URL: www.windspeedcycling.com
北京海淀区知春东里14号楼
Map:

Windspeed Shunyi Store

Shunyi District, Eurovillage, Pinnacle Plaza
Phone: 010-80465538
顺义区花梨坎日祥广场
Map:

Giant Beijing West Flagship Store
Chaoyang District
Qijia Huangzi 2 Guo Heng Jiya Mansion, Building E
Phone: 010-62379740/62377295
URL：http://www.giant-beijing.com.cn
朝阳区 祁家豁子2号 国恒基业大厦E座底商
Map:

Giant Beijing East Flagship Store
Dongcheng District, 77 Jiaodaokou Avenue (22 Middle East Side)
Phone: 010-64034537
URL：http://www.beijing-giant.com
东城区交道口东大街77号（22中东侧）
Map:

Merida Store
Phone：010-68016789
Xicheng District, 18 Fu Wai Da Jie
西城区阜外大街18号
URL：http://www.merida.cn/index.asp
Map:

Ore Store
Haidian District, 18 Fuxing Street
北京市海淀区复兴路甲18号
Phone: 010-63957778
URL: http://www.ore.com.cn
Map:
Map 2nd Store:

Taishang Store
崇文区天坛东路2号
Phone：010-67012046
Map:

BJGOLDEN Store
Chongwen District, 6 Tiyuguan Lu
北京市崇文区体育馆路6号（100061）
Phone: 010-86002824
Fax: 010-67122121
Contact：杨洋（13901329274）
Email: bicycle5803@sina.com
Map:

Discuss this article:

While we are still preparing for the weekend and looking forward to the 24th of September, there is already another opportunity sneaking up on us fast; the Beijing Marathon will let thousands of people lose on the streets of Beijing on the 15th of October 2006.

Siegfried has been in touch with Yang XU already to verify our registration fees. Our expat fee will be 80RMB for the full marathon (60RMB for the half marathon) if we sign up with Yang at swissôtel.

Event: Beijing Marathon
Date: October 15, 2006
Time: 08:00 Tiananmen Square
Race Course: Click here
Runners Guidebook: Guidebook (pdf)
URL: Official Website

We can organize a collective registration. If you want to register for the event, please click on the link below to go to the registration page and submit your details.

To all those that have never been to a criterium race let me give you a short description. Imagine a bunch of cyclists pouring onto a F3 race track, lining up in the start area and then starting to pedal like idiots in circles for an hour. See the fun in it? We all do, and that is why we will be at it again on Wednesday (August 30th) at 18:00 on the Goldenport Race Track.

Venue: Goldenport Race Track Beijing
Time: 18:00 !!!
Duration: 1 hour
Fee: 40RMB
Directions:

A bus leaves from the Windspeed shop near Chaoyangmen.

I just browsed to the official website of the Beidaihe Triathlon that will start on Saturday, September 2nd at the beach resort east of Beijing. While I was looking for contact details to get us signed up, I stumbled upon this bit of news:

由河北省铁人三项运动协会、秦皇岛市体育局主办，河北省体育彩票管理中心协办，秦皇岛市体育局、北戴河区政府、北戴河区体育局承办的“’06体育彩票北戴河铁人三项大赛”将于9月2日（下周六）在北戴河老虎石浴场、及区内公路上举行。
　　本次大赛亮点颇多，不仅吸引了众多名来自全国各地的“铁人”选手报名，还接到了来自英国、德国、瑞典、澳大利亚、比利时、美国等国籍的10名外国选手的参赛报名。这10名选手的年龄大多在20—50之间，Cath Mortin是其中唯一的一名女选手。他们的到来，不仅为本次大赛注入了更鲜活的力量，使本次赛事上升到了一个新的高度，同时也体现出体育健身� 国界、体育健身已成为全世界的一种时尚潮流。

In which we are already mentioned as the attraction of the race, although we haven’t even confirmed our participation yet.

While I’m at it, here is the english text of the rulebook for this race: http://www.hbtcw.com/news/news_content.asp?id=4842