My team manager, Trevor Brown and I were selected for an all-expenses paid trip to Guiyang, China for 5 days. I was invited to race in the short-track and cross country mountain bike event they were holding.
Written in the Opening Ceremony brochure was...
"Mountain biking, featuring "freedom", "leap", "green", and "cycle" as its unique sporting spirit, is an emerging sporting event deeply loved by people all over the world and is currently undergoing a vigorous development.
Guizhou is a province with exceptionally good natural ecological environment, and world-class mountain and outdoor sporting resources. The capital city, Guiyang, is China's first national "Forest City". With the dream and passion of "making Guizhou a key province for mountain and outdoor sports", "2012 Guiyang International Mountain Bike Invitational Tournament" is born. And the opening ceremony, as a prelude to the tournament, is the starting point to the dream tour of the International Mountain Bike sporting."
I heard the organizing team in China spent in the millions to hold this event. It was amazing. The hotel, police escorts to and from the venue, the opening and closing ceremony, the race venue and the course they built just in time for the event and the buffet and all the volunteers they had helping us and they event. Such an honor...
My travel time to Guiyang was 29 hours long from Arizona in the United States. China is 15hrs ahead of my local time zone. Hence, when I arrived at the 5 star, Renaissance Hotel, I was tired. I ended up sleeping that afternoon into the next morning.
Here are a few pics of my room, the hotel and the buffet area where we had all of our meals...
The following morning after our arrival, Trevor and I built my bike after its long travel around the world. Unfortunately, my bike did not have such a safe trip :0 My shifter cable was bent as well as my derailleur hanger...
Luckily Trevor was able to straighten it enough to make it ridable for the week of training and racing.
Next up was the parade. All the riders rode 19km from the hotel through part of the city with our police escorts on motorcycles while our support staff, Trevor and the others, rode on city buses. After the 19km we hopped on a bus with our bikes and headed to the hotel for some lunch.
After lunch we rode our bikes to the venue with police escorts and trained on the course. The course was great. Nice and tacky from the week's previous rain, lots of climbing but most of them were short with recovery sections following, the weather was in the 70's and the atmosphere was relaxed.
After a couple hours of training time, we were off riding our bikes back to the hotel. The ride to and from the hotel was about 20min or so. Once at the hotel there was enough time for a shower and dinner before hopping on a bus to the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony felt like an Olympic event. We each lined up outside by nation and walked into the gymnasium.
I have many amazing videos, but I can't seem to upload them. After we walked through the gymnasium by nation, we were seated in the bleachers to watch many beautiful, artistic performances.
The next day at 3pm was the short track event. The course was less than a mile long and used the same start and lower trails as the cross country course.
We all rode to the venue again before the race. I couldn't believe all the interviews and photos that were requested. I felt like a celebrity. It was great and Trevor was having a fun time with it all. I was so lucky to have Trevor there to help out with everything and it was nice to see him so stress-free.
I haven't raced a short track event since last year so I was a little rusty on the tactics that are involved. I did miss them though. They are intense and difficult, but only being 30 minutes long, you are not as drained afterwards. The race ended up being around 10 laps.
I had a great start off the third row in 21st position. My coach Rob Kelley from
www.trainingbible.com had me practicing starts, intense efforts and has totally changed and improved my training and racing. I have been with him since June and Trevor was so amazing at the difference. I ended up in 11th place which was great considering all of the talented women that were there from around the world.
After the men finished their short track, we rode back to the hotel, had a quick dinner followed by the team managers meeting where we found out we were racing 5 laps of the course tomorrow at 11am.
At 9am Maxine Filby, myself and a couple other women were the only women ready to ride to the venue. We missed the note about there being a change to the schedule allowing for a later escorted ride to the venue or a later ride on the bus to the venue... whoops... The other women decided to stay back while Maxine and I each had a motorcycle escort and rode to the venue. Since there wasn't a pack to hang out in and enjoy the draft, the pace was fast while trying to keep up with the escorts while getting strange looks by civilians wondering why there were two cyclists riding through town on the main roads. Wish I had a photo of that :) So, Maxine and I had a good warm up to say the least, with still another hour to go before the race.
Once again, I started the race in the third row, 21st place. This time my start was not so great with everyone bunching up in front of me. But luckily I made my way through the pack during the first and second lap and once again ended up in 11th place :) Pretty consistent.
After the event I had a couple more interviews and photos and off we were to ride back to the hotel. I missed lunch but got a shower in and headed back to the venue, this time in a bus without my bike, to watch the men's race. Luckily they had noodles for us there at the venue. Here is a great shot of Trevor attempting to use chopsticks... love it!!!
During the men's race they had to get an injured rider off the course.
Once the men's race ended, they had the awards and closing ceremony there at the venue. Another amazing show with more artistic entertainment and fireworks.
After the closing ceremony, we hopped in the bus and headed back to the hotel to enjoy another fine dining experience. The food was so amazing. I think I gained 5 pounds this week. I had to end my evening short and drag Trevor away as well so he could help me pack the bike up. I had to be ready to leave the hotel at 5am. Trevor wasn't leaving for another day so he was able to be a tourist and enjoy some scenery.
This time my travel back home was only 25 hours. But the jet-lag experience once I arrived home has taken me weeks to get over. I am still on the wrong sleep pattern :)
I want to thank my team and all of our sponsors, as well as my coach and the organizing committee in China. This experience will last a lifetime and I could not have enjoyed it so much without everyone.
