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Date: 19 Jul 2007 08:04:17
From: marian.rosenberg@gmail.com
Subject: Tour of Qinghai Lake
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It was apparently a very interesting stage. At least the chief
commisaire thought it was a very interesting stage with 18 different
breakaways.
I wouldn't know.
I didn't see stage one.
Oh, I saw a little tiny bit of the final sprint but in reality I
didn't see stage one.
The race left Xining at 10:00am.
I left Xining at 8:40am.
Yuck.
Sure I know that at any big bike race short of a criterium the best
way to watch the race is on tv but still it kind of sucks to get to
hang out around the real professional bike racers, eat meals with
them, occasionally help them go shopping, watch their mechanics do
mechanic things to the beautiful bike bling and then see absolutely
_none_ of the actual riding.
I suppose it could have been worse. I mean I could have had a full
bladder as I sat in the last car in the caravan with nothing to see
but the rear end of the sweeps bus and with the race radio off so the
other people in my car (who weren't talking to me) could juggle
seventeen tasks at once on their cellphones and walkie talkies. That
was how I spent Stage One of the Tour of Hainan (at least until the
guy from the South African National Team collapsed...)
However, I still wasn't exactly what one would call pleased with the
way Stage One went. Although the driver for the van I was in had
previoulsy been a driver for the race in past years he wasn't yet
really with the ridiculousness of our amazingly over early departure
and even with some stunning scenery refused to make a single stop by
the side of the road while simulataneously complaining about how cold
it was with my window wide wide open so I could take pictures from the
moving vehicle.
We got to Qinghai Lake a mere three hours before the racers. Even
though the altitude (3231 meters above sea level) rendered me
completely useless at anything that required physical skills such as
carrying, lifting, or moving the other people in my office were all
long time residents of Qinghai who had no problems and everything was
set up and ready within thirty minutes of our arrival. After which we
had absolutely nothing to do...
At the finish line I bought more batteries for the camera, took some
pictures of the crowd including some really cute Tibetan kids, and
basically killed time. At one point I was rushed back to the hotel so
I could translate the phrase "Press Conference" after which I was back
at the finish line watching the crowd and waiting for something
(anything) to happen.
Nothing happened.
Okay, so one of the Chinese guys in the crowd fainted from the
excitement and my friend Sean (who left three hours before the race to
ride the course) got mobbed by people who thought he was a racer (he
is, just not at this level of competition) but really nothing happened
except police periodically pushing people back to the line and the
ever growing crowd of people periodically pushing back.
The final sprint arrived, was there, over, and done with in what
seemed like a heartbeat. Ok, so maybe two beats since heartrates are
faster when the oxygen level is that low.
Back at the main hotel nothing continued to happen because a problem
with the electronic timing meant that the commissaire's panel was
meeting for some four or five hours before results were issued. I
hung out with the Shimanos (I already knew three of the four). We
watched people wash bikes. We watched mechanics do mechanic things to
bikes. Being mechanics they occasionally watched somewhat more
closely than I did. We bummed stuff from the Skil-Shimano Team. At
one point the one guy and I spent a good ten minutes watching a fellow
from Giant Asia Racing glue tires during which time we did nothing but
talk about tires. Since this particular mechanic (although working
for a Taiwanese team) doesn't speak Chinese I think he was actually
kind of creeped out by the intensity with which we watched him but, by
this point, we really had run out of anything else to do.
Which leads one to the rhetorical question: "is watching paint dry
more or less interesting than watching glue dry?"
After a lovely dinner nothing continued to happen.
Shortly after 10:00pm I threw a royal prima donna temper tantrum
because it was shortly after 10:00pm and things were being run so
efficiently by the head of the office I was in that I still didn't
know where I was spending the night. My other problem was that I had
been reprimanded for having the audacity to continue to eat in the
main cafeteria with the athletes and officials instead of buying my
instant noodles like my coworkers.
It turns out I had to transfer. Notwithstanding the fact that I
usually have trouble walking I probably would not have been able to
walk the two kilometers to the place where I was spending the night
due to my altitude adaption issues but I think I'm not entirely out of
line to expect to at least know where I'm spending the night and to
have at least had a chance to change my clothing somewhat sooner than
11 hours after I've arrived. Maybe I'm just spoiled like that...
To be fair to her although she has worked the race a number of times
in the past this is her first year in this particular position and it
was the first day of actual racing.
The place where I spent the night was really nice. Would have been a
bit nicer if it had heat but the blankets were more than enough for my
tropical blood and the sheer number of stars in the sky when you're
three kilometers closer to heaven and all the lights are turned out
made everything worthwhile.
-M
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Date: 21 Jul 2007 13:31:02
From: marian.rosenberg@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Tour of Qinghai Lake
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On Jul 19, 4:11 pm, "Bill Sornson" <as...@ask.me > wrote:
> marian.rosenb...@gmail.com wrote:
> > It was apparently a very interesting stage. At least the chief
> > commisaire thought it was a very interesting stage with 18 different
> > breakaways.
>
> I've seen this movie!
By the way, sorry about the double post... I'm not entirely sure how I
managed to do it once as Tour of Qinghai Lake and once as TdQL but the
rest of the race report is all in the TdQL thread.
-M
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Date: 19 Jul 2007 01:11:19
From: Bill Sornson
Subject: Re: Tour of Qinghai Lake
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marian.rosenberg@gmail.com wrote:
> It was apparently a very interesting stage. At least the chief
> commisaire thought it was a very interesting stage with 18 different
> breakaways.
I've seen this movie!
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