Wulong Outdoor Quest – Chongqing, China '07

With our racing season having been decimated by lack of a sponsor for international races we were lucky enough to receive an invitation from the organisers which included our flights and entry fee. With plenty of rather cryptic calls and emails from the organisers, we finally managed to arrange our flights and schedules. Then all we had to do was organise who was racing. Aaron had to decline due to the impending birth of their first child; Luke was still at Police College so we were looking a bit thin on the ground. After racing in Australia with Gordon I thought he was the next logical point of call and luckily he was keen. Gordon then managed to hook us up with NZ Xterra champion Tim Wilding and we were set.

The format was a 45 minute prologue on day zero and then 3 days of 6-8 hours of racing. This race also had the controversial rule where a team could substitute their female for a male aged over 45 which many teams decided to do. One of our main rivals Nike went with 4 men seeing as one of their regular members Mike Kloser is 47. Mike unfortunately for us has shown no signs of slowing down despite his years and regularly gives many younger elite athletes a thrashing – usually on the bike. Combined with their other 3 members they were definitely going to be hard to beat.

Our team we knew would be physically strong but lacking a bit of experience and also with Tim having only paddled a couple of times before we were sure to give up a little of our usual dominance in the paddling sections. Another big factor in China was to be the heat with average daily temperatures well over 35 degrees. With this in mind we all under took some heat training in the week leading up to departing for China. This involved creating the hottest room possible, then adding several layers of thermals and fleece, topped off with wet weather gear and hats and then completing an hour on the windtrainer. I’ve had a number of these build ups now and they never get any more fun but they do seem to be effective.

Arriving in China we managed to spend a morning at one of the Temples in Beijing – the Temple of Heaven which had some amazing sites. That evening we flew to Chongqing and then had a white knuckle bus ride for 5 hours to the race hotel. I was lucky enough to sleep through most of it somehow but those that had been awake seemed rather glad to finally get off the bus. The hotel was on top of Fairy Mountain, 1500m above Wulong where we were to start most of our racing. At 4 stars it was still showing its age a touch and with high humidity and heat our particular room was so damp that after one night the ink had run on a piece of paper I left on the floor the previous evening. The toilet was also a cultural experience. While many of the overseas teams had western style toilets we had the squat toilets. It caused plenty of discussion over correct techniques, which way should you face and plenty of the other finer points of toilet etiquette.

DAY 0 – Opening Ceremony and Prologue

After a quick race between the buses to see who could wear their brake pads out the fastest (plus one stop to refill the water coolers for the brakes) we arrived in Wulong for the opening ceremony. Thousands of people had gathered in the town centre along with traditional dancers and dignitaries from the various government agencies. In China like Malaysia it seems you have to have a speech from every politician involved – in the correct order of importance and they definitely get pretty excited about it. Finally the formalities were over and it was on to the racing. On hurdle was a 3 metre high wall that had been erected which we had to get all 4 members over twice during the prologue. As the gun went it was pandemonium as 24 teams barged their way down the main street on the first 3 km run. The Chinese teams flew to the front in hot pursuit of Nike. By the 1500m mark most of them were spent and one team were on the side consoling their female who appeared to be in tears that they had been passed. We had started a bit more conservatively and now started to move through the field. By the end of the run we were in about 5th and as we piled over the wall we leap frogged up to 2nd, largely courtesy to Tim getting some extra help getting over last as there was such a pile of bodies by this stage he had plenty of shoulders and heads to stand on (by accident of course) as we pulled from the top. On the bikes and we stormed around the 5km circuit arriving at the river just behind Nike and with plenty of clear space behind. We’d been told there was no need for spray skirts so off we set without them. Elina and I were in one boat and Gordy and Tim in the other. Unfortunately Gordy was finding out how impossible it was to steer from the front and with Tim having never had to steer before they were making hard work of the short paddle. Worst was to come as we hit some reasonable sized wave trains and started taking on vast quantities of water. Several teams were catching us and then disappeared just as fast as they capsized or sank. Tim and Gordy were making better progress now although they were close to sinking, as were Elina and I so it was with relief that we exited the water, now hot on the heels of Nike who had two swims. La Fuma were also with us so it was a frantic sprint to the finish where we had to negotiate the wall one last time. Nike just got there first, we came second and La Fuma were only seconds behind in 3rd. Many teams had problems in the prologue and the gaps were pretty significant, most of the heavier combinations in the boats had sunk in the waves due to no one putting the spray skirts on, Sarah from Team NZ TBC went down on the bike but luckily didn’t do too much damage and Wayne from NZ Cavaliers ripped open his shin getting over the wall. Shortly after we got to spray the crowd and each other with Champaign at the prize giving and then it was back up the hill to pack for the following days battle.

DAY 1

With persistent heavy rain throughout the night many of us were worrying about our tyre choices for the long MTB sections today. We again plummeted down to the town of Wulong for the start of the race. We started on a 5km run along the course we had biked in the prologue. Again the Chinese we hammering and we slipped in behind them as we chased along behind the Nike boys. Into the transition to the kayak and we emerged at the front with Nike and La Fuma again. Down to the river and we were all careful to adjust the spray skirts properly today. Gordon and Tim had also switched and they were quickly into a good pace with none of steering issues of the prologue. We pulled away steadily for the first half of the paddle before La Fuma started catching us and then passed us, both our boats seemed to be slowly filling with water but the water had been much flatter for a while now so we continued on. More teams started to catch us and I hadn’t realised how much water Gordy and Tim must have had on board as halfway through the last rapid their boat disappeared from underneath them and they were left swimming and went straight past the transition area. Elina and I were on the bank wondering where they had disappeared too as going into the final turn they had been right behind us and then they were pointed out coming back up river on a police boat and their kayak several hundred metres further down, only just showing above the water. During this time a number of teams had been and gone through the transition and all we could do was wait as first Gordy, then Tim were dropped on the bank. After a rather frustrating 10 minutes we were off on the second 5 km run, this time off road and we quickly started reeling teams in. By the end of the section we were back up to 3rd and just behind Nike. La Fuma lead and as we bowled out of the transition Tim flatted almost immediately. As we repaired the tyre all our hard work was undone as we were passed by all the teams we had caught on the run. What seemed like an age later the tyre was fixed but with a huge slice in the sidewall and a gel packet the only protection for the tube Tim was going to have to ride pretty carefully on the rocky trails. So back on the bikes and within a few hundred metres we were forced off again – as were all the other teams as the sticky mud made riding impossible and collected on tyres and frames, seizing the wheels and making the bikes extremely heavy to carry. After peeling as much as we could off we lugged our bikes on our shoulders for the best part of an hour. When we could finally ride again we found we now had other issues. A stone had been jammed in my derailleur cage making riding impossible and Tim gears wouldn’t work due to the copious amounts of mud. A few more minutes washing bikes in a large puddle and some rudimentary stone extraction and it was off again in pursuit of the teams who had again all passed us. The remainder of the first climb went well although we didn’t see too many teams which was worrying as we must have been close to 10th. Cresting the top we finally caught glimpses of 4-5 teams up ahead and as we descended 2 teams punctured and we caught the other 2 at the start of climb 2. Another worrying aspect was we still had 20 km to go and it was obvious it was all going to be up hill. It was getting pretty warm and gauging how hard you could push without overheating would be critical. We were now in 4th and Marcel’s all men’s Team was next on the list to catch. 10 km later and after pushing an honest pace we reached an aid station where we were told we were still 4 minutes down on Cavaliers, and 11 down on LA Fuma – Nike was way in front. Scoffing some bananas, filling our water bottles and setting off again armed with ice cubes in our helmets we started to really push it. The next hour of the ride was hard on all of us but we towed and encouraged each other through bad patches. More motivation when we finally glimpsed team Cavaliers up ahead. 10 minutes later we chased them down. 3rd and the day was starting to look better. A 15 minute rest area was waiting for us at the top of the climb and we kept the pressure on right to the stop. La Fuma looked like they had just got there as well and we quickly learnt we had brought the margin back to just 45 seconds. Nike had already left the rest area and as we waited out our mandatory stop we were able to refuel, do some much needed maintenance on the bikes and prepare for the last 3 sections of the day. We quickly caught and passed La Fuma after the stop and slowly pulled away. We briefly saw them again after we experienced another puncture. This time it seemed to be a really slow leak so with the pump at the ready we continued, pausing to add more air every 10 minutes or so. Soon after we looked back and could see no sign of any teams, we later found out they had broken 3 bikes just after we had last seen them and had to run most of the way to the next transition. Arriving at the Biathlon Gordy and I were first up on the run, it was getting hot and when the bikes finally came into view it was a welcome relief. We zipped past Elina and Tim as they ran and dropped the bikes further on. We continued on and soon it was on to the final leg, an 80 metre abseil into a huge canyon and then a run out. The view was incredible as we dropped over the edge and far below we could see a constant stream of people entering some elevators – that would have been a nice easy way out! Once we were all down it was off on a short run to the finish during which we past an incredible looking ancient Chinese building which was tucked away in this massive canyon. We must have climbed 5000 steps on the way out and it was with a measure of relief that we finally finished the day. 25 minutes later La Fuma arrived only minutes in front of NZ Cavaliers and we were bundled back up on stage to waste some more Champaign. It was a longer than anticipated day and many teams looked wrecked from the effort and a number of teams missed finishing the full course. A long night of bike cleaning and re-packing ensued once back and the stories of broken bike gear were amazing. We thought we’d had enough bad luck but in fact we had escaped lightly in comparison to most teams.

DAY 2

Today we only had to drive halfway down the hill which was nice as we were finishing at the hotel today and even a 1000m vertical was going to be tough. We started on the first of two long runs with the Chinese again setting the pace for the first part. We ran through a huge canyon system and back past the same canyon that we had run out of yesterday. A lot of the running was in a creek, ala Coast to Coast style running and several of the other kiwis decided to show that they could sprint through the terrain, dropping their teams in the process and each time we would amble on by as they had to stop and wait for their team to catch up. We kept Nike in view and behind us La Fuma, Powered by Velvet and Cavaliers were battling for 3rd position. The run gradually wound its way up the Valley and quicker than we thought a dam came into view. About the same time we saw the Chinese team who had gone off the front. We entered the boats just after Nike and quickly over took the Chinese who made paddling look positively impossible. The lake was a stunning twisted waterway with towering Mountains all around. A 500m portage partway through favoured the all men’s teams but we entered the water still in second. During the portage we noticed that one of the boats had a small hole cut in the front of it, maybe that was the reason Tim and Gordon had sunk yesterday? We made a note to check the kayaks for the next sections. Minus some of our lead on the chasing teams we set off on the second potion of the paddle and soon re established our gap. On exiting we had a short struggle through some super deep and sticky mud before heading off on the next run. This was 10 km and we climbed much faster on this leg. We were only just able to run the up hills as the trails were much steeper than before. We climbed through some small Villages and started to wind our way into steep narrow valley where the track reduced us to a walk and we were able to look almost back to where we had started 25km before. Finally we reached the top of the climb and followed a winding track through the rolling tops of the Mountain. We thought we had reached the next section, horse riding when a whole bunch of tethered horses came into view but it wasn’t until a couple of km later that we finally jumped on the horses and were lead the few hundred metres into the rest transition and out 15 minute mandatory stop. Out horse handlers would break into a jog every now and then but when the Chinese finally came into view they were positively sprinting. Today we were all feeling pretty good and the weather was also much cooler higher up. On to the bikes and only a couple of minutes behind Nike we pushed hard until the track became unrideable – more mud though thankfully not as bad as day 1. Some technical single track followed and with tyres coated in mud Elina and Gordon took an unscheduled trip of the track and down a bank. Shortly after we turned onto a rocky Village road and we started making faster progress. The riding was a mixture of grinding up hills and fast undulating sections with the ever present worry of punctures on the harsh rocks. We briefly popped out on some seal for a super fast decent before heading back off road with a local Village cheering us on at the turn. They seemed to be having quiet a party and as we rose up a hill shortly after we thought we could hear them cheering another team on. We still had 10km to go so we drove on with even more determination, the rain was now pouring down and the trail was like a river, even complete with a rocky bottom. Eventually our luck ran out on punctures as Tim suffered a flat. We managed to get this sorted somewhat fast than the previous day and before long we were back flogging ourselves in the direction of the transition, now convinced a team must be right behind. We hit the transition still with no other team in sight and found we were still only minutes behind Nike. We squeezed off 10 shots each on the paint ball guns for the last adventure skill of the day before a biathlon section. Gordy and I were first up on the run and jealously watched Elina and Tim bike off up the road. It is always good to see the bikes but it wasn’t that much less wok for me as I was riding Elina’s bike so my knees where around my ears as I pedalled, at least the down hills were easy. A short time later after a couple of bike run swaps we finished the day off with a short jog up to the finish at our hotel. Nike had beaten us by 8 minutes but as the time ticked away it was obvious how good our day was as Cavaliers were next to arrive over 30 minutes later. More Champaign to finish the day as Marcel and Gordon sprayed each other as the rest of us hid behind our oversized cheques trying to avoid more washing.

DAY 3

After finishing at the hotel the previous night we had been able to get sorted quickly and so even with an early start everyone was well rested, although most were starting to look forward to some western style breakfast after a week of rice, soup and dumplings. One of the interesting things about the Chinese meals was that they didn’t seem to differ greatly between any of the main meals. We headed off down the Mountain and through Wulong to another town 20 km up the road. Today we started with a team biathlon and with a big hill in it, usually in biathlon you make a plan based around the bikers having a significant speed advantage over the runners. Today once the first 500m was over it was in fact the runners that were going faster up the hill. Our plan always involves riding longer sections than other teams and Elina and Tim got the jump on the other teams early and were riding about 500m in front of the chasing field. Gordon and I ran with the Nike guys and quickly our two teams established a good lead. After a couple of km’s Tim and Elina started running, unfortunately Gordon and I had run down a lot of the advantage they gained over the first flat section and it wasn’t long before we passed them. We leap frogged back and forth with Nike and when we hit the lake for our adventure skill there was only seconds in it. The adventure skill was to tie 4 tyres and 2 planks together to make a raft, and then paddle it 1 km to the kayak transition. Both of our teams seemed to have similar game plans and after 10 minutes of shoulder aching butterfly style paddling with each person lying with their face uncomfortably close to the person in fronts bottom we reached the far shore and swapped rafts for kayaks. We chased off after Nike down towards a Checkpoint and turn around. Tim wasn’t enjoying the paddling very much and we’d only just started, it was also getting bloody hot so it was a nice break to get to the turn around and while Gordy ran up to get the CP we cooled off in the water and emptied the boats. On the way back down we slowly started to catch Nike and extended our lead over the chasing teams. It was a relief for everyone when the dam came into view and the end of the paddling torture was at an end. Hundreds of stairs greeted us out of the boat and as we pushed our burning legs to go faster we could see other teams arriving at the finish below us. The next section took us on a run through a huge and spectacular cave. Hundreds of people were walking through and I don’ t think any of them knew what to make of these teams of four flying through, not taking more than a passing glimpse at the wonders around them. The cave was refreshingly cool but everyone had run out of water and when burst into the sunshine at the end we wasted no time in refilling our water bladders and we were off once again.  Nike were tantalisingly close now, we could see them around many of the bends in the road, less than two minutes in front and the gap seemed to be coming down slightly with each passing km. We dropped down into the town we had started from on a long winding and incredibly hot road and the legs were definitely glad to reach the rafts after the pounding on the tar seal. 18km in the rafts seemed like it was going to take forever and with the river swirling and often seeming to stop us we were surprised when the finishing bridge appeared after only an hour and a half. Again we’d taken a small amount of time out f Nike and we hit the beach well within a minute of them. A dash up to the Tyrolean traverse which saw members zip down the line across the river, splashing into the water sooner the heavier they were and then hauling themselves across to the far side to the cheers of their team mates and spectators. Other teams started arriving quickly and by the time we were on our way to the 15 minute rest stop 3-4 teams were all vying for the ropes. The rest stop was an essential time to get some food and cool down, it was by far the hottest day we had seen so far and most of the teams looked like they were feeling it. Nike had problems right away on the bike when they found they had 3 flat tyres in transition. While they were pumping them back up we slipped into the lead and headed up the hot and dusty village road that would take us to the final caving section. We had 20 km on uphill riding and it was only getting hotter. We tried to keep a steady tempo and not overcook each other but even so we had to take a few mini breaks to cool off in the shade. Nike caught us around ½ way but every time they would pull ahead they would be struck down by punctures. The lead was back and forth for the next 10 km and when the gradient flattened out we were still together and soon after the transition came into view. Now only 3 km separated us from the final cave and the finish of the race. Nike pulled a head on the run to the cave and we slowed to enjoy the experience as we made our way through the large open cave. There were plenty of drops and canyon style slides, drops and features and plenty of swimming. The deeper we got into the cave the cooler it got. It is incredible how quickly you can long for the heat when for so long we had been trying to get out of it. More long swims and we started to move along quicker to get back to the warmth. Soon a glow around the corner heralded the end of the cave and as we made our way down the final ropes we were startled to see Marcel and the Cavaliers burst into view behind us. They’d smoked it through the cave in their battle with La Fuma and Sole for 3rd  place and so our race finished with one final sprint out of the cave and up the stairs to the waiting elevator – the only way out. Out of the elevator and we pushed it all the way over the final few metres to claim 2nd for the 4th day in a row. Cavaliers held onto 3rd with Sole and La Fuma tying for 4th in a close day of racing. More Champaign at the prize giving and it was off to start the race to pack for the trip home.

With our bus leaving at 1am the next morning there was no chance to relax and with dinner out of the way the serious job of washing and packing bikes ensued. A short break for the official prize giving and then it was back to the packing, with barely time to enjoy a beer. The race organisers showed up with the entire prize pool of 100K USD in cash and dished it out in $100 notes to the winning teams. Not your everyday occurrence and although nice to receive the money so promptly I think I might have slept better on the way home if it was being wired to my account! We finally finished packing just in time to board the bus and I’m just happy I managed to sleep through the final bus ride back to Chongqing airport as by all reports it was more hair rising than the initial trip up.

Overall we had a fantastic time and it was a very well run race from an athlete’s perspective. China was definitely a very different cultural experience for our team and the challenges and inconveniences only made it more of an experience. Our team raced really well together and got along equally as well, and it was great that we were able to get the only girl on the final podium. Next year they are said to be scrapping the 45 year old rule which should mean we will have a shot at moving up to the top of the podium. Huge thanks also to the Wei Jun and the other organisers who made it possible for us to compete in the Wulong Outdoor Quest.