Will Dickeson: CT Blog: Tour of Qinghai Lake

Day 1

After finally getting hold of a Chinese Visa, I could relax for the rest of the day before flying out with the rest of the Jellybelly team at 1:20am. I have to give a huge thanks to the Fournell family in LA for giving me a place to stay for the night and driving me around town all day as I got things sorted out.

The flight to Beijing was pretty uneventful and we got to the other end without even so much as a missing bike. There was the usual fun of dragging bikes and gear for 6 riders and 5 staff around a strange airport and we even got to enjoy the 6 hour layover between flights in the Air China 1^st Class Lounge.

Day 2

We started with a quick trip to see the race doctors for the compulsory health screening and get tested for our blood pressure, 02 saturation and have an EKG taken with a machine that almost certainly pre-dated WWII. Everyone was deemed fit to race so we headed out for a training ride to flush out the effects of travelling. We came across a town that featured ‘The old city’ – a bunch of temples and buildings built as far back as 1779, and also had a look at any other temples or interesting sites we came across. We ended up doing about 70km and had a good look around.

Day 3

After a couple of days of good weather, it started raining today just in time for the first day of racing. Today was a 70km Criterium style race around a 6km loop and although it didn’t count towards the actual tour, there was $90 just for finishing so pretty much everyone decided to go out and get wet. It wasn’t just getting wet though, the roads are really dirty here and by the time we finished, everyone was caked with mud as bad as any MTB race I have ever done. Really glad I didn’t have to clean bikes after this one. The Crit was won by Lurii Leontenko from the Ukraine and we were just happy to open the legs up for the start of the tour tomorrow.

(Above: Mechanic duties for Virgin Blue/RBS Morgan)

Day 4

Well that didn’t work out so well. Since we got here, we have all been really careful about eating pretty much anything the race provides. The water quality in this area is not too flash and pretty much anything that is rinsed, cooked or comes in contact with the water can lead to food poisoning. Anyway something I ate after the Criterium did not agree with me and from 10pm I was up at least every hour to rush to the bathroom. This and the severe stomach cramps that came with it did not make for a fun night. I was still in trouble the next morning but the staff got my things packed up and we headed to the start of the 170km stage. The first 35km was downhill on a freeway so I just sat at the back of the bunch and threw up every so often but as soon as it went uphill, I couldn’t even turn the pedals.

Thankfully the sag wagon was empty and I went straight to the back seat and slept for the rest of the stage. The next 24 hours was spent throwing up anything I tried to swallow but after another night’s sleep, I woke up feeling great again. It’s pretty annoying to do all this preparation and not even be able to race but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Instead of going home early I’m hanging around to help out the guys a bit and to ride some of the stages for training. Hopefully it will help me out in few weeks time when I’ll be back in Australia doing some NRS races.

(Above: Trying to look happy about having food poisoning in beautiful China)

3 Weeks Later!

I had some good rides in China, rolling out an hour or 2 before the race and riding the stages with a few other guys that had pulled out of the tour. Kiel Reijnen had a great tour for Jellybelly, ending up 3^rd overall. There was some pretty amazing scenery, but on a whole, I was pretty happy when it was finally time to get on the plane for Oz.

In the day or so after I landed I ended up coming down with a bit of a cold and that, plus the winter weather, pretty much killed my motivation for a week or two. I caught up with my old team director Pat Jonker and ended up with a job with his team - Virgin Blue / RBS Morgans – as a mechanic for the Tour of Geelong. Despite the rain and cold it was a fun five days and was good  to work with the guys and see them pull in a couple of stage wins.

Watching Geelong on the sidelines has also got me fired up to race again so I’m back on the program and looking into possibly racing Tour of Murray before focusing on the Tour of Hainan in mid October.