TdH Mass Chaos and Confusion - Day 1
marian.r...@gmail.com
were a number of factors that went into this decision. On a personal
note I was in the US this summer and had no clear idea of when (or if)
I’d be back in China. Just because my airline ticket was for August
27th that didn’t exactly mean that my leg would be ready to let me go
back on that date. The race also doesn’t pay me very well. On the
opposite side of things, I cost too much money (even at my highly
reduced “but I want to do this” rate) and I’m a foreigner at a
government event. To further complicate matters I went and got a full
time job at Sea Turtles 911.
I won’t say much about Sea Turtles 911. At a monthly wage
approximately twice what I can make in a good afternoon of translation
work I was trying to make a difference in the world. I wanted to be a
good person. Marine biology is not my specialty but living in Hainan
is and this was a job in Hainan. It seemed to be a perfect match. I
was there for seven weeks when the boss threw a hissy fit worthy of a
child one third his age and went back to the US. He didn’t know when
he was coming back to China. He didn’t know -if- he was coming back
to China. I’d been hired so that there would be sponsors and donors
and grants and there weren’t. In my 50 days as Fund Raising
Coordinator all I had done was talk on the phone, write emails, and go
to meetings. Even if I weren’t oh so clearly unsuitable for the job
the company was going away and there was no job to be had.
I won’t pretend to have been pleased about this turn of events. The
silver lining, however, was that I’d be able to go to the Tour.
Or so I thought…
When I called the race office I found out that I was too late. All
the staff positions had been arranged. All the volunteer positions
had been arranged. And one of the leaders was being xenophobic and
only wanted Chinese people in positions of responsibility. Even
though this had meant that a Korean wasn’t hired to be the Korean
team’s translator, that a Russian wasn’t hired to be the Russian
team’s translator and that the Belgian guy who goes riding with the
motorcycle club wasn’t welcome I didn’t think it applied to me. After
all, I’d worked the race the past three years. Everyone knew me.
Initially it seemed that “doesn’t apply to me” was the name of the
game. While I might be officially not a staff member and officially
not welcome I was unofficially very welcome. Just show up and we’ll
find stuff for you to do, a car for you to sit in, food for you to eat
and a place for you to sleep. No money this year but the promises of
money aren’t what gets me to work at bike races in China. Assuming
they pay me on time (which they never do) the salary is a pittance
that merely serves to formalize my role – I could make more doing less
as an English teacher.
I caught a ride down to Sanya with someone who sternly told me not
to let anyone important know I’d been in his car. Since we were with
the whole caravan of equipment vehicles lots and lots of unimportant
people knew I was in his car but they didn’t matter. So long as the
leaders didn’t see it happen it didn’t happen.
I got to the main hotel in time for a late lunch at the staff
cafeteria. The secretariat staff initially wouldn’t let me come sit
behind the desk with them but one of the directors of the sporting
events administration okay'd it and I did some simple translation
work. At this point there really isn’t a lot of formal translation
that needs me. The weather report, the commissaire communiqués, the
doping control notice, the rules and regulations regarding the use of
team cars don’t really change from year to year. It doesn’t take too
much work to find out how “Improper conduct, urinating in public” was
translated last year, to copy/paste, and to change the name of the
athlete being fined.
The assistant headmaster of the sports academy turned his back to me
and the guy arranging hotel rooms while he arranged my room in Sanya.
As long as he didn’t see me doing something wrong it hadn’t happened.
Shimano told me I could sit in their car at least one day of the
race. One of the teams told me they might let me sit in their car.
I’d be able to get my bike when we got back to Haikou and ride one of
the stages. I could choose between the sweeps bus and the feed zone
bus on other days. I might even be able to get one of the coveted
spare seats in a com car if I was lucky. I wasn’t an employee. I was
free. It was going to be a good race.
marian.r...@gmail.com
So far as I know the race organization has, in turn, complained to the
restaurants. There seems to be some slight improvement but the food
at the race basically sucks. With the exception of Waika
International in Wenchang none of the hotels we stay at get enough
western guests to have a clue about making foreign food beyond what
they’ve seen in photos. I’m sure they try. In fact, what with the
hotel in Changjiang sending out for a very successful meal of fried
chicken sandwiches and French fries last year I know they try. Try
and succeed aren’t always the same however.
That being said I really liked the breakfast.
I ate it while sitting with Team China. I was in an especially good
mood. There was muesli and cold milk. The fruit was fresh. And I’d
had an unbelievable conversation with Coach Fu the day before. Even
though I hadn’t been completely serious when I said the only way I’d
teach them English would be if they gave me room, board, airline
ticket, and the chance to go train with them and even though it
stretched credibility when he’d said “yes,” the fact that the riders
knew about this conversation meant it had been repeated to them.
There was no reason for Coach Fu to have repeated it to the riders
unless he seriously meant that he was going to find some way for it to
happen.
After breakfast I went to get my flu vaccine. All of the staff were
strongly encouraged to get a shot. Even though I wasn’t actually staff
I was told to get one. Although I’m not particularly worried about
H1N1 I didn’t see any reason to turn down a free dose of preventative
medicine.
Considering the reaction I had I probably should have turned it
down. Certainly I'll never take a flu shot again.
Of course, I’d never had a flu shot before so I didn’t have any way
to know I was going to react like that.
Even before they sent for the ambulance to take me to the hospital I
had a pretty good idea it was a very severe reaction. Although I was
expending too much energy on staying conscious to worry about worrying
there were far too many people who kept telling me "don't worry, it's
a very minor reaction."
I did not get a skin reaction.
I did not have a swollen throat.
I did not get a headache.
I did get very dizzy.
I found it very difficult to form complete sentences in Chinese. (I
wasn’t given the opportunity to form complete sentences in English so
I don’t know whether or not those were also difficult.)
I was very lethargic.
I felt like I had no energy.
I sweat a lot.
When they stood me up to take me over to a shadier part of the hotel
restaurant my feet and lower legs went all pins and needles numb but
sensation had already completely returned to the good leg and mostly
returned to the bad leg by the time I managed to tell them this.
One of my motorcycle club friends tried to convince me that I was
okay. I rough house with them a lot and an outsider who doesn't know
my relation to them might think they don't like me. He yanked
violently at my arms trying to get me stand up. He told me to stop
goofing off. Even told me that he'd let me ride on his motorcycle if
I got up now. He pushed, pulled, cajoled, even slapped me. Among all
the professionally calm people working very hard not to let me see
that they were worried his panic was strangely reassuring. Even when
they made him leave the room it was comforting.
I wasn’t told what my blood pressure was. They took four times
before they put me on the ambulance so, despite them telling me it was
perfectly normal, I really doubt it was normal. You don't keep taking
blood pressure again and again when it's normal. I wasn’t told what
my heart rate was. I couldn’t have read the results of the EKG even
if they’d let me see them.
The constant chorus of "perfectly normal" and "minor reaction"
combined with the clearly "this is not perfectly normal" behavior on
the part of the medicos nagged at me some but there wasn't any benefit
in worrying. I was already surrounded by medical people. Either
things were going to be okay or they weren't but there really wasn't
anything I could do to effect the outcome.
I don't know what they put in my drip at the hospital. I fell
asleep for about two hours and was released to take a bus back to the
hotel.
marian.r...@gmail.com
caravan is that the car you are in has a tendency to leave without
you. Of course, if I had been clever enough to already be in the car
this wouldn't have been a problem but I was deep in conversation with
someone whose car had no room for me.
The Media Bus took me to the start line.
This year's Grand Depart was from Deer Looking Back Park about
halfway between Sanya Bay and Dadonghai. This is both a good place
and a bad place to start from. It's better than Phoenix Island (last
year's Grand Depart) because locals can actually see what's going on.
It's worse than Sanya Bay Road (2007) or All Green Garden in Haikou
(2006) because it's smack dab in the middle of the land connection
between the two major bays that make up Sanya City. Traffic was
probably a nightmare for the rest of the day.
I scored a ride with ones of the Shimanos. I've known him since the
2007 Tour of Qinghai Lake. He let me ride in his car at that event as
well. With the exception of a break the Shimanos ride off the front
of the peleton and there really isn't a whole lot to see. It's still
a world and a half better than the sweeps bus or one of the vehicles
that leaves before the race.
There were no real climbs in Stage One so the racing wasn't
especially exciting and the breaks were few. The disadvantage of
being in a Shimano car is that they only get one of the Commissaire's
private channels so it was often difficult to figure out exactly what
was going on. One of these days I've got to get myself into a team
car so I can hear all the Radio Tour but just being there is good
enough.
I ate lunch in one of the staff cafeterias and and dinner with the
secretariat staff in the athlete's cafeteria. I spent most of my time
hanging around the main lobby not especially doing anything but being
available in case I was needed to translate something. Because I was
not staff I was specifically told that I wasn't allowed to sit behind
the desk but I was highly encouraged to be where I could be found. A
group of kids from International Cyclists to Asia who just happened to
accidentally plan their cycling trip the same time as the Tour had all
sorts of complications because their rooms had preempted and the
dining room wasn't serving food to anyone who wasn't with us. I
probably spent an hour or more talking with their tour guide, a guy
who I knew from 2007.
I would have liked to go swimming in the hot springs but my housing
situation was complicated and remained a big unknown until very late
in the evening. The hot springs at Baoting are sufficiently active
that there are natural pools of steaming water by the side of the
road. One pool, located about halfway between two of the resorts the
race was using, was fenced off with a locked gate and a warning sign
in Chinese "water very hot, danger of scalding, enter at your own
risk".
I should have been able to get a hotel room with no problem but the
number of people on the road somehow changed from 570 at the time the
reservations had been made to over 700 at the time we got on the
road. The hotel room I initially thought I would be able to sleep in
was shared with a woman whose husband was also in the caravan and he'd
left his room to go to her's. They hadn't been given permission for
this room change and when I went to knock on the door at ten thirty
she just said "oh no, there are two of us that bed is taken" and
wouldn't open the door.
Eventually I ended up in my sleeping bag on the floor of a friend's
room.
dgk
I really love reading your stuff. Thanks for posting these.
marian.r...@gmail.com
course, that assumes one is taking a direct route. The direct route,
however, would have been boring.
Being as Xinglong is located due east of Baoting the race started by
going northwest where it eventually met up with the G224 (until the
expressway gets built the major road down the center of the island)
went north through Wuzhishan and Qiongzhong and turned southeast to
Xinglong for a total of over 180km.
The Shimano told me I couldn't ride in his car again. I'd only been
expecting one day and thought that two days was pushing it but it
wasn't that. Someone official had complained that both the Shimano
cars had had unofficial passengers in the front seat the day before.
I rode on the Sweeps Bus instead. The combination of tropical weather
and mountain stage meant that the sweeps was going to be an
interesting place.
We started the day off being flagged down by a rider from Marco Polo
Cycling who just wasn't up to the heat. He got on the bus and started
chatting away at me, remembering my name and everything, which was a
little embarrassing since I had no clue who he was other than "Chinese
rider". They had to announce his name over the com radio, however, so
I was able to pick it up without having to admit my lack of knowledge.
The next two riders on the bus were Russian. I'd have been happier if
they'd waited a little longer to give up since our driver now sped up
to catch up with the last of the dropped riders and I began to get a
wicked case of motion sickness. During the brief period of time that
I lived in Wuzhishan I used to bike the 90km down to the expressway to
catch the bus back to Haikou solely so I wouldn't have to be in a fast
moving bus on twisty mountain roads.
The fourth rider to get on the bus necessitated some shifting around
of bikes. I took over from the official Sweeps Bus Helper/
Translator. He's not a cyclist and had never tetrissed bikes together
before let alone while facing backwards on a fast moving bus on twisty
mountain roads. My motion sickness got all that much worse but there
was now space to fold down an aisle seat and stretch out across four
seats and go to sleep.
Some unknown period of time later I woke up and found myself curled in
a painfully cramped ball across two seats. The aisle seat had been
folded up and there was now a bicycle in the way. I'd been enough
dead to the world that I missed the bus stopping, people getting on,
people moving me around, and people putting a bike where I'd
previously been sleeping. Although I'm usually known as a sound
sleeper this had me pretty impressed.
I felt sorry for the last two riders to cross the finish line. They
were clearly tired and sore and hurting, ready to give up but not
willing to give up ... only for them to find out when the results came
out that despite a mountain stage's 18% time limit they weren't
finishers. Must really suck to ride 180+ kilometers of mountains in
30 degree weather only to find out that you didn't finish after all.
Being an unofficial person I was able to go grocery shopping with the
team manager for the Netherlands as neither his team's liaison or the
driver had ever been to Xinglong before. The liaison told me I could
set up my sleeping bag in her room and I didn't worry about my housing
arrangement until well past dinner when I actually went to bunk
there. Stupid girl actually asked permission from her teacher and of
course, at 9:30 at night, had been told no ... leaving me scrambling
once again.
Two guys from the Secretariat eventually let me use their room but as
I was sitting outside at 1am taking a phone call from a friend the guy
in charge of rooms walked by and said "guess what I found" ... an
envelope with an unassigned room key...
Sheer bliss.
-M
Bob Schwartz
> He got on the bus and started
> chatting away at me, remembering my name and everything, which was a
> little embarrassing since I had no clue who he was other than "Chinese
> rider". They had to announce his name over the com radio, however, so
> I was able to pick it up without having to admit my lack of knowledge.
At least you didn't use the excuse that they all look alike.
It was right there for you.
This is some of the most interesting stuff to come through
here. Thank you.
Bob Schwartz
dgk
It is really a great picture of something I would otherwise be unaware
of.
Brian Huntley
> On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:28:45 -0600, Bob Schwartz
>
> >marian.rosenb...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> He got on the bus and started
> >> chatting away at me, remembering my name and everything, which was a
> >> little embarrassing since I had no clue who he was other than "Chinese
> >> rider". They had to announce his name over the com radio, however, so
> >> I was able to pick it up without having to admit my lack of knowledge.
>
> >At least you didn't use the excuse that they all look alike.
> >It was right there for you.
>
> >This is some of the most interesting stuff to come through
> >here. Thank you.
>
> >Bob Schwartz
>
> It is really a great picture of something I would otherwise be unaware
> of.
Discovery or OLN-Canada (I can't remember their new US name) have got
to put a microcamera on Marion. This would make an insanely great
show, though Ms Rosenberg's prose is a large part of the text version.
Marion - keep it coming! May your charmed life continue being so
interesting.
Tom Sherman °_°
--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.
Ryan Cousineau
<862c4aa1-f7b7-44f6...@p8g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
Brian Huntley <brian_...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Nobody believes me here when I tell them cycling's best medium is the
written word. I only say it about every six months.
Also, nobody else seems to believe me when I tell them the devil of
video is not the taping, it's the editing.
Anyway, Marian is doing a lovely job of capturing the sense of the event.
--
Ryan Cousineau rcou...@gmail.com http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."
William Asher
news:rcousine-07F1AF.23512918112009@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]:
>
> Nobody believes me here when I tell them cycling's best medium is the
> written word. I only say it about every six months.
>
> Also, nobody else seems to believe me when I tell them the devil of
> video is not the taping, it's the editing.
Would you feel better to know that although we believe you, we also don't
give a shit?
> Anyway, Marian is doing a lovely job of capturing the sense of the
> event.
IAWTPart
--
Bill Asher
Ryan Cousineau
William Asher <gcn...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ryan Cousineau <rcou...@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:rcousine-07F1AF.23512918112009@[74.223.185.199.nw.nuvox.net]:
>
> >
> > Nobody believes me here when I tell them cycling's best medium is the
> > written word. I only say it about every six months.
> >
> > Also, nobody else seems to believe me when I tell them the devil of
> > video is not the taping, it's the editing.
>
> Would you feel better to know that although we believe you, we also don't
> give a shit?
A little!
I don't have the video-editing conversation here much, but I do in the
non-rbr parts of my life. A lot.
> > Anyway, Marian is doing a lovely job of capturing the sense of the
> > event.
>
> IAWTPart
--
marian.r...@gmail.com
It doesn't so much mean that I am smarter than you or that I have
better ideas than you do but that I have more experience with the way
the world works because I am older... because I have eaten more food
than you.
This was what the sweeps bus com said to me when she suggested that I
ride the feed zone bus in Stage 3. The com on the feed zone bus was
the one who ought to have a spare bed in her hotel room but who didn't
because her husband (who was assigned to a different hotel room) had
taken it. The idea was that if I rode on her bus and followed her to
pick up the keys there wouldn't be any way for her to install him in
her hotel room again and I'd have a place to sleep.
It was a very good idea.
Unfortunately... I don't follow instructions very well.
I took the feed zone bus down to the start area and was having a
fabulous time goofing off with the motorcycle guys - making suggestive
comments about the size of various items like engine blocks and video
cameras (and asking whether or not I could touch them) - when the feed
zone bus left.
Even though all the pre-caravan race vehicles had long since left and
even though I knew I didn't have a place in the caravan there really
wasn't anything to worry about. I could always take the public bus to
Wenchang. It's not even 20rmb.
Taking the public bus to Wenchang, however, is based on the premise
that the large wallet shaped object in my pocket is in fact my wallet
and not a bottle of after-sun skin lotion.
It was not my wallet.
Although I had seen it on occasion I had not in fact needed or carried
my wallet at any time in the past four days. It was in my luggage.
And my luggage was... ...already on the feed zone bus.
Panic, worry, stress, and trouble.
Luckily CCTV's bus was way too large for the five or six CCTV people
who weren't on motorcycles or other vehicles.
The chief com's report after the 2006 Tour included a comment about
how unfortunate it was that the race spent so much time on the
expressways. Talking to the same guy in 2007 I was rather under the
impression that this comment was weighed rather more importantly in
the Chinese translation than it was in the original. At least I don't
think his intention was to get the provincial government to rip up
300km of road and completely repave down to the roadbed including
widening and replacement of over a dozen old bridges (not all of which
were dangerous).
I'm sure the provincial government already had the intention of
repairing that road one of these days.
I'm sure the rate at which the province is developing and the plans
for development required that road to be repaired.
I'm equally sure that it was done specifically because of what the com
said in his report.
In 2007 the road was still a complete mess. In some places it hadn't
been blacktopped yet. In others it was still gravel.
In 2008 the removal of a major bridge south of Qionghai put the race
on the expressway yet again.
This year, however, the road was perfect and instead of heading south
to the Shimei Bay / Xinglong interchange on the East Expressway we
went north through Xinglong Town.
Because the people on my bus needed to be at the finish line we got on
the expressway as soon as possible, which, unfortunately, wasn't soon
enough because the race still had a short segment of expressway and we
got caught up in the road closures for nearly 45 minutes before
getting off at Qionghai and heading straight north to Wenchang. Since
we could go 110kph I don't understand why we didn't go all the way to
the Haikou Bypass Expressway and take the Haiwen Expressway but I'm
sure there was a very good reason.
Once I arrived at the finish line my comedy of errors only continued
with me never quite managing to hook up with the driver of the bus
that had my luggage (and more importantly my wallet).
I took what I thought were some great photos of the final sprint only
to have the head photographer patiently explain to me why they were
terrible. Since he also explained to me what I should do to make them
not terrible I was okay with his telling me they sucked. He's been
earnestly teaching me photography stuff for about a year now and
periodically promises to take me out with him (but with the exception
of last January's surfing competition never has).
Friends of friends in Wenchang agreed to put me up for the night but
they had no idea how to get to their house such as to give directions
to someone else. "Just tell the taxi driver..." and I borrowed 3rmb
from the head of the secretariat to get a taxi.
-M
marian.r...@gmail.com
this point and I had an absolutely lovely time with my hosts in
Wenchang. They complain about the same things I do and accept the
same things I do. The problems that the racers and team staff tend to
gripe and whine about aren't always things that I think are problems
and sometimes are problems that I think they brought on themselves.
There was one team whose people didn't like the idea of having to give
their liaison their passports at the end of every stage so that each
new hotel could properly register them with the Public Security
Bureau. I understand that it should have occurred to someone that
they could xerox the visa page as well as the information page but puh-
lease, is it so much trouble to hand it over? It's not like the race
is making them go down to the front desk themselves. They've provided
a person who is running around and doing this for them.
Anyways... Since I was still luggage-less my hosts gave me a t-shirt
to sleep in and found a spare single-use hotel toothbrush for me to
use. They also had one of those fabulous instant hot water heaters
which are common in Chinese homes but not so common in Chinese
hotels. Since the hotels the race is using are booked completely
solid with race people the fabulous instant hot water heater was a
major bonus, even more than the big fluffy blanket I slept under.
The only sour note was that my hosts insisted on giving me some money
in addition to the 3rmb necessary to get me to the start line. No
matter how many times I said that the lack of money problem was a lack
of wallet problem and that the wallet was already at the start line
they were very insistent and wouldn't take it back. I'm currently
unemployed but I make a whole lot more money than they do when I am
employed and finally just decided that I'll do my best to pay it
forward.
The feed zone bus is a special kind of dull. Even more dull that the
sweeps bus on a flat stage with no crashes. At least until it falls
so far behind that you can't hear anything and the coms need to
communicate by cell phone the sweeps bus gets race radio.
On the feed zone bus you get to see a bit of action at the feed zone
but other than that there really isn't anything going on. Hardly
anyone shares a language with me. The coms and the driver speak
Chinese but they're working. Team China isn't sending anyone to the
feed zone. The few English speakers mostly aren't fluent enough to
chat and the ones who are are tired enough that they'd rather be
sleeping. I have nothing to read and would probably get car sick if I
tried.
Silver lining is that the head photographer actually liked one of the
photos I took from the feed zone.
There was a crash two hundred meters outside the final 3km. It
involves one of the photo-motos and I long to be properly in the
office so I can find out all the interesting gossip that I'm almost
certainly not allowed to pass on to outsiders. What was the
motorcycle doing there? How exactly did the motorcycle's rear-view
mirror get banged up? Was it the irritating photographer who always
gets yelled at by the coms in every international race in China?
It seems like there's always a crash in Haikou.
In 2006 the crash was rider and rider. It happened in the first 5km
and strung the pack out so bad that nearly 20 riders were swept in the
first stage.
In 2007 there was a photographer with his long lens sticking out over
the edge of the safe zone at the finish
area.
In 2008 the long straight line to the bunch sprint took down quite a
few.
This year it's a photo moto and two riders and all I know about the
situation is that it was bad enough that the driver and his passenger
are specifically mentioned in the commissaire communique for the stage
as being banned from the race.
What will it be next year?
I didn't go to the race hotel at all but instead went out for Thai
food with a venture capitalist from Scotland.
I suspect I could afford this restaurant but I have cunningly managed
to only go there when other people are picking up the bill. The cook
is an old riding buddy of mine. It reflected well on me that shortly
after saying I knew a substantial percentage of the people there are
to know in Haikou the cook came out and said "hi" and one of the
people at another table heard my name, turned around, and also said
'long time no see!"
(Cycling is a rich people's sport. I've learned not to be surprised
when I bump into riding buddies in unlikely places like bank offices
or the theater.)
I was walking towards my bus stop having a stupid phone argument with
the liaison for the Netherlands (I was supposed to help her team
manager go shopping and couldn't get her to clearly tell me where they
were) when I ran into one of the golf course guys and, instead of
going home, went out to coffee with him at the fancy new place
introduced to me by my artist friend from 798.
(Rather than explain 798 to you, I suggest looking it up on
wikipedia.)
It's all cozy overstuffed sofas and books and soft music and too many
chairs in a too small space. Doesn't look (or taste) like it belongs
in Haikou at all but it's been doing well enough that they've just
opened a second location.
Then home to read and do my laundry and try to sleep off two caramel
macchiatos and a iced latte.
-M
Marian
only slightly softer than the floor I still like sleeping in my own
bed. I like knowing that when I wake up in the morning I will have a
vast selection of clothes I can possibly wear including those that
really need to be mended, those that are situationally inappropriate,
and those that I haven't worn in years.
Probably the only thing I don't like about sleeping in my own bed is
walking through my own kitchen in the morning on my way to the
bathroom and looking at my own dirty dishes which are now one week
older than they were the last time I didn't wash them.
My original plan for Stage Five was to leave somewhere around 7am in
the morning and try to see if I could make it to a team hotel or other
available lunch location before the stopped serving lunch at 4pm.
Since the senior of the two coms on the Feed Zone bus liked having an
English speaker on board and since I still hadn't dealt with the woman
whose husband was sharing a hotel room with her this plan clearly
wasn't going to work.
There were other problems as well. If I left stupid early after
staying in my own apartment it would mean I would have to carry my bag
myself because there wouldn't be anyone to drop it off with. The
weather had gotten surprisingly cold for November in Hainan (the next
day it would hit 8C in Haikou) and I was still feeling some slight
aftereffects of the flu shot. The Habanero had a flat front tire, the
Panasonic tour bike was disassembled, the Trek still hasn't finishing
being built, and the Giant was in Wuzhishan.
I took a motor-taxi instead.
Being the lazy person that I am I decided to climb over the barriers
at the start area instead of walking the long way round. I caught my
jeans on a sharp piece of protruding metal and ripped both legs from
just above the knee to just below the crotch. Unlike the previous
days' adventures I actually had my luggage with me and was able to
change into a new pair of jeans on the bus. Now the question is how
to repair them in a sufficiently artistic manner that it looks like I
intended to rip my jeans from just above the knee to just below the
crotch.
Morning rush hour was treated to a surprise as the cars came past All
Green Gardens. Roads randomly being partially blocked off is normal
in China. It could be anything from construction, reconstruction,
deconstruction, to a minor fender bender whose drivers don't feel the
need to get out of the traffic lane. Perhaps one third of a lane on
each side of the four westbound lanes was taken by the start gate.
Just past the start gate one whole lane was taken up by a cheerleading
squad of about 40 girls with pom poms.
They were nearly even good dancers.
(The cheerleading routine worked much better in cities and towns where
the start and finish area was not on a major road that needed to stay
open until just before the race.)
Feed Zone bus was as it has been in the past. Boring boring boring.
In just over three years of going to races this is the third time I've
been on the Feed Zone bus. Stage Two of the 2006 Tour, yesterday, and
today. It's been more or less the same each and every time. There
have been minor variations but they have not been interesting ones.
If it weren't for the fact that the senior of the two coms on the bus
has specifically asked me to stay on his bus for the rest of the race
I would probably be doing my best to get into Team China's luggage
car.
I'm not sure whether it was planned or last minute but instead of the
normal Haima Automobiles family-sized sedan which has been given to
every other team for their luggage, Team China has a white stretch
Hummer. While every other team's luggage car goes on ahead of the
caravan, Team China's goes at the back behind the media vehicles. I'd
thought, at first, since Stage One went to Baoting and since the
Hummer had surprisingly tasteful advertising (well...as tasteful as
anything painted in gold letters on the side of a white stretch Hummer
is capable of being) for one of the new hot spring golf resorts in
Baoting that it was a sponsor of some kind. But the Hummer stayed
with us for Stage Two, there weren't any advertisements at the finish
area for that resort, the car didn't have a "sponsor vehicle" sticker,
and I saw Team China's masseur polishing it the next afternoon.
I've never been in a Hummer and the only time I've been in a limousine
(non-stretch variety) was for funerals.
The scene at the Feed Zone was livened up a little bit by an over-
zealous police officer trying to shoo team staff off the road. (You
can't stand here! There are going to be racers coming by any minute
now!) When yelling at foreigners in Chinese didn't work he proceeded
to get into a loud argument with the senior of the two coms. While
that was going on he wasn't paying sufficient attention to keeping the
side road from Touban Village blocked and a tractor came out leaving
big clumps of clay thick red mud all over the road.
One of the reasons I initially wanted to ride Stage Five is because
I've never been to Lin'Gao. I was vaguely under the impression that
the Haikou -> Chengmai -> Lin'Gao -> Chengmai route involved more of a
road that I've never been on than just the West Expressway interchange
and access road. The route map sure makes it look like more than one
road is used and the comments from the Australian team last year made
me think that the race spent some time on bad roads after it left
Lin'Gao but apparently not... that, or the Feed Zone bus took a
different route to the finish line.
So I still haven't been to Lin'Gao.
After the finish line things began to go poorly for me. Just after
the Doping Control guy from Beijing slipped me a meal ticket I heard
from the Secretariat that even though they were carefully making sure
that it was always other departments handing me meal tickets someone
in charge didn't like this non staff member eating in the cafeterias.
The word was if I was seen in the dining room the people specifically
known to be my friends (coincidentally also the people specifically
known to have the fewest national level connections) were going to get
in trouble.
While I was double checking an E -> C translation done by one of the
new girls (whose English is amazing but whose race vocabulary is very
very new) the threat came down that staff members shouldn't need help
from non staff members and any staff members that wanted to be
considered for future employment post race ought not to be seen
hanging around with me.
Sitting in a car in the parking lot making a recording of the roster
so last year's Radio Tour (and one of my oldest friends) could
continue to work on improving his English he got a phone call from
someone two steps up in the provincial government asking him why he
was sitting with me. She doesn't belong here.
And with that, I decided to go home.
I'd head down to Sanya to catch the final day's criterium and the
Closing Ceremonies after-party at the club but if the assistant
director of the competitive sporting events department of the
provincial administration of culture, radio and television, publishing
and sport was getting flak for hanging out with me then it was time to
go.
-M