Well after last years 9 day build up for the Baise Quest in southern China we thought it would take some beating. Never say never though and below I'll do my best to fill you in on how it all unfolded:
Wed 20th April, 4:55pm.
I'm sitting at the computer studiously checking the weather as Rach and I have plans to paddle round D'urville island over Easter. Strong Northerlies predicted. Not looking great. Text from Dougal Allan: "Don't suppose you can sort a week off, a Chinese visa and flights by tomorrow night? Marcel has broken his collar bone. Gutted."
After a quick call to Dougal we decide that we have no chance with the visa and leave it at that.
Thursday 21st April, 8:30am:
Curiosity gets the better of me and I ring the Chinese visa service and receive a very surprising response. If I can get the visa to them by midday they will process it on Good Friday. Result!! Now all I need to do is get my passport, have my photo taken, fill in the forms and get it all to Wellington in 3 hours. To cut a long story short I walked into Nelson airport with the idea of giving my passport to the most trustworthy person I could find headed for the Capital. Ended up finding Faye Costain, the AP from Waimea College and she delivered it to Rach's Mum at wellington airport. Thanks Faye! The documents reached the Visa service by 1pm and I was stoked to get a call at 4pm to say it was done. Relief number 1. By 3pm the next day a friend with a very helpful job (aka pilot) had sorted transport for my passport back to Nelson and we were all go. Awesome!
Saturday 23rd April:
Today I flew from Nelson to Hong Kong with Dougal and Simone (also racing) and spent the day relaxing in hong Kong while team Thule and Chiru created madness as they organised themselves for the 90minute flight to Nanning, China.
Sunday 24th April:
Flew Hong Kong to Nanning then had the infamous 6 hour bus trip from Nanning to Leye Town complete with 50,000 corners. Leye Town was where we would be based for the race.
Monday 25th April:
Gear check at the hotel and a short exploration ride to loosen the legs. Met up with Jacky and Mimi our French teammates who were very excited to have a complete team after the events of the past few days. I managed to unravel this relief by mistiming a narrow 6 foot wide rock bridge, flinging myself over the handlebars and into a swamp 1metre below. Lucky it was a swamp and I was unscathed. Breathe guys, Breathe!!! Off to race briefing after a dinner of rice and soy sauce (there were many other choices but they topped my uneasiness scale so I played safe) then into bed.
Tuesday 26th April, Day 1 of racing:
This looked to be the shorter of the three days so we knew it would be fast. To add to this there was no kayaking therefore we expected some weary legs by stage finish. Stage 1 was a 43km mountain bike. We took control of this early on and begun to establish a small gap back to team Vibram Lafuma from France. I use 'taking control' loosely as I spent at least the first hour quietly suffering as Dougal showed his class on the bike by towing Mimi and setting the pace. This section had a fantastic 4wd downhill with plenty on ruts and fast corners to keep us entertained. The main downfall from this was that we caught the lead vehicle allowing teams behind us to gain some ground. Back in Leye Town a quick transition saw us on an undulating 9km section to the 15minute compulsary stop. No issues there and with Mimi needing very little assistance we put more time onto our followers gaining an 8minute buffer by the stop.
Next up: 140m abseil into a sink hole. Awesome! Its always amazing how much weight there is in 140m of rope and just getting started was a challenge in itself. Two metres down and my foot broke off a pumpkin sized chunk of Limestone that plummeted toward the bottom. What followed was an eerie few seconds where Dougal and I watched the rock fall its way to the bottom. Luckily the rock missed the Lafuma team mates below us by a mere 2 metres before smashing itself on the ground. It was lucky that Jacky and Mimi had shifted away to remove their harnesses.
Adrenalin rush now over we began a steep climb out of the sink hole. What followed was a brutal undulating 13 kilometers to the finish that took us close to 2 hrs to complete! A 2km section of cave was not only exciting but provided a welcome drop in temperature mid way through this run.
So....after 5 and a half hours of racing we crossed the line in 1st place. Fantastic to have a stage win under our belts not to mention a 19minute buffer over Lafuma going into day 2.
Wednesday 27th April, Day 2 of racing (the day it all went wrong):
From the moment we reached the start line we knew this was going to be a good day because any day you reach the start line intact is a good day! The roads today were especially narrow and rough making for a longer than expected bus to the start.
To start the day we had a 3km run round the outskirts of a local village. It was a fast start but not so fast that we couldnt put ourselves comfortably in front again.....that is until a Chinese team sprinted past us as we entered transition! They love the short stuff.
Onto the bikes we set out in search of the first challenge, a 600m climb. This went remarkably well until just over the top when Jacky broke his chain. He did a very sharp fix with a 'quick link' only to realise he hadn't threaded the chain through the derailer correctly. Bugger. The process of re-breaking the link, rethreading the muddy chain then re-connecting it cost us a further 6mins. By this time we had been caught by La Fuma and Thule. With some great consistent riding from the whole team we caught Thule and had reduced the gap from La fuma back to 45secs.
Onwards and upwards we went. Literally. The next section simply put was a 400m climb followed by a 400m descent. Five minutes had us regaining the lead from La Fuma and into what was a very hot and humid 40minute climb on a forested hill. Very tough going. Down the other side we made quick time and were redeeming the mornings mechanical issues when mishap number 2 struck (or stung). Mimi had a bee fly under her shades and sting her on the eye. Tears and screaming ensued but to our surprise she continued running.....but faster. That a girl!
Into the boats for a 20km paddle on a rather stagnant dam. But after the heat from the last 2 sections, it was paradise......that was until mishap number three came sinking in. Dougal and I (demonstrating our inexperience) had no idea about a bung that is located under the back of the boats. Ours was either gone, broken or not tight. So to our dissapointment we took on water. And over the course of the paddle I (sitting in the back) gradually diaaspeared under water. By the time we finished my seat was fully submerged and our pace had dropped from 8.5kph to 7kph. No wonder la Fuma were catching us.
Luckily for us though, the end came first and we were able to claim our second stage win and post another 5mins on the overall lead.
Thursday 28th April, Day 3 of racing (finishing it all off):
Bit of a bombshell last night. Thought the organisation would cover full airfares for us (as this team was 1st last year) but were informed this was not the case. As a result, we need to win to cover expenses. No pressure. We were by now confident of our strength but things can go wrong......
But they didn't. The day went like clockwork. We had a fun paddle down the river. Higher flow than last year so much faster and more rapids. Several boats tipped out but to our credit or good luck Dougal and I had a hazard free paddle. The Australian Peak adventure team passed us just before transition but took their time in the changeover so we biked off leading the way.
What followed was 40km of biking split by a short running detour to a flying fox exercise. By the end of the bike we had built up a 13minute lead with 21km of running to go. Pressure off really. Not wanting to take the foot off the pedals however we ran hard for the first 15km before easing off on the approach to town. Finishing the stage back in Leye Town we had extended our lead to over 20mins. A great finish to a great race.
To sum it all up the race was a fantastic experience. I'm grateful of many things, particularly Dougal for asking me to join the team even if it was last minute, but to Marcel for ruining his AC joint and the Chinese visa service for processing my Visa in lightning quick time.
