The South China Sea experience - Part I ()

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Joe Papp(Image credit: Joe Papp)

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When last I wrote, I was flying at 30,000 ft. somewhere over Siberia. Well, I arrived in Hong Kong tonight after a relatively easy flight from LAX and another adventure is underway. I will be racing in the Tour of the South China Sea, an eight-day stage race on the UCI Asia Tour calendar. The event is one of the premier stage races in Asia, and will be contested by national teams from a variety of countries including Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and mainland China, plus regional teams from Australia, various provinces in the PRC and of course Champion System. Most all of the Asian riders will be in peak form, as will the Australians, who have their open national championships soon after this race finishes. While my form is good, I'm not peaking but I hope to still be competitive.

Teammate David Sommerville met me at the airport with Champion System team support person "Gilbert." We drove to the Hong Kong Sports Institute, where Jared Bunde, Dave and I are going to be staying with our HK teammate Simon for tonight. After checking me in and dropping off the gear, Gilbert drove us to a nearby market for a classic street food dinner with our other teammate Derek Wong (second overall in the Tour of the South China Sea last year) and his girlfriend Colleen, plus a rider from the Shanghai team and his girlfriend.

Got my Champion System kit tonight - holy smokes. It's good to be riding for a clothing manufacturer! More clothing than I've ever received at one time. Five jerseys with my name and country flag printed on each collar, five bib shorts, leg warmers, arm warmers, caps, gloves, wind vest, thermal jacket, and enough leisure clothing to replace the wardrobe I brought with me. Doh! I'm going to end up leaving most of the clothing I schlepped to Hong Kong here at the Sports Institute with my bike case once we get on the road. Note to self - pack less next time.

We also received special "Champion System" edition watches from Accord. I can check off another box on my "things to achieve in cycling before I retire" list, as riding for a team that issued me a watch has been a goal since I first read the Bob Roll diary in which he mourns the loss of his 7-Eleven team issue Tag Heuer. That anecdote, in which Roll loses his watch while snowboarding, only to recover it months later after the spring thaw, forever biased me to the Tag Heuer brand. I own several, including one received from a trade with Greg LeMond in 1996. Greg, if you're reading this, thanks again. And an aside to my brother - don't lose or break the limited edition T.H. Chronometer that you're supposed to be keeping safe for me!

I couldn't sleep in as much as I'd hoped after the long flight, but I did enjoy a leisurely breakfast with Dave and Jared at the Sports Institute (think Olympic Training Center, without the wide variety of food). There is a truism of stage racing in foreign countries: your first few meals upon arrival, which always seem utterly horrible because you've just come from your home country and its wonderful cuisine, will inevitably end-up being the best meals that you'll be served until the conclusion of the Tour when the boss takes you to dinner and puts it on the sponsor's tab. Except Italy.

After breakfast and clothes sorting I assembled my bike, in this case a battered old team bike from 2004. I definitely need a new ride. Derek Wong, the nominal team captain, wanted the entire team together for a training ride today, no doubt to test me out in front of the others and see if I pass muster. Dave told me that he and Jared were already put through this meat grinder courtesy of our teammates a few days ago.

Thankfully the ride was short at just under 2.5 hours, though we did complete two 2km paceline efforts and an eight-minute climb to "loosen" the legs. Derek told me later that he felt bad about subjecting me to so much intensity since I was just off the plane, but that he had to test me just like he'd tested D and J the previous two days. After I'd taken a few pulls and he realized my legs were as lean looking as our other teammate Daniel Lee's, it was clear I would be ok for the tour.

We had a quick review of current slang terms and quizzed our Hong Kong teammates, especially Daniel, who is proud to "represent." Nonetheless, despite the instant camaraderie that we're building and the total ease with which all of the riders and staff are interacting, this definitely doesn't feel like Christmas to me. It doesn't feel like the prelude to a bike race, either, and I can only hope that in the next 24 hours I switch on. Maybe it's the jet-lag?

Kam Po Wong (HKg) got most of the media attention, but Daniel received his fair share, too. He is a top athlete in the Asian triathlon circuit, and is in the ITU rankings, which is great for us because he could be a source of media interest and a powerful engine for the squad. It bears mentioning that both Daniel and Simon are very inexperienced road racers, so it will be up to Derek and me to help them channel their efforts. Dave brought a full set of Alinco credit card radios with him, which will make communications much easier during the stages.

My legs just weren't working today. I felt totally blocked and was pedaling with only one leg, just like in the stage of the '05 Vuelta a Cuba that finished in Bayamo, when I almost quit the race. I think that it's a neuromuscular issue that is also affected by tightness and lack of flexibility in the joint and the muscle tissue, which inhibits proper muscle contraction and full range of motion. Maybe.

Tactically we were good, with Derek going in what would be the winning break, and both Simon and Daniel going up the road in small groups while Kam Po Wong - the pre-race favourite - was back in my group. Even when Wong started to go across on his own, we were still in a tactically solid position, with three riders up ahead. However, Wong went straight by Simon, and then Derek! Unbeknownst to us, Derek had broken his chain and had to change bikes, then took the 50 Swiss franc fine for motorpacing back up to the break. By that point, however, it was no longer one group, with Kam Po up ahead with several others, and Derek in the second group, Simon and Daniel in the third, me in the fourth, and Dave and Jared still further back. Shit. More out of frustration that anything I won the sprint from my small group, but on the whole my teammates and I gave up our chances of a high overall GC finish by losing so much time today.

Tonight Dave played one of the best practical jokes on me that I've ever experienced. While I chilled in the hotel to rest for tomorrow's stage, Dave and some of the others walked over to a nearby mall. When they came back, Dave had with him a plastic bag filled with chocolate, cans of Coke and sundry foodstuffs. We were shooting the shit when he tossed me a bag of Lays potato chips … I didn't think anything of it (other than it was nice of him to get me some chips) and after bs'ing for about 15 minutes I reached for the Lays and made ready to chomp.

Without stopping the conversation, I opened the bag and absently pulled out a few chips and popped them into my mouth. Hilarity ensued as I ran around the room struggling to find a place to retch - Dave had brought me Shacha Chicken flavoured chips, which he said were the most un-Western he could find. Thanks man. I did some research on the Internet later, and Lays offers quite a few unique flavours of chips in China, including: Cool Cucumber, Crisp Hokkaido Seaweed, Fresh Lemon, Spicy Crab and Five Spice Fish. But Shacha Chicken was terrible. Horrible. Disgusting. If I want the flavour of chicken, I'll eat a chicken. I can't even describe how bad it was.

I wasn't feeling very good today, and I think the shock of an abrupt return to racing is what's to blame. I trained well this winter, but racing is a different game entirely, and it takes the body some time to adapt. Owing to feeling like crap, I didn't try to go for the points sprints, and I was thanking God when Simon went up the road and latched onto the back of the break so we didn't have to chase. Nonetheless, when the field came back together in the final kilometres, I switched-on and promised to have a go in the sprint. Neither Daniel nor Simon are very good at fighting for position because of their relative inexperience in road racing, so it was up to Derek and me to represent in the mad dash to the line.

The City of Perth team - all of whom seem like a nice bunch of guys - took control coming out of the final corner on the last lap with just under 2km to go to the line, but their train fell apart far short of the finish banner. Good bike handling and positioning saw me right behind their last rider, with Kam Po Wong on my wheel and Derek on his as we passed the 500m sign. As the Aussies imploded, and the best rider in the race watching me like a hawk, it suddenly seemed like I wasn't so well placed after all. Shit.

I hesitated for as long as I could, but with my line along the barriers on the left side of the road about to be blocked by a fading John Wordan (Aus), I had to jump. There were still more than 300m to go, but I gave everything I had and was averaging over 1000w to the line. I kept hoping that Derek was going to come over the top of Kam Po and that we could pinch him and take the win, but "Nippolini" (as we would affectionately come to call him) simply obliterated us. A picture at the finish line reveals by just how much Asia's best rider smoked Derek and me.

Joe Papp is a UCI Elite rider with the UPMC cycling team. He was a double stage winner at the 2003 Vuelta a Cuba (UCI 2.5) and has finished in the top-10 three times at the UCI Pan American Continental Championships (2005, 2004, 1996). Joe's writing is good enough to make boring races intriguing and intriguing races captivating.