Action Asia - Macau

Ian Grace (Team Die tryin') / 07.06.2004

Well, The first local Action Asia race of the year and what a great success. With 300 competitors in teams of two, race organizers had a great deal of work ahead of them when setting a great course in the former Portuguese Enclave of Macau. Famed for it s Casinoâ€™s, Gambling and sometimes raunchy nightlife, it was with a little reservation that myself and team mate Mark made our way over to Macau the day before the race.

With the course a closely guarded secret there was plenty of speculation of what lay ahead. Would there be any decent mountain biking? Is there anywhere to do abseiling and would they really make us run up the 200m high Macau Tower stair case.

The Organizers managed to arrange special deals on Hotels and ferry transfers from HK to Macau and we headed over on the Saturday morning to make use of the hotel facilities before the official equipment check on the Saturday afternoon. With 300 people to check through this was a long, time consuming but necessary process. As usual this took longer than expected and we headed off to the Race briefing room and a great carbo loading buffet meal put on by the race organizers. The race briefing involved the usual stuff but paid particular attention to all the hard working marshals who would be sitting out on the course for the following day. Race marshals usually get the brunt of tired and frustrated competitors and the organizers wanted to ensure that they didnâ€™t get too hard a time. After loading up with a ton of food it was back to the Hotel for an early night and some sleep before the 5am breakfast and the race start at 7am.