Wulong Mountain Quest

Mud and Multisport in China

Richard Ussher (Team Toread) / 18.10.2012

Racing in China is always something to approach with caution, to do well there is often about dealing as much with the inevitable frustrations and left field obstacles as it is with just racing fast and smart.

This year another unknown variable was what the weather would be like with the race a month later than ever before. While a simple answer would be to simply Google the weather forecast in this instance the results threw up multiple and wildly variable results.

Out team had some continuity for the first time in a while with the team the same as a month ago in Ordos, with Stu and Braden joining us.

The field as ever was looking very strong but several of the top teams had only just returned from the ARWC race in France and we were expecting that that would take some of the sting out of the legs of the likes of Seagate and Thule. Among the other contenders it looked to be the Americans in team Aye Up lights and another NZ team, team Tineli of Marcel, Fleur, Dougal and Braden’s brother Glen.

The first thing that struck us on arriving at the top of the mountain where we have always stayed was just how different the weather was at this time of year. Instead of a pleasant drop in temperature from the stifling heat of Wulong 1600m below it was cold, damp and far too much like winter for my liking. Luckily the down jackets had been packed.

After so many issues with sickness in Wulong we had packed 14kg of food so if needed we wouldn’t need to eat any thing outside of our own food, we had some very tasty sample Freeze dry from local Nelson company MAK’s technologies and a host of other food but as usual we were out done by Seagate – Nathan it seems had brought a supermarket with him!

Prologue

The course was the same as last year, a short blast around a circuit consisting of a short run, a traditional chair carry, a biathlon, MTB and another short run to finish.

After a typically grand opening ceremony it was down to business. We quickly managed to get towards the front of the field in the run, Braden using his run strength to good effect before Elina got a bit of a breather as the 3 boys had to carry her like porters about 300 meters in a traditional bamboo chair. It’s a real leg wrecker and it took several minutes on the biathlon to feel a bit of strength returning, by which time we were back onto the MTB. The course was slippery and rocky and I managed to misjudge a turn and ended up on the ground, luckily with only a few surface wounds.

Tineli were chasing hard as were the Americans and as we set off for the final 1 km run there was only seconds in it. We managed to hold on just to get the first yellow jersey of the race by just 12 seconds. The jerseys are sought after not only as it means you’re leading the race but as it means a fresh clean top each day without the need to do any washing!

Tineli ended the day in 2^nd with Aye Up lights in 3^rd but the field was super close after only 40 minutes of racing.