Wulong Mountain Quest

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Racing in Wulong

Richard Ussher / 02.10.2013

On Arriving it was wet and cool – not what we were hoping for and we’d primarily packed for hot so thermals were at a premium, at least we had good under floor heating again which is great for dry clothes on!

PROLOGUE

A quick days racing and a nice short transfer for a change to the start with it only 2km from this year’s hotel – this year we gained at least an hour a day from the reduced transfer times which was great.

It was pouring with rain by the time we started but not too cold once we got going. Everyone seemed to be going exceedingly fast over the first 500m before the pace gradually became more achievable. Thanks to a huge effort by Braden and Elina we hit the transition from the run to the chair carry neck and neck with Thule.

We had a great section through here and opened up a gap to the others as we headed into the Biathlon. I unfortunately was paired with Braden and desperately gave chase on the run portions and had an even tougher time on the bike sections having to ride Elina's bike.

We headed onto the bike section aware it would be super slippery and also aware we couldn't play it too safe with the chasers bound to be pushing hard. We managed to negotiate the section without any issues unlike a few teams and kept pushing through the final km on the run to take the win by almost a minute. 2nd home was Tineli NZ who had arrived at the finish with just 2 seconds separating them from Thule Adventure in 3rd.

There were plenty of other kiwis racing in various teams with Aaron Prince's Swedish team Silva coming home shortly after in 4th and Nic Leary racing in Aussie team Peak Adventure were right with them in 5th despite Nic having a nasty spill on the bike.

DAY 1

Another very wet day in China, the first real day of racing and it turned out to be a very dramatic day with plenty of close racing.

We started in Downtown Wulong with a short run to the kayaks - with no staggered start there was a fair bit of chaos and it was treacherous on the run down with the concrete here like ice once it’s wet.

Once underway in the river we had Marcel and Mimi from Thule for company and it proved very hard to pass them in the swirling river, when we finally did we only had a short dash to the end of the stage.

It takes a lot of energy to steer the boats and trying to keep up with Braden and Stu I'd probably cooked it a bit hard so knew there was going to be a bit of suffering on the run, I just hoped I'd come right sooner rather than later. Thule were next in just behind us and most of the leading teams were within a minute or so as we headed off up the hill - 700m in 4km ouch!

Luckily our go to man on the run Braden was feeling good and set off with Elina in tow, I had to get a pull from Stu which was much appreciated, he was certainly having a good day, which we needed.

Towards the end of the climb Tineli NZ were closing in on us and we started the biathlon with only the slimmest of gaps.  My legs were feeling a lot better on the downhill and flatter sections and we managed to sneak a bit more of a gap on Tineli. With a couple of km to go the road abruptly turned to a bike carry, that put me right back in the hurt box but with Elina and Stu a good way up the road it still turned out strategically for us.

We arrived at the 15min rest station with about a minute on Tineli and a couple more back to Thule. Aaron Prince’s Silva team were also tracking well and so were the young guns from NZ in team Oso Negro. (Apparently it’s a coffee brand in Canada - random story?)

It was still chucking it down as we headed off on the MTB section, well rugged up but instantly wet. There were a lot of sealed road and concrete sections and we had discussed that we would prefer to lose a little time being careful than a lot pushing too hard on the concrete, which is ridiculously slippery.

Tineli were moving well and gradually caught up to us when Braden punctured, it sealed with the Stan's but was quite a big hole and gradually continued to lose air.  We gave it one more burst on the CO2 but were finally resigned to changing to a tube. Tineli were having their own issues with a wrapped chain so despite the puncture we were still holding on grimly to the lead.

I was finally starting to get some energy back in the pins and for the remainder of the ride the whole team worked really well together, pushing where we felt it was safe and backing off where we felt we needed to.

Unfortunately for Tineli they suffered 2 crashes and a broken derailleur as a result on Jacobs bike and it sounds as though Simone also had an off. They'd been moving the fastest of anyone but the mechanicals meant they ended up losing a big chunk of time. Thule also had a delay courtesy of Marcel snapping a chain.

We arrived at the final short run and Abseil with no teams right on our heels and quickly headed down to the ropes. By the time Braden and I were leaving Thule had just shown up but thanks to a really good abseil from Stu and Elina plus a few problems it seems for Mimi we ended up getting a bit more of a time cushion.

With the timing finishing a short run away at the bottom of the tourist elevator we could relax and enjoy a hard but ultimately successful day on the way up.

Silva continued their good form to take 3rd 5 minutes back from Thule who were 5 minutes back from us.

By the time we were back at the top teams were flooding down to the ropes sections with the field pretty tightly packed.

DAY 2

The Longest day today and the one where we really wanted to consolidate our position at the front of the field with the final day less suited to our strengths.

We started with a 2 hour kayak, we got away well with Thule tracking us.

Braden and Stu executed a perfect drop back between Elina and I, created a gap and then sprinted back up to us giving us the break we needed and once Thule couldn’t sit on the wash we quickly pulled away.

From there on it was a drag race to the end of the sections with big gaps from what we could see at the transition.

We had almost 3 minutes on Thule as we headed up a big climb on the run. Everyone was going well and the team moved really well.

By the transition we had stretched the lead to 3 1/2 minutes.

Tineli was next in and with a host of teams arriving as we headed out of the 15 min rest area.

The MTB was really muddy in places and some really long grinding climbs, we knew Thule would be chasing hard and we had a pretty smooth ride with no major issues just a lot of mud. My seat had started to slip down which was about the biggest of our issues but one that was quickly fixed. The major concern was not busting anything on the bikes which were clogged with mud and not sounding very healthy at all.

The final TA and by the time we were heading to the ropes there was still no sign of any teams, it was a short abseil from the center of a bridge into the water with a 300m swim to the side to collect some rafts. Thanks to some hand paddles and a tow rope we made good time to the side and set off in the tiny inflatable rafts.

We were off and paddling when Thule hit the ropes so we knew it was a good gap.

The raft was listed as 1.5km with a time of 15 minutes so we started to worry we'd gone the wrong direction when there was obviously nothing a head for probably closer to 4km. Having raced here many times you get to know many of the areas though and sure enough where we expected the finish to be it was - 40 minutes later.

Thule came in just under 8 1/2 minutes later with Tineli hot on their heels. They took a major chunk of time time back that they'd lost yesterday and now sat about 5 minutes behind Silva who were still in 3rd but sounded as though they had a bit of a rough day today.

Award for the day goes to Oso Negro who aside from racing well are showing the other teams what a healthy appetite is - Anyone would think they've never seen a buffet before but they're lucky they've obviously still got teenage metabolism's - otherwise they'd be have trouble moving by now!

DAY 3

We started with an Orienteering section where the team could split up into 4 to collect CP's - Thule followed Silva and we teamed up with Tineli with the Swedes taking a slim lead into the run section followed by Thule, us and Tineli.

The run was super slippery with a big descent down to the kayak section; I think everyone took a few tumbles but no major damage. After almost closing in on Thule and Silva on the flat they got a bit of gap on the down hill courtesy of a few more risks than we were prepared to take I suspect. We arrived with Silva just starting the paddle and Thule about to climb in the boats.  The paddle course was a double out and back on a small lake. With a 15min TA straight after the paddle we dug deep and managed to bridge up to Thule and we both took a good chunk of time out of Silva who'd had a great run off the hill.

As usual the MTB included a pretty grunty climb to start before a super long descent. We passed Silva along with Thule and were riding comfortably together when Marcel flatted leaving us in the lead and feeling comfortable.

Funny how this race has a way of kicking you just when you think things are going smoothly as first my tow line got tangled in the free hub when the mud stopped it from retracting and then Braden punctured and our C02 didn't work.

Thule, Silva and Tineli all passed us in this period and we went from coasting to having to push to limit our time loss to Thule, who we only had a 14 min lead on overall.

We passed Tineli on the bike and could see Silva as we reached the final TA, Thule had just headed out giving them 3-4 minutes on us. We set off for the short run to the cave and caught Silva at the entrance but the slippery canyon that runs through it causes a bit of a bottle neck and we were never able to slip past.

We put in a good effort through the cave and emerged at the finish line after a few extra water jumps in 3rd, only a few seconds behind Silva and just under 6 1/2 behind Thule to ensure our win overall.

Tineli came home 4th and ended up 4th overall (I think) with Silva in 3rd and Thule in 2nd.

For the remaining adventures on our China trip check out the next race report from Zhengzhou and Taining.

We are fortunate to have the support of Red Bull China for our racing in China this year as well as Toread for the Wulong race, and of course we couldn’t keep doing what we do with out the fantastic support of all our regular sponsors.

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