Taining Outdoor Quest
Hot Racing at Taining
Richard Ussher / 25.09.2014
Two weeks home flew by with Coast to Coast work and training crammed in, and before we knew it we were heading back to China for the last time this year.
Plenty of racers had stayed on to do up to three races between Wulong and the race we were heading to now. After trying a month in China last year I was certainly grateful for the time back home. For Taining it was teams of two with a mixed division and a Men’s division. The two-person format is really easy logistically but it also means if you’re having an off day there are two less people to help you get to the finish too.
Day 1
It was obvious that this was going to be a very hot race and by the time the opening ceremony had finished and the race was ready to get underway everyone was already feeling the heat.
A quick blast around a 2km circuit got us underway, with plenty of stairs to spread the teams out Elina and I reached the Transition to the Biathlon in good shape only a few seconds down on the favorites RAW adventure from France.
The biathlon has the team of two running and biking but sharing only one bike – there is certainly some strategy in doing well here and we finished just in front of the other mixed teams despite Elina not feeling too flash.
Onto the Mountain bikes and a small pack quickly formed of the top four mixed teams with us, RAW Adventure (Jackie & Mimi – France), Peak Adventure (Jarad Kohlar, AUS & Nic Leary, NZ) and V02 Max (Luke Osborne, NZ & Simone Maier, Germany / NZ)
Everyone seemed to be having their ups and downs with different teams getting ahead and then falling behind with the end result two hours later that we all rolled into the TA within seconds of each other.
Elina and I quickly changed then grabbed a boat and started on the 500m walk to the put in. The boat seemed incredibly heavy and I couldn’t understand how the others were managing to run with them. Later Luke mentioned he could see when they paddled past us - as we were still struggling to the put in, that the boat had a fair amount of water in it, which explained our struggle with the weight.
Once on the water we did everything we could to try and close the gap. We had lost a fair amount of time but by the finish we had closed back to with in a minute of V02 Max in 3rd and around 4 min back from first. Peak Adventure was 2nd only a minute shy of RAW so it was shaping up as a close few days of racing.
Ice was the main thing on everyone’s mind at the finish – trying to do cool down as quickly as possible.
Day 2
Starting an hour earlier at 8:30 should have meant a little relief from the heat but today was absolutely scorching with half an hour still till the start. Today was meant to be the longest day and it had a couple of real unknown’s in the course today with two separate swim sections.
The big objective for Elina and I today was to try and move onto the podium in the overall standings.
For the start one team member started on abridge and had to abseil into the water, swim about 300m and then meet up with their teammate who was waiting in the kayak ready for the paddle section that followed.
The Men’s teams set off first so we got to watch the action and see how the start played out – it was a great spectacle seeing 25 people abseil off the bridge at once.
Once we were up I got a great start and hit the water from the abseil first and got to the control after the swim at the front of a small group. We had a small gap on V02 Max, which was ideal, and we set off in chase of the men’s field.
Elina and I were leading but we couldn’t get RAW and Peak Adventure off our wash. When I looked back and saw Mimi from RAW essentially sitting there having a feed while we paddled as hard as we could. We sat up for someone else to take a turn but instead they both stopped and waited for us to take up the pace again. We had been putting good time into V02 max so our main priority was keeping the pace high. Peak finally came through for a couple of kilometers towards the end and once on their wash we were able to surf along on their wash with about 30% of the effort of setting the pace – it would certainly make a difference later on.
Out of the kayaks and onto the bikes the three teams couldn’t shake each other off, there was some great riding but again the others were more concerned with each other than helping us build a lead over the chasers so it became a bit of a grovel at the front for me setting the pace. When we all missed a turnoff and cost us 3-4 minutes V02 Max closed right up on us after a hard chase out of the kayaks.
It was getting brutally hot by now and we hit a hike-a-bike section up a big section of stairs, by the top everyone was feeling it so it was nice to be able to roll down some nice single track for a few minutes.
V02 Max had dropped off in this part and not long after we arrived at the TA.
Just as we were heading out they arrived giving us maybe a minute buffer. The next section involved a 1km run and then a swim with a tire tube of about 500m. We hit the water just behind RAW and Peak Adventure and began the slow trip to the other side where we all immerged within a few seconds of each other.
Here we dumped the tubes and started the final run to the finish through a really pretty canyon area.
Elina and I couldn’t hold the pace on the run of the other two teams but it seemed like we were extending the gap to V02 max. I was really feeling the heat and whenever we hit a section of water I’d have a quick cool down for a few seconds to get some respite for the heat.
It was a relief to get to the finish line and we had kept the gap to a few minutes to the front two teams and put almost 6 minutes on V02 max to move into 3rd place overall.
I spent an extended period under the ice again before I felt anything close to normal – I use to love racing in the heat but these days it really seems to knock me around.
Day 3
By far the hottest day so far and everyone looked half cooked before we had even started.
We started the last day at 30 second intervals with the men’s teams first then mixed in order overall.
It was a frenetic start as we chased to get onto Peak and RAW and V02 also joined us from 30 seconds back. Our four teams rolled along through the first part of the course and all seemed pretty evenly matched as we headed uphill. There was another large bike carry up some stairs and here we had to push to stay in contact with RAW. Peak also stayed close but V02 dropped off slightly and once over the top I pushed really hard to increase that gap. Elina and I had spoken about if we could get on the water with a gap to them then we should try to get more of a buffer for the final run, otherwise they would be able to sit in the draft and it would be very tight.
We managed to keep out of sight and by the TA we had changed and left with no sign of them.
We ran the 1km with our paddling gear to the waiting boats and ended up in a big line of boats headed by Daniel Jones and Seamus Meikle from NZ. The only stress was at each CP where it was chaos with 5 boats all trying to punch and get back on the wash. We did manage to stay on though and although we weren’t making as much time as we would have liked we were also saving a lot of energy.
After a short run back to the bikes it was off for another 45 minutes on the bike and what turned out to be some really fun riding.
Towards the end of the ride Peak Adventure lost touch slightly giving us a small hope of pushing up to second.
Onto the final run and it was really hot now, the legs were also a bit toasted from pushing the pace on the bike but we knew if we were sensible and didn’t blow up that we’d secure outright 3rd.
RAW gradually distanced us on the run and Peak came past a couple of kilometers in, going really hard. I was really conscious of getting too hot so we let them go and focused on making the finish.
With about 4 km to go we descended back onto the road that leads into the town and managed to up the pace enough that we started to claw back time on the teams in front.
Arriving at the finish it was great knowing we’d finished on the podium and the first priority was cooling down again before the next race to pack our gear started!
Overall the course was one of the better ones we’ve been on lately in China, the racing was really close and I was pleasantly surprised with how I went after not going very well at the previous race in Wulong.
The trip home is also worth a mention as turned into a bit drama. All the teams flying out headed to the airport at 8:30pm the same evening as the race finish. A four-hour drive if you drive like a maniac we got there just after midnight and started the wait for our bikes and bags arriving on the gear truck.
After 2 hours sitting out side the terminal and everything closed down we were all getting pretty nervous that the truck hadn’t arrived.
After a few calls it became apparent that all was not going to plan and several people were going to miss flights or have to leave bags and bikes behind (which had not resulted in a good outcome a previous time). After some very patient discussion from our collective spokesperson Dave it was revealed that the truck would be there at 8am. Not good considering the first flight times were at 7:15am. The next few hours were spent sleeping on the concrete outside the terminal and once things started to open trying to find new flights and connections. We even changed some guys flat tire on his car while we were passing time – he didn’t even know cars came with a spare it seems!
Thankfully the truck did arrive at 8am and as of this message only 2 sets of gear have yet to find their way back to their owners.
A big thanks to Red Bull China, who supported us in the races in China this year, and also to all our fantastic NZ sponsors.
Next up we’ll be up at the Motu challenge and then at the Red Bull Defiance race in Wanaka, which is a new race in the same format as this last race – 2 person teams over a marked course – should be fun and the Wanaka area is spectacular
You can follow Richard and Elina at;
https://www.facebook.com/AdventureSportNZRichardandElinaUssher
https://twitter.com/richussher
https://twitter.com/TheTreeThrower
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