January 30, 2025
R4: 五指山 宾馆→营地
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In April of 2007, one of the teachers at Qiongzhou University suggested to this punk brat named Frank (short for Frankenstein) that he challenge me to a bike race from the gates of the school to the pass at the top of Auto Ridge.
I had only just finished moving all my stuff (including a cat) from Haikou in response to the travel agency I had been working for thinking that "holding my passport for ransom" was a reasonable salary negotiation technique, but I didn't yet know that the school would turn out to be unable to get me a work permit.
And this guy in denim shorts on a only just barely bike shop quality mountain bike was telling me he could make it to the top of the hill in under 30 minutes. I was about to write "I was a lot skinnier than I am now" but I'm down to fitting into clothing from that time period so that's actually not true. Perhaps I should instead say: I was younger, more inclined to train regularly, and hadn't yet learned the joy of long rides at a snail's pace.
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In any case, I had a rough idea of how long it had taken the professionals in the Tour of Hainan to get to the top of the pass (at the beginning of a 180km day multiple 180km days into the Tour) and thirty minutes was an absurd speed to even think possible.
I didn't have my titanium race bike yet but I had some super light aluminum and carbon thing I'd bought secondhand off of a rich kid and I kitted up to face my challenger and put him in his place.
He smoked me.
Bastard didn't even know how to properly change gears and he still smoked me.
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Two weeks later, when I moved back to Haikou, I insisted that he be allowed to take a spare seat in the school van so that I could take him to his first bike race.
Now one of the Chinese Cycling Association's national level commissaires and the owner of the WZS 1867 Continental Cycling Team, he still lives in Wuzhishan and I would have visited with him the night before but his super amazing apartment in the center of downtown with the great views of everything is in an awkwardly shaped building that has no way of being retrofitted for an elevator, and, after yesterday's ride, I couldn't face the idea of a 9th floor walk-up.
Also, two children under the age of five.
But mostly, the 9th floor walk-up.
Which I still had to walk up to go for breakfast and coffee. But, it's different after you've had a few hot showers and have spent some time horizontal.
In theory, I was going to be biking from Wuzhishan to Shuiman today. Even for me, this is a rather excessive detour, but, if I were to go over Atuo Ridge, my (now known to be out of date) understanding of the potential sleeping points in the 75km between Wuzhishan and Qiongzhong, really only has the nasty little place I stayed at last year in Maoyang (at the 26km mark), and the holiday hotspot of Zahan Village.
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I don't want to bike to Zahan. Not now, nor ever. It's on a dead end road at the top of a mountain, every single house has been turned into a B&B or restaurant, it's always 8° to 10° colder than the rest of the island, and it's going to be absolutely packed this time of the year.
Also, while normal circumstances dictate that I should have no problem doing 75 (even mountainous) kilometers in one day, normal circumstances don't have me still drinking coffee at noon.
Which is why, at 35km and with roads both in and out, I picked Shuiman.
However, by the time Frank had prepped his bike, and we'd gone to the newest piece of property given to him by the government to use for a training facility, and we'd stopped by the motorcycle club's Outdoor Market Camp Festival BBQ hangout, it was also too late for me to make it to Shuiman before dark. Because I've got a steel bike with a still excessive amount of luggage instead of a carbon fiber dream bike, and my average speed is closer to 12kph than it is to 22kph which he was thinking was "perfectly reasonable" for a short ride with only a little over 1,000m of elevation gain.
And, although Frank couldn't keep hanging out or come back to the Motorcycle Club Camp Festival BBQ hangout spot on account of a wife who both doesn't want to be left at home with two small children and who doesn't want to take her children to anything, I spent the rest of the day with the cool kids from Shanghai and Beijing swapping travel stories and just generally having a lovely time.
Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 1,041 km (646 miles)
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