October 6, 2014
The motivation: YES!!! I can!!!
I only left the hotel at two in the afternoon but I cycled 80 kilometres in five hours that day, going all out, as fast as I possibly could, a lung-bursting, thigh-burning effort to make distance. No doubt some of you will currently be wondering what could possibly have made me start cycling so intensely having been dawdling along being all sad and that only the day before. What could have brought about such an extraordinary change in attitude? I daresay some of you will know me well enough by now to work it out. The only thing that could give me motivation like that. Come on, it's easy! The email! The email, was from, yes, you've guessed it, the most beautiful girl in the world.
Dea.
Dea who I met in Mongolia when she was riding a motorcycle with some French men and a delightfully short unicylist. Dea, the Danish girl that I had sat next to outside her tent and talked with as we watched the yellow moon together. She had emailed me to say that she could be in Lanzhou on the 17th if I could. If I could? Could I ever! Like an actor accepting a role that requires a skill he can't do, I enthusiatically first replied "YES! I can!" and then tried to work out how to make it happen.
The incentive was there but could I honestly do it? Lanzhou was more than 1350 kilometres away, and I only had 12 days. In theory possible, but the only two things I really wanted to see in China (apart from the most beautiful girl in the world) were both on the way between Hami and Lanzhou. Stopping and making detours to visit the Great Wall and the Rainbow Mountains would increase the distance and decrease the time. To do everything I was therefore looking at needing to average 120 kilometres per day again. I'd done that before, yes, but only ever with the long days of northern latitude's summers. Now the days were getting short and, with Dino and Suzy warning of strong headwinds to come, it seemed close to impossible. But it wasn't impossible. There was a thin slice of possible there. I accepted the challenge. The race was on. There was no more time for feeling sorry for myself. A date with the most beautiful girl in the world was on the cards here. What sort of obstacle was 1400 kilometres of desert with that kind of an incentive?
Well the next morning 1400 kilometres started to feel like a bit more of an obstacle when a cruel headwind pegged back my progress to an embarrassing crawl. If it kept up like this then getting to Lanzhou by the 17th actually was going to be impossible. Continuing to try felt almost absurd as I progressed at less than ten kilometres an hour. But I told myself to keep pushing on regardless. Opportunities to go on dates with gorgeous blonde Danish girls do not come along very often whilst riding bicycles across China. If I didn't make this one it seemed very unlikely I would get another chance. Consequently my brain (I think it was my brain) promised my tired legs that the wind would get better in the afternoon if they kept pressing on. My legs didn't believe my brain, but luckily due to the way my nervous system functions they have to do what it says, so they kept going. And oddly enough the wind actually did move around in the afternoon and was coming from the side and a little bit from the back and I tilted my body to it and it actually helped me, and I made almost 120 kilometres in the end, and my legs had to apologise to my brain a little bit for doubting its future-predicting-abilities.
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The next day I crossed from Xinjiang into the province of Gansu, and immediately the signs began to be translated into English. This spoiled my symbol-fun-word-game-system but did make things much easier. I also hoped that the new province might bring some new and exciting change in scenery.
I was still just riding on the G30 expressway because it was the fastest way. I occasionally saw the G312 but in many places it was abandoned and in bad condition when it was in any way usable. The G30, by contrast, was a perfect smooth paved road with a wide shoulder with no junctions or lights or giving way to traffic to slow me down. It was, however, not absolutely legal for me to be cycling on, at least according to the 'no cycling' signs. Every now and again I would have to pass through a toll booth and usually I would sneak through and avoid eye contact with anyone, but at one there was a group of policemen sitting around to the side and they saw me and called me over. I was happy to ignore the toll booth staff if they shouted at me, but you have to stop for the police don't you, so I rolled over to them and prepared my excuses. "The other road's no good!" "It's safer on here with the wide shoulder!" "I didn't see the signs!" But before I said anything one of them disappeared into a building. The other two or three officers others stood and smiled at me. Then the first came back, carrying a bottle of ice tea in his hand and it was passed to me and I was waved onwards. And they didn't even ask for a photo.
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06/10/14 - 118km
07/10/14 - 150km
Today's ride: 268 km (166 miles)
Total: 30,259 km (18,791 miles)
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