Day 3 - Formation of Team A

I sat down to breakfast with Gloria Ge, our event coordinator, and Sharon Dowdell at the hotel this Monday morning. We started talking about Accenture Hope Schools, and it turned out that there are very touching stories as a result of this charity in past years. Gloria is very active in supporting the students enrolled in the program; she mentioned how one student in particular, who reached a point where he was able to simultaneously attend school and work a part-time job asked that the charity sponsor another a new student instead of himself. Another student had attended a top University and will soon graduate. Accenture is taking a long look at him and nearly ready to offer a position with the company.

Date: Monday, September 13, 2010
Ride distance: morning – 25km, afternoon – 58km

In summary, day 3 was a killer. The original plan consisted of a morning ride of 25km from a dropoff point on the highway to the city of Guazhou, then lunch, followed by a 63km to the historic Suyang bluffs. Since many riders noted that they were beginners, the afternoon ride was cut nearly in half due to a very difficult section of hill-climb just outside the city. But just wait, it wasn’t cut in half for everybody.

The kids were excited to see us
The short morning ride was a difficult one as riders faced a strong headwind with small rolling hills. There was a curve approximately 12km in that turned us out of the headwind, then our ride became more comfortable, but one had to complete the initial stretch with the strong resistance. The 25km ride ended in the city of Guazhou, famous for growing sweet melons. The kids came out in strong numbers, probably as school was letting out for lunch time, and we were an instant main attraction. Most of them waved to us, this group of riders passing through their city. I came with the first main group, supported each other in the wind and made our way to our hotel where we stayed for lunch, a meal consisting of shlag as well as other fine foods, especially their sweet melon. The other riders were trickling in as they completed their morning leg.

Optional Challenge? Never back down!
Towards the end of lunch, the logistics people announced that those of us who wanted to ride the original long route would be able to. I’m not sure of the exact distance. We, the 9 riders who took on the challenge of the original route would need to ride from the lunch location, 22km which includes a few kilometers of uphill difficulty. Those who wanted to ride the revised route, would be bussed up the hill and dropped off with around 36km to go.

As the formation of team A (or Team 1, we called ourselves a few different things), set upon the post-lunch ride, we discovered the true difficulty of the original route. We biked 10km back in the direction that we had come from, then turned uphill and against a strong headwind. For me, the wind factor caused more difficulty than the hill. Both required us to lower our gears and power against both factors. The other riders passed us in the bus as they were heading to their forward start position. Eventually, we reached the top of the hill and felt a sense of relief. However, easy wasn't meant to be, as the headwind caused us to continue the pedaling effort downhill.

The road was a beautiful one. We passed by a camel farm. Stopped in a small village and entered the house/restaurant of a couple to have some melon and drinks before continuing on. Our ride ended in Suyang. My quadriceps were starting to cramp up and there was a stretch towards the end of the ride where I had to fall back from team A.

**”Gua” is the Chinese term meaning melon. Guazhou translates to melon city.