Archive for Januar, 2010

Former China National Team Member

Dienstag, Januar 5th, 2010

Today Zheng Xiao Hai and his girlfriend dropped by my Natooke bike shop. He used to be a China National Cycling Team member. And he was a 180km road cycling winner in 2005 and was also number 7 in track cycling. We had just met at the bike trainer race a few days ago. Great to have athletes come to my shop, so we took some pictures.

Cyclist Zheng Xiao Hai and Ines

The Girls

This morning I found a some articles about the recent heavy snowfall in Beijing. And especially how Beijing does not have many snowplows. Chinese soldiers geared up with shovels and brooms to clear away snow drifts on Tianmen Square during a heavy snow storm in Beijing on January 3, 2010. Most of the snow in Beijing got hand shoveled. Yesterday on many streets in the city center had snow piles on the side. Today was the day where those snow piles got picked up by the garbage collection trucks. And of course the snow was again hand shoveled into the garbage truck.

Beijing Shovels the Huge Amount of Snow into Garbage Trucks

Garbage Trucks Collecting the Snow Piled up Along the Streets of Beijing

Just an anecdote from hutong life: Today when Samantha and I were shoveling (we also use the common normal Chinese shovel not the snow shovel) away the snow in front of the shop 2 ladies came to us and asked us if we knew the man that came and took my bike yesterday. I said no and asked them if they knew him. They said no. They said that he was not from this hutong. They said they watched him look at my bike and then take it. After some thought the one lady said to the other „I think that man was a bike thief“. …I hope that next time they see a man take a bike from in front of my shop they will realize immediately that it is a thief…

Snow and Bike Thief

Montag, Januar 4th, 2010

Today it stopped snowing. But it seems that the city was overwhelmed with the amount of snow and was not able to clean all the streets.

Snow all Over the Beijing Streets

Even on the huge avenues there was snow everywhere. Especially on the bike lane. So the few people that were riding bikes had to ride on the street. But that was okay as there were hardly any cars.

Beijing Avenue Covered by Snow

Due to the weather conditions the public schools were closed today. It was around -26 degrees with the strong wind that was blowing. I was astonished to see this governmental office have all employees stand outside. I am not sure what kind of ceremony it was as I arrived when they were playing teh Chinese anthem just before they all ran inside.

Beijing Governmental Ceremony

My bike shop looked really nice with all the snow outside. Unfortunately it was really cold inside as we have no proper heating, just electric heaters that suck a lot of electricity.

Natooke Bicycle Shop in Snow

Today my good friend Gil dropped by the shop just before lunch. We were sitting in my office chatting. He asked me which bike I had ridden to come today. I told him it is the blue Corima fixed gear bike outside the shop near the entrance. In that moment I remembered that I had not locked it this morning as Samantha and I first shoveled all the snow away from the shop front and after 30 minutes had frozen hands. But as we were soon going to go for lunch with Gil I decided not to lock it. About 10 min later Gil says „Hey look, is that one of your friends? Oh look, he is taking your bike.“ So I ran down and out and saw some guy with a huge coat and a hood pushing my fixed gear bike as if it were his down along teh hutong. Even though it was very obvious that he would not have such a bike. So I run up to him knowing that if he would decide to jump on the bike and try to ride it he would be so surprised that it cannot coast that he would not be able to go away especially as the hutong was all covered by snow. When I reached him I asked him „What are you doing?!? This is my bike.“ He just gave me the bike, said the typical „mei shir“ (=in the sense of „whatever“) and continued on walking down the hutong as if nothing ever happened. I did not expect that. It was so strange but on the other hand so Beijing style. Wow, so I hadmy bike back but only because Gil had looked outside in the right moment. Thank you Gil!!!

More Snow in Beijing

Sonntag, Januar 3rd, 2010

Wow, more snow! This is great! It is unusual to have so much snow here in Beijing but it is really nice.

Beijing Bike covered by Snow

Lots of Snow in Beijing

As I had grown up in New Jersey as well as in Southern Germany I am used to lots of snow in winter. And from early childhood I learned how to make proper snow mans. But there are other people that did not learn how to roll snow for a snow man. Like some neighbors that told their children to make this kind of snow cone snowman.

Beijing Snow Cone Snow Man

The good think about this style is that the children properly cleaned the surrounding area from the snow.  But it just does nto look like a snow man to me.

Snow and Indoor Bike Race

Samstag, Januar 2nd, 2010

My cycling friends Shannon and Ricky decided to go to the indoor bike roller race with me. We were not so happy about the 8:30am registration and start but last night we said let us do it. When I looked out of the window this morning I was astonished to see it had snowed. I had not expected that.

Beijing in White Snow

There were still quite some people on their bikes cycling through the city.

Girls Cycling in Snowy Beijing

But it is amazing to see how fast the nice white snow turns black due to the Beijing dust.

Beijing Dirt Turns Fresh White Snow into Black Slush

Whenever there was still some white snow left we cycled on it as the black slush was splashing up our butt and backs.

Cycling in Snowy Beijing without Fenders

My bike got covered with black slush and covered with snow.

My Bike Brake Covered in Snow

My messenger bag got slashed by the Beijing street dirt.

My Chrome Messenger Bag Covered with Dirt

When we arrived at the BJ Golden bike shop there were only 3 cyclists: Shannon, Ricky and me. And the guy with the software for controlling the bike trainer had not arrived yet. The Shimano guys started setting up the indoor bike race system. The competition was on an ELITE RealAXIOM roller with a virtual route of 2 km with an uphill slope.

Shimano Bike ELITE RealAXIOM Roller Race

Within the next few hours a few other cyclists showed up. Most of them were China cycling champions and China ex-National Team members. So we did the competition. One person at a time on the bike that was mounted on the bike roller that was connected to a computer running a virtual bike race course. The computer would adjust the resistance of the bike roller to simulate the steepness of the uphill. You could watch the 2km route on the computer as well as your current time and speed and how much distance was still left. Someone had to hold the bike handlebars to avoid too much rocking.

Ines during Shimano Bike Roller Race

Ines Coping at the End of the 2 Minute Uphill Sprint

That was the most exhausting thing I have ever done. After that 2 minute uphill sprint at an average speed of 54.1km/hour my throat, airway and top part of my lungs were burning! And my legs had no more strength left. I could hardly stand. And the burning in my throat and airway as well as a resulting cough stayed till later in the afternoon. Wow I wish I could do a 2:19 minute long uphill sprint at that speed in a real bicycle race…

Taking not only the time but also the average power into account it seems I finished 4th. What a surprise!

Shimano Bike Trainer Race Winners

I uploaded many more pictures of this event to a new webalbum. After the race the BJ Golden shop owner Yang Yang invited us for a lunch. We went to a nearby hot pot restaurant. We had delicious food and cool Yang Yang was happy to drink many bottles of beer with Shannon and Ricky.

Yang Yang drinking Beer With Friends

It was a great Saturday activity and I finally arrived home at 5pm still feeling the effects of the short but extremely intense race

New Year’s Day Ride & Golf Course Skids

Freitag, Januar 1st, 2010

What could be a better way to start the New Year than joining a bike ride? I think there is nothing better 🙂 But it seems some people did not agree on this sunny and not too cold day. It seems most people decided to drive their cars on this public holiday in China and sit in traffic jams. There was so much congestion as there were no driving restrictions today – that means cars with any license plate were allowed to drive. But at least in some areas in Beijing there is a fence between the car lane and the bicycle lane so that no car can just use the cycling lane.

Beijing Traffic Jams and Empty Bicycling Lanes

Bicycle Lane Symbol in Beijing

We were just a small group of 6 cyclists ranging from hard core triathletes, fixed gear cyclists to leisurely riders. We headed out for the peloton Wenyu river loop. We went along the Beijing canals. As the temperature was just around zero the canals were not frozen. Some of the bridges are actually very nice.

Beijing Canal Bridge in the East

We did a short break to look for some not too dirty plastic bag to cover the feet inside the shoes so that they do not freeze so much. It is a very easy and effective solution that I still have not tried. Next time when it is colder I will try that before I leave the house.

Bike Ride Break

We continued along the Wenyu river towards the South.

Bike Ride Along the Wenyu He

We found a not so well maintained golf course a long the way. We fixed gear riders decided to check if it is nice to skid on the green. And it is! You should try it. Just go to your nearest golf course. The grass on the green is really smooth and enhancing the ability to skid.

Fixie Riding on Golf Course Green

Fixed Gear Bike Skidding on Golf Course Green

Then we rode in the winter sun along the canal back to the city center. It was so nice and peaceful.

Relaxing New Years Bike Ride in Beijing

In the city we went to the Jamaica Blue peloton cafe South of the Chaoyang Park to meet up with other cyclists, have lunch and defrost our fingers and toes. It is great to see that at least some of the cyclists do not care about it being winter in Beijing and still coming out on bike rides like some of the fixed gear riders.

Beijing Fixed Gear Bicycle Riders