Hong Kong Arrival

It feels great to be here and to finally be feeling 100 percent. I almost didn:t come over to race my last race of the year because I had been feeling pretty lousy since bringing back a sickness from mexico. But today I had some training and it felt alright, i think by sunday i will be ready for one last kick at it.


Ive only been here one day but quickly ive found out that many of the generalizations or assumptions i had of Hong Kong were wrong:

1) Hong Kong is not an Island! Well it is many islands, hundreds of islands and actually, part of hong kong is on mainland asia.

2) Ive always heard that Hong KOng is overpopulated and tremedously crowded. Not so much, there actually is breathing room on the streets and the trains are sometimes almost empty!

3) I didn:t realize how far south Hong Kong is, it is not far from the Phillipines. Being this far south the vegetation here is very jungle like and the islands features and much like a sterotypical tropical island.

Today I did something that i think may have been a first ever by a Canadian! I wanted to check out the bike course so i got geared up and rode to the metro station. I then took the train with my bike far enough so i was out of the city. Being white here gets enough looks, pair that with tight spandex and a 4000 dollar racing bike on a subway train and your a geniune circus freak...some eyes i don:t think ever left me.

I navigated, getting lost once on my way home, around the bike course which is one of the most beautifull courses i:ve ever seen. The bike goes up over this dam and then into a national park. The roads are smooth and quite narrow and the jungle bush encloses you in this crazy world where you feel like the only one on the planet. The course has two climbs, one major of 400m at 11 percent and another which is probably 1km at 4 or 5 percent. This is going to be tough for me to hang on to the group(s). Climbing is not my forte right now and especially steep grades.

Really glad i made it to this race and my friends here and taking great care of me. Tonight we walked along the water watching a lazer show projected onto the hong kong skyline. Great dinner which included shark fin soup.

all for now.