Tour of Qinghai Lake Stages 1 & 2

So the first two stages here at the Tour of Qinghai Lake are done. We haven't gotten much in the way of results yet, but the race is 11 more stages so I feel like we have plenty of time. We were hoping today was going to play out to be more of a GC day, but that wasn't so. After the only climb of the day (which was about 30km of false flat before a steeper final 3km) much of the field regrouped. I estimate around 80 guys came to the line together, so still the only thing that separates the GC is time bonuses a few people have collected so far. Kiel is riding really well, lives at altitude, and climbs well, so he's our leader. 

Speaking of altitude, the past 4 nights or so we've been staying at an Olympic training center that's around 7500ft high, and today we raced up to around 9000. I think tomorrow is generally all uphill for the first 70km before the proper climb starts and lasts for around 15km, getting us up to an altitude of 11,500ft where we'll spend the night on a plateau. The altitude has changed the game a little bit, and I expect to see an even bigger difference in the racing style in a couple more days when everyone isn't so fresh. The main thing is that in adds some unpredictability. Riders' bodies react differently, so some guys that are normally able to smoke field sprints just don't have it in the end. They know what they're supposed to do, line up, follow the lead out, but just come up dead when they try to open up their sprint. Conversely, there are a handful of riders that are completely unknown on the international circuit but who perform exceptionally well at altitude. Whether its because they live a altitude normally (like the one Columbia that's rumored to live at 12,000ft) or they're doped to the gills because they're on a small team that's not subject to the biological passport program isn't always clear. I expect in another few days we'll have a better picture of who the key threats to the GC are, but as of today we were flogging ourselves a bit trying to cover relentless attacks. 

This is my third time racing in China, and it's always quite an experience. Why racing in China is different:

- Predictable tactics go out the window with most Asian teams. In any given moment they are liable to chase their own teammates, or not.. you never know when they'll decide to pedal hard. 

- I'm pretty sure that the universal sign of "time out" or "pee break" (usually given by the rider in the leader's jersey when a break goes up the road that he's satisfied with) means "ATTACK" in Asia. Such a call is normally respected by all riders, and why not?? It's a sign from the leading team that they are happy with the situation and are willing to control the race from that point on, making it an easy ride for the rest of the bunch (of course, only until we near the finish and all hell breaks loose once again).

- There is little concept of personal space. In line for dinner it's normal for someone to make full frontal contact with your backside and snatch the spoon for the rice bowl just as your fingertips are mere inches away from grasping it. 

- The water is not clean, and can in fact make you quite sick (at least for Westerners who don't have immunity to the native germs). It's widely advised and followed by most riders to use bottled water for everything, including teeth brushing, and to not eat anything that's not cooked. No fresh veges or fruit except bananas because they have skin. 

- The soigners bring tons of food from home. I don't know how many boxes our head soigner Ronnie traveled with but it must have been a royal pain with all the goods he brought for us. I estimate he brought around 20 bags of cereal, 30 quarts of soy milk, about a gallon and a half of olive oil, maybe 5 or 6lbs of shredded parmesan cheese, honey, peanut butter, Nutella, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. He bout a rice cooker here and cases of drinking water daily. Yeah it's a lot to deal with, but it reduces the chances of riders getting food poisoning, which is guaranteed to happen to 1 or 2 riders per trip (along with the majority of the staff because they're a little more adventurous with their food choices than we are. When the restaurant food looks questionable, everyone's go to meal is a heaping plate of rice, olive oil, parmesan, and salt. Along with tuna or whatever kind of protein you brought from home. 

- Social media is blocked online, which means no Facebook, twitter, blogging, or YouTube. This doesn't matter that much except it just limits the possibilities when you're trying to kill time in a hotel room (which is very often). Also Facebook mobile is a way to text people back home, which is always nice. This trip I beat the system by downloading something called a VPN on my phone (I don't know what that is but when I turn it on I can access any website, so I like it).

- Chinese TV is very limited. Every show is soap opera style and there are rarely any music videos or Western (culture) movies, both of which are good in any language. The only thing we've settled on watching is channel 5 which is a sports channel.. Tho even that plays snooker for about 10hrs a day. It's on so much that I may as well look up the rules so I'll know what's going on rather than just staring at it. 

- The only way to do laundry is to pay the hotel for the service. That's expensive so the swannies will usually just buy some detergent for us to pass around so we can wash our kits daily in the sink. Because of all the oil, grime, and water on the roads it's SOP to wash and wear the same stained kit every day (to keep from ruining the whole lot) and throw it out (or at least only use it for training) at the end of the trip. 

Ooook that's all I've got for now. We have to have our bags out at 6:15am tomorrow for the transfer to the next town. Logic says I should go to sleep now, but we're praying that live coverage of the Tour comes on channel 5 after this volleyball game is over, so the temptation to stay up and watch it may get the better of me.