Weds - Oct 18 - 2006 3950metres
93kms
93kms
Riding Time 3hours:11mins
First thing in the morning we went sightseeing with Palden to the Pelkar Chode Monastery (1418, a rare place where 3 different orders of Tibetan Buddhism once coexisted, rare). Also hit the Kumbum, meaning 100,000 images. I bought a few bracelets (so did terry and mark) from a really cool Tibetan monk. Hes 13 yrs old, spoke well, nice kid.
The team is breaking down. The days have been long, the rides longer. A few riders have become ill and been forced to take a few days off. Todays ride turned into a 94km road race from Gyantse to Shigatse saw only 9 riders out of 15 make the journey. A group of 5 of us shared the front headwind and kept up a 29km/hr pace, leaving us gasping by the time we got here. It was awesome though, to be in a paceline in a team, working together, but also its a very selfish thing, because it saves you energy. I once read that you can save something like 30% more energy by drafting on the guy in front of your wheel. Today it was Nick, Michel, myself, Terry, and Chris bombing along. Most of us have spedometres, so the transition time works well. One person rips at 30kph for one km marker, then he moves to the side and only slightly lowers his speed, allowing thepaceline to take over and the next in line to do his km of headwind. The only problem sometimes is when a rider pushes the speed up during his turn, which happens easily, and it leaves you working harder to just keep up on the tire of the guy in front of you. There were a few times when a rider would fall off the back and we'd all hold up a bit to team up again.
Arriving at Shigatse Hotel sortakinda early for once, we all grabbed showers then I got some photos burned to CD and skipped the monastery visit. Terry and I wandered the town and ate Yak Chili, which utterly sucked, so spicy. Even hit a net cafe where i tried to update my blog here, but it kept redirecting me, then I realized later it censored my post about the military.
Caught a taxi back to the hotel, with a tibetan couple in the backseat on either side of me just out on the town for a joy ride it seemed, funny place this is...
First thing in the morning we went sightseeing with Palden to the Pelkar Chode Monastery (1418, a rare place where 3 different orders of Tibetan Buddhism once coexisted, rare). Also hit the Kumbum, meaning 100,000 images. I bought a few bracelets (so did terry and mark) from a really cool Tibetan monk. Hes 13 yrs old, spoke well, nice kid.
The team is breaking down. The days have been long, the rides longer. A few riders have become ill and been forced to take a few days off. Todays ride turned into a 94km road race from Gyantse to Shigatse saw only 9 riders out of 15 make the journey. A group of 5 of us shared the front headwind and kept up a 29km/hr pace, leaving us gasping by the time we got here. It was awesome though, to be in a paceline in a team, working together, but also its a very selfish thing, because it saves you energy. I once read that you can save something like 30% more energy by drafting on the guy in front of your wheel. Today it was Nick, Michel, myself, Terry, and Chris bombing along. Most of us have spedometres, so the transition time works well. One person rips at 30kph for one km marker, then he moves to the side and only slightly lowers his speed, allowing thepaceline to take over and the next in line to do his km of headwind. The only problem sometimes is when a rider pushes the speed up during his turn, which happens easily, and it leaves you working harder to just keep up on the tire of the guy in front of you. There were a few times when a rider would fall off the back and we'd all hold up a bit to team up again.
Arriving at Shigatse Hotel sortakinda early for once, we all grabbed showers then I got some photos burned to CD and skipped the monastery visit. Terry and I wandered the town and ate Yak Chili, which utterly sucked, so spicy. Even hit a net cafe where i tried to update my blog here, but it kept redirecting me, then I realized later it censored my post about the military.Caught a taxi back to the hotel, with a tibetan couple in the backseat on either side of me just out on the town for a joy ride it seemed, funny place this is...
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