Mongolia Day 2

Race Day 1.  We opted for the short course for the following reasons:  our priority was site seeing, we didn't know what we were signing up for, and (most importantly) neither of trained for it at all.

Morning from the hotel room, note the beautiful sky!  We decided that since we couldn't get our bike rentals until 10am, we would hit the town.

One of the main cross sections in Xiwuqi.  Where are all the ayis sweeping 24/7?  Yep, we're not in Suzhou anymore.

My friend, Matthew, at work.  C'mon man, you're in MONGOLIA!!!

Another little shot of a great backdrop, there were certainly some neat spots in this town.

Another nice little spot.  Note the dark cloud over the camel statue (normally this would be either a fu dog or a lion in China).

In case you were wondering where the clothing processes store was.

Hard to see in this shot, but in the hardware store you can pick up airplane propellers (far left of the large window, standing up)...

Hey, that's the mannequin piz from Brussels!  Cute little gimmick in the bathroom supply store.  Yes, that's actually water spraying out of the statue.

Maybe this is taking it a little too far?

That's Matthew showing off how close he can get to a sheep slaughter on the side walk.  There were 5 or 6 freaked out sheep in the truck still on the left.

What's a Wang agent do?

After collecting our bikes, here's my friend in front of a temple getting asked for pictures, how much his bike cost, etc.  You know, the usual.

Playing some bones, real bones.

On our 6 km ride out to the start line, we had to stop to catch our breath (not a good start).  Little did we know that the ridge line over his shoulder would be a murderous start to the race right after the rain that fell at the gun shot.  One of the Europeans had said "wow, you guys look relaxed".  We took that to be European for "you look like a bunch of tourists who have no idea what's about to happen to you".  They were right.

Huh?  An Irish guy in a kilt?  Also, that little red spot on his leg was a Chinese flag.  Not sure commentary is needed.

Catching a smoke while waiting to start.

Very Chinese:  "So what that 200 people are trying to watch the horse dancing (without horses)?  Our picture is more important than all of you combined".

Oh, so that's what my Chinese medium size shirt should look like on.  Sadly, this is too close for comfort so Reid will get mine when I arrive home.

A little storm rolling in on the left.

Tired, dirty, but undefeated after cresting the hill.  At this point I considered chucking the bike and walking back.  We later found out that only about 50 or 55 people out of 79 starters finished the short course that day.

We were walking uphill at this point.  A woman doing the long course passed us and said "what's wrong with your bikes?"  My friend replied "the fat guy trying to make it go."  Mine too Matthew, mine too.

Danger!

Finally at the end, we left our bikes in the fountain to try to wash off the 10 lbs. of mud.  Best decision we made all day as this required no effort on our part.

After we finished the first day, we were both in pretty bad shape.  Funny thing was that we both hit the shower in our rooms and immediately passed out on the bed for 30 minutes.  We grabbed dinner (same food as breakfast and lunch, yummy) and tried to find something to keep us awake, opting for a walk to the corner market for a cold beer.  Ironically, neither of us packed alternate shoes, so we both were walking down the street in hotel slippers. 

We brought a small group into the store with us because they were curious about what we were going to buy.  This was actually helpful as one of the onlookers opened our beers for us on the corner of a shelf.  Passed out at about 6:30pm and woke up the the phone ringing at 7am.  I can't remember the last time I slept 12 1/2 hours!