Cyc: Great Wall another spectacular cycling backdrop

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2008
Cyc: Great Wall another spectacular cycling backdrop

By Mike Hedge, Senior Correspondent

BEIJING, Aug 9 AAP - A week or so in the Alps and a couple more among the vineyards
and valleys of France and Italy should be enough for any bike buff looking for an invigorating
setting.

But only two weeks after the end of the Tour de France, a new and equally spectacular
backdrop has made a big bike race all the more memorable.

In a theme that will be often repeated during these Olympic Games, the technicolour
toil of lycra-clad athletes was juxtaposed against the centuries-old wonders of ancient
China as the men's road race spent most of its time today beside, around and under the
Great Wall.

Today's excursion was to the stretch of the Great Wall around the Juyongguan Pass.

To get there, the 143 men on their space-age machines rode 80km from the start in Beijing
through the smog-filled suburbs and into the smog-filled countryside.

On their way they passed through a panorama that reflected the massive progression
that has taken place around one of the oldest and richest cultures on earth.

No sooner did the cyclists pass through toll booths on new expressways than they would
glide under stone archways that passed over roads first carved out of the surrounding
mountains 2,500 years ago.

The best bike riders in the world pedalled past 1,000-year-old temples and, if they
could afford to, might have caught a glimpse of the Cloud Platform, a white marble podium
that took 80 years to build.

From there they would plunge into a tunnel cut a few years ago through an entire mountain
in a matter of months.

For most, though, including Australia's Cadel Evans, an alp would have been a preferable
opponent to the air they tried to suck into their lungs.

Evans eventually finished 15th, nine places behind countryman Michael Rogers, while
the gold went to Spaniard Samuel Sanchez.

The road race was the most serious test of Beijing's maligned atmosphere and oppressive
summer climate.

A 245km examination that took more than six hours to complete, it had been in danger
of postponement 12 hours before it began, so problematic was the air quality.

One after the other riders pulled out, preferring discretion ahead of utter exhaustion.

The polluted atmosphere had 90 oer cent humidity added to it today, a mixture that
took a heavy toll.

Juan Jose Haedo of Argentina succumbed to both.

"It feels like you have hot cream all over your body," Haedo said.

"Once you go full gas, you cannot breathe."

Maxime Montfort of Belgium climbed mountain after mountain in the Tour, but couldn't
cope with the comparitively gentle hills of Juyongguan.

"It was just too hard," he said.

"It's not possible to have any power today on the climb.

"After the first climbs I just didn't feel my legs anymore."

Talented Dutch rider Karsten Kroon said he had no hope.

"I am wrecked," Kroon said.

"The conditions and the course are just too hard ... the heat and the humidity were
too much for me.

"You feel your head explode."

For all that, many of those who pulled out got back on their bikes for a leisurely
ride back to Beijing - and a chance to take in the scenery.

AAP mh/jds

KEYWORD: OLY08 CYC SCENE (PIX AVAILABLE)

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