Everyday before starting we watch the tour de France on Chinese TV, 1/2hour résumé, and even a full hour after important stages.

But Andy and Co are not the only ones having important stages; we also started for a long one. 

The good news: It rained overnight, and temperatures were well lower than the day before, only 36°!

The next good news: Jason announced a 500 meters climb, but it was just a gentle uphill, never more then2 – 3 % steep.

And another good one: around midday a strong backwind helped us to reach 1435 meters, the peak for today.

But there is other not so good news as well. We all spent lots of energy these days, and suffered a lot from the heat. Charel complains from pain in the back and his wrist is going numb. Same for me, as my handlebar is too low, and there is too much weigh on my wrists. But I have another, more annoying problem: Due to the lack of water, and the big efforts, there is some blood in my urines, once again. I had this problem last year already, when I cycled to Egypt, and now I have to take it easy for a few days, and drink lots of water.As for  Nico, he still cannot get accustomed to Chinese cuisine, and feels quite weak. Only Curt seems to have no problems so far.

So this was another very long day: 175 km, too much. We cannot go on like this, it costs too much energy.

So we decided to split the next stage, (177 km again), into two parts, especially as it was to become a hard one.

Soon after leaving Kumishi, we started climbing the Gangu Mountains, almost 40 km climbing at a gentle average of 3 – 4 %. Temperature was not too hot again. After reaching the high point of 1750 meters, we all could enjoy the greatest downhill of our lives: 50 km downhill, from 1750 to – 30 meters! Absolutely exceptional! There must not be many places on earth where you can enjoy such a descent, finishing even below sea level!

Today we also finished our first 1000 km.

Watching Tour de France on Chinese TV

Jason doing aerobics before leaving Yanqi