The plan was to head out as a group to the Ming Tombs to the North-West of the city and ride a 24km route, taking in some of the lesser-visited tombs along the way and finishing with lunch at a local eatery before buss'ing it back. Food and mountain biking DO go well together, but the even more exciting fineprint of the plan was the intended gradient for the ride – the bus would drop us at the ‘top of the valley’ and pick us up at the bottom, making for a mainly downhill cruise to the finish with a few undulations thrown in there for good measure. After a bit of too'ing and fro'ing with the ride organiser we judged that the route was OK for the trailer bike, meaning that Maddy was able to join us as well on the back of Amy's bike while I got to take one of mine for a spin.
All 13 and a half of us (13 adults + Maddy) met behind our apartment at 7.45 am with bikes, plenty of water, spares and (for some) helmets and packed our bikes into a small Jinbei before we jumped on the big bus to head out to the Tomb area around 30km from urban Beijing. Two others who I know are keen riders weren’t present for the trip out so I thought they had bailed at the last minute, only for us to nearly run up the back of them in the bus 1km from the drop-off point. In the spirit of those crazy folk who ride out to Sparrow Hill for the CORC races, Cameron and Amy had decided to ride the 2hrs out to warm up for the day. As it turned out though, warming up was easy. It was the cooling down that was the hard part.
The drop-off/start point couldn’t have been any more scenic for somewhere so close to the haze of Beijing. With summer in full swing and recent rain the hills around were covered in dark green foliage, and the orchards down into the valleys brimming with leaves and fruit. Jutting out from above the flora were the roofs of many temples we could see from the hill, and a quick brief by the ride leader after putting our bikes back together pointed out our rough route for the day and the tombs we would be visiting.
Although on a sealed rode the first decent for the day was a great way to become re-acquainted with the Reign X, which to be honest hasn’t had a lot of use on the flat streets of Beijing but has been itching for a run. And a good run it got, as the road took a few sharp turns down to the bottom of the hill and the first tomb. After having a peak through the closed gate and getting a group shot (to the amusement of the locals, who were trying to understand the concept of a bike tour) we headed straight onto the first of many dirt sections for the day. We were only a few meters along before a few locals tried to convince us that there was no road through the paddock, but a gentle nod later by those in the language know had us getting through without any real resistance. With the track a bit loose and steep I swapped bikes with Amy and took the bridge of the HMAS Yukon with trailer bike while she got to experience for the first time the joys of 165mm of front and rear suspension. For me it was my first real go at handling the bike with a swinging weight at the back end, and it made for some great downhill descents at speed and quickly learning that braking earlier was essential as well as not cutting the corners to fine. The thing you notice with these is that you REALLY feel the difference when your passenger on the back is pedalling, so Maddy got more than one suggestion to mash those pedals like her life depended on it to avoid bringing the line of riders behind us to a sudden stop.
After connecting back onto the sealed road we ducked through a few small villages and swung by another tomb before coming up to the front of one of the bigger ones in the area. Here we were given the option of doing a lap around the tomb outskirts on some dirt, which everyone took to like a fish to water. I did though get a bit excited on the descending single track which caused Maddy a bit of panic. To complicate things even more for her was my need for some sudden braking further down the descents to get around the bike that a local had parked right in the middle of the track, as well as the pile of tin cans dumped right in the middle of the track.
One of the bigger tombs we visited during the ride.
After the short but fun detour we took a fast sealed road descent before turning into some more dirt trail that took us through growing plots and along a dry creek bed, before ducking out only to find a trail that had been there two weeks ago but was now well and truly over grown. When we finally found it there was a real opportunity for a “Choose your own adventure” at a 'T' intersection up ahead. The left turn offered a safer cobblestone track down to the front of our 4th tomb, while the right took you down the side of the wall to the front via a rockier decent option. Given my place in a conga line of bikes and still having Maddy we all took the easier option and gave ourselves a chance to rest the legs while many of us pushed the bikes up. The group took the opportunity out the front of this tomb to take a 15min well deserved rest, before heading off for the last few tombs of the day and a morning tea break on the way to lunch. Amy and I also used this opportunity to swap bikes again, handing back to her control of the trailer bike loco (much to Madeline's relief) while I slouched back into the arm chair with wheels (much to my relief).
With an approximate 45min ride remaining to lunch we were all hoping that we would get to the end with no mechanicals aside from the few cases of gear crunching that were heard. Amy though had other plans, and on making it half way up the steepest hill of the day I got a call from behind about the Yukon's back tyre losing pressure rapidly. So down the hill I went again, and after a quick tube change we were back on the road but somehow magically I had been assigned trailer bike duty again. Did I mention we were at the bottom of the steepest hill of the day? Talk about a set-up.
Amy and I stretching the legs on our morning tea break.
A few km up the road we headed off-road again for the last time on the ride, along terrain which reminded me alot of the firetrail behind Ainslie and Hackett - undulating, but with the uphill sections preceeded by fast downhill sections offering plenty of opportunity for a good run-up. With one of the last turns offering up a near hairpin ala TdF style one of the younger riders went bush when he tried to hit it at 60km hr, sling shotting himself out of the corner and into the bushes somewhat freaked but unhurt.
Out of the turn we dropped right into the last village where we managed to find a ‘resort’ that was able to take out written menu and replicate it down to the chilled soft drinks and semi-chilled beer (OK, the beer was meant to be chilled also, but beggars can't be choosers).
After stuffing ourselves and rehydrating we rode out of the village and along one of the busier roads of the area up to the main entrance of the tombs area. It was at this stage that I really started to feel some serious dehydration coming on, having received little mercy from my serious overactive sweat glands while riding around the area. Luckily there was a store out the front of the entrance, where I would have willingly given a kidney for a bottle of water so managed to start the recovery immediately (but which still took 3 days to fully get over).
In the end everyone had a great ride. Thanks to the background research done by Tim he was able to give us some great facts about each of the emperors along the way, many of whom either ascended the throne at an early age, or only stayed on the throne for a very short while. While we had a few changes along the way none of them were real show-stoppers, and even if there were, isn't it the unplanned (mis)adventures that keep mountain biking exciting?
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