Arrival in Hong Kong and Final Race Prep

I forget how long a pan pacific flight is! I watch 6 movies and 3 episodes of Sienfield during the flight! We land in Hong Kong at 7:15 in the morning on Friday and all I want to do is Tai Chi... in my sleep! It's easy to deny the grogginess though. It's China baby! The cab ride to the Regal Riverside is a tour of beautiful suspension bridges and marvelous buildings; hundreds upon hundreds of stalagmites of glass and iron, each reaching higher than the next. What I'll remember most though is the 1,000 ft high scaffolding... made entirely out of bamboo!

When I arrive at the hotel, the team is already out on a group ride, so I quickly throw together my steed and head out for my first ride. I am told by a tall Danish rider (who looks errily similar to another Dane, the infamous chicken, Michael Rasseumsen) that I should stick to the bike path which runs along the river. There are gates every hundred meters and I soon tire of the crowds, so I stop at a quiet park for some quick yoga and take to the roads. An immediate culture shock as I realize the they drive on the wrong side of their British made roads!!! It's a sharp learning curve as I come close to a speeding truck on a blind right-hand turn (note to self: stay on the far left, especially in a blind curve). I quickly realize that Hong Kong is the more packed than any place I have ever visited. It's a quite morning, but I am surrounded by ghetto-like pod apartments. Its like being inside a bee hive when all the bees are out gathering pollen. I return to the hotel and my room feels like a penthouse compared to what most have here.

Before leaving for China, I sold a new pair of Zipp carbon fiber handlebars on Ebay, but I meet the man who bought them in the lobby of the hotel. His name is Bruno and he is a triathlete from France. His gives me $1800 HKD (Hong Kong dollars) and I feel like a millionaire. At lunch I ask our host, Louis Shih, the president of Champion System, where I can can have a tailored suit made!

More and more racers start showing up at the hotel. Malaysians and Swiss, Japanese and South Aficans. We have it made in the shade here. Big purse, small field (small compared to the amount of prize money). Out of the 60 plus racers, I am the only one to be born in American. I am also the tallest (I hope these two traits win me many friends, if not wins). We are a US based team, but my teammates are all born outside the country: 2 Canucks, Gavi and Chris (former living in NYC, the latter in Taiwan), a speedy Columbian in Lisban (our top chance for a podium finish), and a young dragon from Guyana, Sommraj. On the roster for the race, we are all given Chinese character names next to our names. I find out from one of the race staff that in Chinese, "dragon" is pronounced, "long", so I hope they worked that into my race name. I could see Longacre meaning "a rice field cultivated by a dragon".

For the opening ceremonies, we take an open-top bus ride over to the world headquarters for HBSC on the famous Hong Kong Island, the home to some of the the most expensive real estate in the world. Really, in terms of its pure scope, the skyline puts Manhattan to shame. Multiple 200+ floor buildings litter the island (how do you Feng Shui a building that size?), but its quiet. Not a single horn to be heard. The ceremonies are nice, we walk around, witness a wedding, and as quickly as we are dwarfed by man's modern marvels, we are wisked away on the bus, back to the hotel. Just as well, for we will have enough time racing along Victoria Harbor tomorrow to see all of the city we want.