Lantau 100

The holiday period over Chinese New Year provided the first real opportunity of the year to head out for a long ride and get a decent number of kilometers in the legs in one hit. Lantau Island would provide some (relatively) quiet roads with a number of challenging climbs. As with most climbs in Hong Kong, what they lack in length they certainly make up for in gradient!

JK and I were joined this time by Pt and Janice who were keen to give themselves a 'wake up call' and to kick start their training (having been focused more on running and other sports recently) - it certainly was always going to be a very challenging day so early in their training (not helped by Janice being under the weather too). Sacha and two friends (Casey and Dave - Dave only having bought his bike four days previously) also joined us for the majority of the ride.

Pt and JK getting ready for the big day...

Following what these days could be considered a lie-in, we all meet at Sunny Bay MTR at 8am to head off on the planned 100km ride (with ~2400m climbing). The first 12km along to Tung Chung was an easy warm-up along the gently rolling flats and a chance to get the blood flowing through the legs before we hit the bottom of The Beast - the most feared (although not the most difficult as it later turned out...) climb on Lantau. We had warned Pt and Janice that it was pretty brutal but I dont think anything can really prepare you for the relentless steepness of the climb - between 13-16% all the way to the top. The Beast will get its own blog entry at some point in the near future...

Taming the Beast... a view from the top

Once at the top I was shortly followed by JK, with Sacha not too much further behind (slightly surprised that he had been so comprehensively schooled 'by a girl'). Casey then followed, but it was a while before Pt, Janice and Dave emerged - shoes in hand and pushing their bikes having been beaten by The Beast.

Sometimes its quicker to walk...

From the top of The Beast we all took the awesome decent down to Lower Cheung Sha beach and then another 10km of rolling terrain towards Shek Pik Reservoir. From Shek Pik we then headed up towards the Big Buddha - 4.5km at an average gradient of 8.5% but with long sections at over 15% - a real grind! It was beginning to get really hot and sunny too. Again I hit the top, shortly followed by JK and then Sacha, with Casey and Dave not too much further back. We waited, and then we waited a little more, but still no Janice or Pt. After weighing up the options we decided to head back down to see if anything had happened only to find Janice and Pt just around the corner with 100 yard stares and shoes in hands again. Janice was really not well!

A painful pilgrimage

I had been keen to try a climb up from Sham Wat that I had never done before, but it was pretty clear that, other than JK, I was alone in that wish. As a compromise everyone except JK and me headed down the decent to Tai O to get a little extra rest. We headed down the narrow decent to Sham Wat.... only to meet around 150 mountain bikers in various stages of delirium weaving wildly up the single track road as they winched themselves up at an achingly slow pace. No idea what was going on, but they were everywhere!

On hitting the bottom, and having seen how steep the decent was, JK and I headed back up the Sham Wat climb knowing it was going to be tough. It was definitely the toughest climb of the day - no wonder only a handful of people have been up and down it! We really had to grind our way up (JK managing to shake off the crazy guy on a Brompton-type bike that seemed hell bent on not being overtaken by a girl).

After pausing for breath we headed down to Tai O, collected the others (asleep on the seafront) and headed through the narrow and winding streets of Tai O to the most amazing coffee shop (name unknown, but not sure I would mention it if I knew), which much to my dismay was shut for the 'holidays' despite there seeming to be some fat gweilos in there... we settled for a place across the street (Melt) and tucked into pies/cheese toasties.

Melt... an aptly named cafe

On trying to leave Tai O we had to battle through Lion Dances and more smelly mountain bikers. At this point Pt and Janice jumped in a cab (sensible given how unwell Janice was at this stage) and Sacha, Casey and Dave said they would be heading back to Tung Chung meaning that JK and I could head off at our own pace - which we did, leaving Sacha (mistakenly) grinding up the climb out of Tai O in his big ring, heading towards Mui Wo.

A money hungry Lion

The ride to Mui Wo was pretty uneventful, tracking our route back to Lower Cheung Sha and then taking in a couple of additional minor climbs along the way. On arriving in Mui Wo and JK getting 'another' sugary drink we bumped into Pt and Janice waiting for a ferry back to Central. After a brief chat we headed back to Lower Cheung Sha beach to meet Vicky for a well deserved late lunch at The Stoep (a pretty hit and miss place in my opinion - for a place that specialises in BBQ meat they seem to cremate most of their menu... - cant argue with the beach side location though).

Vicky and JK eating burnt food

Photos only girls take....?

After inhaling some food, drinking a sizeable amount of sangria and having a snooze under the afternoon sun on the beach we set out again leaving Vicky (to a pretty arduous journey home, involving buses in various directions, taxis and the MTR) and headed back up the 'Reverse' Beast - the slightly friendlier sibling of the first climb of the day. A fast descent down the other side towards Tung Chung and then a final 12km along the flat back to Sunny Bay to break the 100km mark and we were finished for the day. 

A brilliant day and the first real big training ride of the year. Over 100km covered with more than 2400m of climbing in glorious sunshine (but not the too hot and humid Hong Kong weather of the summer). Glad I am not in the UK right now suffering in the snow and cold - Hong Kong is offering the best base miles right now...

The Dark Knight and Ida get a well deserved rest

For those that may be interested the Strava link of the ride is here. JK's slightly more witty blog of the day can be found here.