Goodbye Lantau...

This last Saturday, I headed out to meet Kelvin for what was to be my last ride on Lantau Island. The plan was to get a decent ride in before meeting Vicky at the TaiO Heritage Hotel where we would be spending Saturday evening as part of a short ‘staycation’ (a very thoughtful wedding present).

Arriving a little earlier than planned I made my way along the platform at Sunny Bay MTR station (front wheel of course off my bike) and noticed a minor scuffle between two ageing Cantonese guys. There was a bit of shouting and a little bit of ‘hand-bag at twenty paces’ type shoving. Not too unusual, so I skirted past and made my way out through the turnstiles. Next thing, one guy pushes past me muttering under his breath, throws down his bag and pulls out what I thought was a pen (to write a complaint?!). As soon as the other guy left the station he launched himself at him with, what was now apparent to me as, the screwdriver in his hand and started wildly trying to stab him in the ribs, kidneys, head and neck. Total chaos ensued!

The Cantonese labourers weapon of choice - more dangerous than one might expect

I wasn’t quite sure what to do, I was unarmed and didn’t fancy catching a screwdriver in the face. I thought about throwing my bike at them, but it was new (and expensive) so I quickly dismissed that ridiculous idea… A quick scan of the area revealed no readily adaptable street weapons. Deciding that I was going to be no use I also briefly considered whether I should film it (or maybe even Instagram the action….). I stood there uselessly.

A very ineffective street weapon

Eventually the unarmed guy wrestled him to the ground and got him in some sort of leg lock whilst the crazy guy flailed around on the floor with his bloodied screwdriver. The victim was streaming blood from his face and neck and clearly had several puncture wounds. Phone calls were made and the aggressor got up and legged it for a bus (from which he was refused entry) and then into the distance. People gave chase, then a typically unnecessarily large number of police (three paddy waggons?) and ambulances arrived. Shortly followed by Kelvin in all-white kit…

Try not to look too closely, you might get an unpleasant surprise

Is all white kit every really acceptable? I am not sure it ever is. I was wearing a white jersey, fine, it gets hot and it is a cooling colour. White bibshorts though, they are frankly indecent – a tiny bit of rain or getting a little threadbare after being loved too much and they reveal far too much of areas no one really wants to have to see. I resigned myself to spending as much of the day riding in front of Kelvin (or at the very least side by side) to avoid unwanted images being etched on my retinas.

I recounted the street fight / attempted murder as we cycled out of Sunny Bay, narrowly avoiding a pack of police dogs, and headed towards what in my mind was the mini-goal of the day – climb the Beast in my fastest time to-date. This would be the last time I would climb the Beast and to be honest I was a little glad about that. Hitting the bottom I tripped the lap timer on my Garmin and started to grind my way up (mindful of my power output – see previous, very interesting, blog here). Finally hitting the top I stopped the clock to a time that appeared to be 30 seconds slower than my previous effort a few weeks ago, but with a higher speed and greater average power. I tried harder, hurt more at the end but was slower - something was amiss.

Brushing my pathetic performance aside we headed towards Tai O with the promise of legendary coffee and cheesecake at a little stilted gem of a coffee shop – Solo.

Espresso time!

After a fab siphoned coffee, we started the climb to enlightenment and headed towards the Big Buddha (to be featured in the next Hills of Hong Kong blog entry). The cheesecake sat heavy in the stomach as we climbed and almost proved fatal in slowing us down when we needed to sprint away from a (wild?) dog that jumped out from a side road, teeth bared and started chasing us up the road. The dog was not mountain goat though and was quickly dropped.

The bad feeling amongst the canines continued as we tried to cycle to a good view of the Buddha at the top of the hill. We were surrounded by four or five dogs and every time we edged forward on the bike we were greeted with wild barking and snappy teeth.

Dogs are literally everywhere.... just out of shot

Not wanting to push our luck we headed towards Mui Wo along a storm drain which was significant flatter than the coastal road, free kilometres.  After a quick liquid refuel in Mui Wo we doubled back on ourselves and headed up the Reverse Beast – the, only marginally, easier side of the Beast At the top I left Kelvin to head off for his flight back to the UK and doubled back on myself and took advantage of the free-kilometre-storm-drain back towards Tai O to meet Vicky.

I am probably the first guest that the Tai O Heritage Hotel have had check in in full lycra.

Despite the Beast disappointment I uploaded my ride to Strava here – mercifully I had knocked 30+ seconds off my time for the Beast and moved up to 4^th on the leaderboard. I wouldn’t need to make the ride private after all.

I am currently in Taiwan for through days of riding through the mountains (and my highest every road pass next). Can’t wait (although the weather needs to improve).