One more day down in China, and it was the first time we’ve seen blue sky in a few days. It was treat getting to start without the rain jacket on. But the course itself was brutal. There was really just one climb, but it was predominantly uphill for about 50km. The climb topped out at over 12,000ft, which from what I’m told is the highest point that any UCI road race reaches. Not fun. I’d gotten in a break on the lower slopes of the climb, then Oscar and Tyler bridged up to me. In theory at least, I should have been able to help out for awhile at that point, but I actually only managed about 3 minutes of effort on the front before Oscar got impatient and left me behind, along with just about everyone else.

After finally making it over the top, the descent to the finish was incredible, and from the little I could take the time to check out, quite beautiful. At one point early on, I had to dodge a mountain goat that was standing in the road. Seriously. After that, it was 70km, almost all downhill, to the town of Guide, where we’re staying tonight. The hotel here is a little bit isolated, so I haven’t been able to see any of the town. That’s alright though, I’m pretty tired and content just to hang out here.

Tomorrow’s another big mountain day and should be a great opportunity for Oscar. The course profile is ridiculous, 55km up, then 55km back down. It’s shaped like a triangle. I’ll be looking out for more mountain goats.

More photos are up on Flickr. I've been having a good time documenting the poorly translated English over here, especially in the buffet lines. Here are some of my favorites:

"cooked in soy bean sauce West the Bacon mushroom juice spaghetti evnies"
"the vanilla mutton leg volume"
"The juice chicken to dig up"
"West on the soup radish silk"
"The white bean swallows takes the fish salad"
"The foie gras approves Envies"
"Law Juice"

Needless to say, I've been eating lots of rice. Law Juice makes me nervous.