Things here in China have been interesting. We’ve finished four stages now, including the prologue. The first road stage climbed to almost 12,000ft before dropping into the Qinghai Lake basin at just over 10,000ft. We’ve done two road stages now on our way around the lake, and for those that have never experienced it, racing at this altitude is unbelievably difficult. The slightest bit of overexertion leads to panicked hyperventilating. At least for me. The rain and crosswinds only add to the misery. But some of these guys seem to deal with it just fine.

One of those guys is Oscar. He had a nasty crash at the end of stage 1 when a spectator stepped onto the course to photograph the sprint. But though it initially looked like he’d broken both wrists, he’s been able to keep going. And he looks strong. He’s currently sitting fifth, but there should be some opportunities to move up in the coming days. My only goal for the remaining week will be to help him and the rest of the team. And not to black out from lack of oxygen.

I’ve also been doing my best to take in as much of the local culture as possible. The area around this lake is incredible. We’ve had people in traditional Mongolian dress on horseback cheering us from the side of the road, and I’ve spotted a number of tent communities out in the grasslands that look like they belong to nomadic shepherds. The little towns are also full of great people who seem incredibly excited to see us. It’s been a great experience so far.

More pictures are up now on the Flickr page. Thanks for the tips on linking to this site. My internet usage is on a time limit now, so I’ll wait to experiment with it, but go check them out over there for now.