The rest of Sunday

If you look closely at the photos of me on the bike you will notice I have my water bottle tucked down the front of my trisuit. After the very first corner on the cycle I decided to have a drink, and when I tried to put the water bottle back in its cage behind my seat the whole thing came away in my hand. I needed the water bottle as there were no electrolytes, or even water, out on the bike course, and just water on the run. Besides, I couldn't ditch the bottle or the cage as that could mean an on-the-spot disqualification. So I hung the cage over my tri-bar and stuck the bottle into my suit, as the domestiques do in the Tour de France. I guess the cage got damaged in the trip over. Good, as I can now get a new set up for the bottles - I never really liked what I had.

The women's elite race was scheduled to start some 3 hours after I finished. Instead of hanging around I chose to ride back to the hotel. I figured I could walk, get a bus, taxi or even ride back to the venue. But as I was sick of riding I washed my wheels and packed them away. I had made friends with two Brits, Dominic and Mike. First we tried to get a taxi, but funnily, the Chinese helpers never wanted to order anything if it was going to take too long. This was usually described as 10 minutes, but could be anything from 10 minutes to an hour. I would have been happy to wait. As usual the laid on buses were at a totally unsuitable time. And I didn't feel like walking. Mike tried to persuade me to ride with him. I declined, and offered as an afterthought "I'll be gutted if I miss seeing Andrea Hewitt win the finals". I missed seeing Andrea Hewitt win the finals, live. Nevertheless, I did see it on TV, and it was magical.

That evening was the grand closing ceremony. But I had had enough of security checks, endless waiting, and I really couldn't bear to hear the self-adulation that I was sure was going to go on. So Mike, Dominic, the two Irish lasses, and Mike's sister who had come over to watch him race (bless her), headed for one of the real hotels for dinner. There we caught up with some of the other Irish and British contingent who also decided to give the pomp and ceremony a miss. An enjoyable evening was had. Dominic had an early start the next morning, and I could see this was a party likely to get out of hand, so we caught the hotel shuttle back before it got too late. Before I left I agreed to hook up with the delightful Irish lasses for a taxi ride to the Great Wall the next morning. They had finally shifted hotels, but said they would pick me up at 7.30am.