After we managed to find our way out of the town, which thanks to Loon and my instinct we hit the main road, unfortunately the new road for this section was not yet built so the traffic was very busy, very heavy and the road wasn’t in the best condition. We sneaked past the toll gate with no problems then to my surprise climbed up to 1700m! I have to confess it was all under my own steam, there was a lot of trucks grunting up the hill so I grabbed on for a tow but the road being so narrow meant I had to let go but there was always another one just behind.
The road pretty much carried on much the same, we were given some awesome downhill’s at times but then made to slog up some major uphill’s which I grabbed any truck I could. At one stage the sealed road just disappeared only for about half a kilometre but the cars and trucks not keen to go too fast back up, I just picked the best line on either side and smoked them all. After getting through the rally course the new motorway started again, we stopped at the brand new petrol station just before the toll gate. There was no signs forbidding bicycles but Loon asked a few workers and they all said bikes weren’t allowed on the motorway, even motorbikes!
The motorway wasn’t very busy at all, it had two lanes and a huge shoulder which may as well be a third lane, we decided to go for it so once we saw a couple of buses we could use as cover we sneaked past.
We’d had a bit of a slow day but the smooth brand new road we were on went downhill forever (25km) and we fell from 1200m to 800m but every down in China means there’s an up so after a flat section we had 14km uphill but again the trucks who also crawled up as we do were there for towing. This road being so open and wide meant I could hold on till my arm burned. I used a total of three trucks to get to the top and by the time I got there it was getting late, there was a turn off to a town so I sat and waited for Loon who also for the first time had grab a tow and we decided to leave the motorway and find a guesthouse (we got one for 30 Yuan (3GBP)).
There is a big question as to whether towing is cheating or not, I don’t think so, I’m still sat on the bike and normally don’t hold on for long though today I was spoilt, it’s a good way to save my already battered knees and its bloody good fun to hang onto the side of a 20 ton truck while cruising up a hill at 20/30kmph, I met a guy in Sydney who won a bike race by grabbing a tow and wasn’t classed as cheating so that’s good enough for me.
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