This may not turn out to be my favorite day. I’m pretty sure it will not. But, it sure seems to meet the Most Memorable requirements.
Saturday, Sept 28, my wedding anniversary!! I arrived in Shanghai Friday the 27th at about 2pm and made it to my hotel. Found a stupid almost cafeteria place to eat and put something in my stomach. Saturday and Sunday are the two days bike shops are most likely to sponsor group rides. I tried all kinds of searches for higher end bike rentals and came up empty. Then on page 270 of my 8th edition 2017 Lonely Planet Shanghai guide book was a paragraph about Tourist Information Shanghai Call Center 021 962 288. The woman who answered had passable English, seemed to understand my description of a racing road bike and after putting me on hold, said she would call back.
She first called back with a number to call and address but then came right back with another call saying that it was only the address of a phone and not a bike shop. But she had another phone number and address that was a bike shop that did not normally rent but might have 2 bikes. She had been able to use the criterion of “bike shop near me”. I called the shop. The woman who answered had reasonable English, said she could rent a bike, thought I was a customer who had contacted her earlier. We moved to texting and she sent me the closest subway stop. I was on my way.
Easy subway ride with only 1 line change, Shanghai has 17 lines and counting. I had gotten pretty good at the procedure of buy the token (machine has an English button), security, scan ticket to enter, find the line, find the direction and board, change line, give ticket up to machine, exit and walk a little until GPS can tell me which way I am going. Asked an xpat looking man on the street if he had any idea which way the numbers ran and he found two on a building that got me started and I was soon at a real bike shop, Flying Wheel No 221 West Jian Guo Road.
The person I had spoken to, Alison, obviously had no trouble knowing what I was after and soon had a bike for me. Then we started on the more difficult problem of no helmet, no spare inner-tube, no bike lock. I bough a helmet and lock and Alison loaned me her under seat pouch with tools and spare tube. I kept asking about group rides and where to ride and she finally fessed up that Saturday morning her shop ride would go 70K to the ocean, leaving from the shop at 6am, but you better be here at 5:30. I somehow convinced her I could keep up and in any event I had a GPS that would get me home.
I was the first one there at 5:30. But slowly about 8 people gathered. One Frenchman and I sat talking out front and had to chase to catch up! Alison with there to help me get started. She did not ride but another woman did and there were 2 guides.
It was fast, I often had to race to catch up between lights but at least I did not get separated. Then we stop and we are going to take a ferry. I yell a little about please help me and one of the guides goes over to the ticket office with me as the rest of them all use WeChat Pay with their phones.
Across the river and we meet up with 30? more riders and another guide. There is an xpat from Milwaukee with his Chinese wife. This is his last week in China after 10? years. His company sells BIG motors, many for large ships and construction equipment. I think they were mainly involved in sales and not sourcing parts.
The “talk” was delivered in two parts. First one guide would speak in Chinese and then another would repeat the information in English. We were riding to the coast. There would be a fast group and a slow sweeper and the third guide would patrol the middle. Please pass the hand signals back and stay one wheel length behind the bike in front of you. (that is further than we typically stay in the US)
I was able to stay with the fast group for 1/2? the 35K out. I often had to race to catch up and was pant breathing, but I felt ok. As I fall further and further behind, it is always possible that I would miss them turning off. Then I decided it was too much effort and stopped. I waited for what seemed like a long time and finally a group of 4 with guide appeared and confirmed that they were the sweepers. I had to work to hold onto that group but was able to. Our guide took us for an extra K or two but we got back on the correct path and finally arrived where the group was watching the river? Canal? empty into the sea. with large ships sitting off the coast.
I did my normal pacing around, walking, not sitting. The guides worked with one of the slower riders who had been with us to have him use cages or have his seat higher, some adjustment. I always ride without clipping in. Everyone on a ride like this is clipped into their pedals except a couple others. The idea is to have your leg able to not just push the peddle down but also pull it up. A young man tried to convince me of the advantage of clipping in. I tried to communicate to him that I ride in many new places and meet unexpected events and feel that the 1/2 second lost to unclipping might result in a fall which could really end my riding. Another young man asked to take a selfie with me as his daughter was going to San Diago, I assume for school. As always on rides like this there was lots of picture taking by the guides, made even more pronounced by our being in “Selfie Every Minute” china.
A request was made to stop for water/food on the ride home. The fast group was signed up to do a longer route. Off we went and soon the fast group was back having made a wrong turn. We stopped for food. I could only find a plastic wrapped “cake”. I bought a new water and ate a few bites of the cake and left the rest. I had not wanted to eat anything for breakfast in case doing so increased the likely-hood of my needing a non-existent bathroom.
A young man who has been riding with us in the slow group approaches me and says he was just in Boston with daughter looking at colleges, She would like to get into Boston College. Unfortunately I did not have a business card to give him! I took off early with not the fastest group but ahead of my slower friends. Figured it did not hurt to get a little leg up. We were getting caught at lights again and again in a long industrial area. Each time I would catch up just as they got the green light and took off.
Finally I was dropped. One woman and a non-clipped in man with shorts and no helmet offered to stay with me but I really need to sit down. My back hurt and I was generally losing it. I was able to convince they to go on alone. I was seriously disoriented and did not have enough brain cells operating to get my GPS to assure me that I was on the correct path to the ferry. I was having some dizziness. I kept rationing out the water. The two slow riders came along while I was sitting and I waved them on. The sitting was hard as China does not believe in benches so I did not really have good back support on my rests. Who knows how long, but after hours of being alone, a lot of sitting, a Guide and another rider came back to find me. I was able to force them to allow me to sit and for them to ride off but they had provided me with the necessary directions to the ferry.
I got lost in a maze of streets. Did find a bottle of water to buy. I knew where the ferry was on the GPS but could not just rid there due to confusion over what streets allow bikes and what streets are actually turnpikes! Each time I checked I seemed to be about 4K from the ferry. I probably made it there about 12:30, 6 hours of riding. Things got worse. I was able to buy the token and take the ferry but again lack of functioning brain cells prevented me from plotting my ride from he ferry to my hotel. I probably sat for at least a 1/2 hour trying to master the GPS and then having to give up and regroup. Finally I had a path on my phone and road to the hotel, arriving at 2pm! I think I really went about 80K as Alison did not count the 5K to and from the ferry. Really 8 hours! They keep the bike in the luggage room. I ran a hot tub and tried to get the back to stop hurting.
The night before I had gone to two reasonably close walking distance beer places. I now drank a lot of water, ate a oreo stick and went off to the second bar, Liquid Laundry. I had a Saison beer, a sampler of 6 others and a pretzil. That was it. Back to the room. Another partial beer and off to sleep, to see if I feel good enough to make the 6:20 meeting at the bike shop Sunday.
Even with upset stomach I was able to make it and do a 20K ride with them. The real pay back was Monday night when I met a 60 year old 15year Shanghai xpat who rides a lot and was blown away that I had ridden to the sea. Something he has never tried. I guess I have to allow my Red Lantern ride in the King Challenge of 2018 where I had my own motorcycle escort as the last rider on that 60 miler (100K) and was really in bad shape as the WINNER in the Tom kills himself category but this was clearly a close second!