Lowvelder MTB visit China

Brett Coates took five riders, Luke Roberts, Ashley Moffet, Rourke Crouser, Brendan Davids and Paul Rodenbach with him on this amazing experience.

More than 200 athletes from 32 countries and regions were in attendance, including the hosts, Belgium, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Sweden, Thailand and Switzerland.

It was fully paid for by the Chinese Provincial Government, including flights, five-star accommodation and all meals. “It was a real eye-opening trip. China is quite an experience. The city of Guiyang is an industrial city in the centre of the country, like Witbank on steroids and Red Bull. Along with this are roads, tunnels, offices and everything else that goes with building a city for 30 million people from scratch. The old city is decrepit, and is slowly being replaced and it’s obvious that as is the case in South Africa, there is a huge discrepancy between the rich and the poor,” said Coates, one of the managers.

The organisers had them participate in a parade through the city to
the central square overlooked by a statue of chairman Mao Zedung. The racing itself was at a specially built venue and was dominated by the Europeans. Ashley Moffet got a 13th place in the women’s XCO while Rourke Crouser, laid 5th when his three rotor bolts came loose, forcing him to pit and drop 20 places. He eventually finished 14th.
In 2012 the race cost 58 million dollars. “And this year was probably no less. We all had student volunteers, or Mini Me’s as they became known, who followed us everywhere and translated for us. The hotel was five star and the food was interesting to say the least – anyone for minced
pigs’ rooters, or stir-fried tendons? But there was familiar food as well, so we didn’t go hungry,” laughed Coates.