A Thousand K in a day

[ChinaV]

A long time ago I read a post by pumpkingman about a two day ride from Beijing to Chengdu. Although most of the trip was on the expressway, I was impressed that someone had actually covered that kind of distance in China so quickly. Unfortunately, we never heard from pumpkingman again, hope he is still having fun out there.

I've talked to many of the riders here on MCM about covering 1000 kilometers in a single day. Plenty of people have made it over 500, and some have even topped 800, but I've never heard of someone managing 1000 kilometers using regular S, X, or G roads without riding at night. So I decided to give it a try.

The first thing I had to do was piece together a route that would avoid construction. I have plenty of GPS tracks, and most of them are coded by speed, so I constructed a loop that would enable me to maintain a good pace while avoiding delays.



Here is the final GPS track, color coded by velocity.



Good morning it's 5:11 AM.



I was on the way by 5:30. It would be another 30 minutes before the sun came up, but that half hour was spent on well lit roadways with no traffic.



My first stop around 8:45 AM. Change of face shield and gloves. The temperature has gone from 10ºC to 17ºC, much better.



10:45 AM - Half way there at 501 kilometers.





12:10 Quick lunch along the river on G323.





2:30 PM Another brief stop and scenery shot.





3:30 Every time I pass this break away ramp on G105 there's a truck on it. This one almost broke through the end barrier.



Getting closer to home, I think I'm going to make it.



Sun is starting to set as I cross the river into Dongguan.



30 minutes until darkness, 20 minutes from home.



Rolled in a touch after 6:00 PM, just in time for beer o'clock

I used two different GPS units and got slightly different results:

Time: 12:50
Distance 1059.2km
Moving Time 12:03 Stopped :47
Average Speed 87.82 km/h
Total Ascent 7142
Total Descent 7141

Time: 12:48
Distance 1055.5km
Moving Time 12:00 Stopped :47
Average Speed 87.91 km/h
Total Ascent 7674
Total Descent 7671

I wouldn't call it a fun ride, but at least I finally made an iron butt ride in China.

Cheers!
ChinaV