Speedy Xiwuqi lived up to its name. A new and fast course of 50km for the traditional Saturday afternoon cycling race that follows the marathon running in the morning. Apart from a few bumps, there’s no hillclimbs and as the usual wind played along with the riders – at least until the last 15km, we saw a very fast riding pace from the top performers this year. Shi Kuan was joined in the lead by Li Pengcheng and Zhang Han for most of the race. The trio worked together very well to keep a first larger group behind, a group that also contained the two fastest women on the day: Zhang Tingting and Fu Shiqi.
In the final push to the finish, Shi Kuan had more in the tank than Li Pengcheng and Zhang Hang, but the two latter of course already ran the 42km marathon in the morning as part of their KOG Challenge. Shi Kuan stuck to cycling this weekend.
The women’s sprint was very tight with Zhang Tingting narrowly edging out Fu Shiqi. Both also ran the marathon and had recovered very fast from that effort, given their average speed of 43,5 km/h. For the record, Shi Kuan finished in 1h04’56”, good for an AVS of 46,2 km/h. It was almost 50km/h at the halfway checkpoint still, but the beneficial wind turned against the riders in the final 15km.
