The Beijing ultra cycling boom: riders enjoy day-night adventures on ‘most beautiful roads for cycling’
- The wide, empty roads around Beijing are a cyclist’s dream, say ultra riders, with pollution-free, scenic countryside as little as an hour’s ride from the city
Just over an hour from central Beijing, hard-pedalling cyclists astride sleek, light, multiple-gear bikes rid themselves of suburban high-rises and glide into a pollution-free and lushly forested landscape.
Another 80 minutes of wheel-spinning takes faster riders to the Great Wall itself, cruising smooth roads alongside the Ming dynasty structure that present challenging hills and gentle curves.
It is the kind of two-wheel nirvana that has led to explosive growth in Beijing ultra-cycling over the past decade, particularly during the three years of the pandemic, when residents were reluctant to leave the city, worried about being stranded in a distant province should a Covid-positive code appear on their phone screen.
Both enthusiasts and novices realised that there were gloriously scenic routes in their own back garden, rides of up to 200km (125 miles) that could be completed between dawn and dusk.
Brendan Mason, 61, a long-term resident of the city, knows pretty much every stretch of tarmac beyond the urban area and hits the surrounding hills whenever the opportunity allows.
Give him a little longer and the Australian will be off on gruelling rides along the length of the Great Wall, into the rural hinterlands, or tackling an arduous Kyrgyzstan back-road challenge.
