中国で最も過酷なアマチュアサイクリングイベント「雲南グランフォンド2025」に参加してきました

中国で最も過酷なアマチュアサイクリングイベント「雲南グランフォンド2025」に参加してきました

More than 2,000 cyclists signed up for the 2025 Yinan Grand Fondo. Less than 800 completed all five stages. What happened during China’s largest amateur cycling event? Did I do myself proud or let myself down? And how can foreigners join this race? If you’re new, I’m Mini from Singapore. Oh my god. Join me on my first ever cycling trip in Lan, China, where I experienced the shocking scale that only China can achieve. The Yunan Grand Fondo is a cycling festival in its 12th year. There are six stages with three rest days in between held across five cities, which is why it takes 9 days if you do every single stage, including transfers. I’m only doing the main five stages because I didn’t sign up for the 9KM dot. I didn’t have a partner and didn’t know that I could go with this guy. Meet Yang from Rafa Shanghai and my host for the next 10 days. Even though this is my first time in Yunan, thanks to Yang, I basically get insider access and insights which I’ll share with you in this video. Nice. Oh wow, that is cute. Cheering. Yeah, cheering. Oh, instead of racing today, we’re exploring I’m more than happy to chill today because the stages ahead are full of tough mountain climbs as well as crazy mountain descents. We explore by bike. Checking out recommended onu. Which brings me to my first advice. Download useful apps like Alipe and VF. The road ahead is going to be physically strenuous with 676 km and 12,300 m of elevation. That’s like cycling from Singapore to the end of Malaysia while going up 1.5 times the height of Mount Everest in 5 days. But all of that is the least of my concerns because knowing me, I might slide out, crash, or fall. I recently fell twice on this bike and no longer fully trust myself. If I can just keep upright while racing, I’ll be a very happy rider. Turbo. The race kicks off at 8:00 a.m. and most of the riders are already here. The atmosphere is electric. It’s the hugest party in Chinese cycling and everyone is ready to roll. monster. I lost my bidon at the 6.7 a.m. mark. Sorry. Oh no. Uh-oh. So, I ran over a pothole and my entire Bidon bottle cage down tube storage cover flew off. But I thought my chances were good that I could find it after the race. We’ll see. Honestly, young and myself gained a lot of ground, chasing riders and closing gaps. I haven’t cycled so fast and freely in a long while because right before this trip, I was traveling in Eastbestan like a dog released to the wind. I couldn’t help myself. So, for the first 50 odd km, I went hard, but not crazy hard. Remember, we still have 4 days to go. I have an uncut video of the first 42 minutes of this race which you can also check out if you don’t mind the heavy breathing sounds. At some point the piece stabilizes and then it’s time for scenery and some fun. Uhoh. All right. Oh god. Yeah, man. 54.7 1017. We started around 850 m above sea level and climbed up to 1986 m above sea. What goes up must come down. And this is where my fear begins. If you are not confident at descending, you might descend quite slowly. Unfortunately, the laws of physics and cycling still apply, which means a slow descender cannot lean against centrifugal force to gracefully curve along the winding road. Instead, like a sinking stone or a block of wood, we are awkward, clunky, and don’t look particularly good. I might be exaggerating my ineptitude a little, but the fact remains. I’m such a loser. Can’t defend for My battery dies, but I make it to the end. After the race, we immediately transfer to our next city. Some say stage one and two are the toughest because they’re the only two backto-back stages. But in the next part of this video, you’ll see why stage two was the hardest of all. I did my best after the race to hunt for my bidon. It was gone. When it comes to transporting and housing 2,000 riders and bikes, the Yunan Grand Fondo shows it’s more than possible. The organizer provides bus transfers and lodging, and you can choose exactly what you need. Transfers alone are $280. So, you might as well take the package with a coms, which ranges from $500 to $940. Depending on whether you choose a shared or single room in a good or very good hotel, including registration, your 9-day cycling holiday could be 740 to 1,200 USD. The tempo is very different this morning because today is a very different day. We start climbing immediately after the start line and in fact there are no more flats for the rest of the stages. Compared to yesterday we have a significantly higher altitude throughout. Previously we were around 850 m above sea. Today we start at above 1,600 m. And our peak today is 2,400 m. 400 more than yesterday. Today’s stage is 195 km with 2960 m of climbing and 2,900 m of amazing descent straight down so fast. It’s 10° C 11 now. Cold morning. I forgot my gloves. Oh well. In the cold and through the rain, we are constantly cheered on by residents. All righty. Very direct. Oh my god. The aid stations are lifesavers and a fun way to briefly chat with other riders. Okay. [Music] I got bananas and Snickers and bread buns and one bidon that is still full. Because of the cold temperatures, we are not persspiring much despite the clims. As the day goes on, the urge to pee only increases. But guys can easily water the plants. And I saw many riders by the side of the road doing so. Female riders either stop at a bathroom or hold out until the finish line. In times of desperate need, you will do whatever you have to. 64.1 km. Honestly, the worst of the rain is over. That’s why I can take out the camera, which is here. Water logged. But yeah, it’s cold. It’s still 11°. I’m okay. I’m not wearing any rain jacket. I don’t actually have any uh good enough rain jacket, I think, and I don’t have over shoes. Beautiful scenery as always. The rain goes on and on all day. Oh boy. And sometimes triggers the bell from my Wahoo Element Ace. 1:34 a.m. We’re close to the last checkpoint, last feed station. It is now 300 p.m. We have been out for 6 and 1/2 hours and rained on for 5. It is really tough riding and I can’t wait to cross the finish line. It’s very misty. Temperature is 11. I have long given up on getting any good position because as long as you are a bad descender, no amount of speeding uphill will get you ahead. With the last remaining warmth in my shaking hands, I try to remember this moment. I’ll see you. I’ll be quick. Okay. So, 136 a.m. The competition is over. Uh, we’re still descending, but it’s not counted, which is great cuz, uh, it’s slick, slippery, tricky. People have crashed. I’m going to go take a piss. Okay. After the best we of my life, we have a bit more to climb before the final freezing descent. At this point, even though we have nearly 5,000 m of climbing in our legs from the past 2 days, climbs are a welcome way to warm the body up. We’re going down. Yep. I will film some of it. 140km mark. 20 to go. Okay, here we go. When I was in the bathroom earlier, take the another female rider asked me where she could also get a plastic bag to wear. Now, for this, I really must thank Young for getting a trash bag for me at an earlier checkpoint. As I took it from the volunteers, other riders around me gave advice on how to tear a hole and put it on. It serves as a wind blocking layer, while my Rafa Marino arm warmers keep me warm at 9° C. The fact that I’m cold and shaking kind of takes my mind off overthinking how much I can lean at these speeds before my tires slip. I’m also very cautious around the yellow strips and brace myself whenever I have to go over them. Generally, everyone is taking it safe and slow. Slow enough to safely enjoy the foggy scenery and drenched roads. I’m not a thrill seeker, but there is a special high you only get when descending in poor weather. Oh, [Music] wow. Watching this video now, I remember how numb my toes and feet were. I come from an island on the equator, and our nights dome dip far below 24° C. We are above the clouds. But we’re not alone. At every curve and corner, there are volunteers and staff with whistles and red flags. And they’re standing there for hours scanning for riders, looking out for our safety. Even though there are already big and bright yellow signs marking every sharp turn or wobbly corner across the entire 160km of the course. And so even if we feel like the conditions are tough, the strong support from strangers and the mutual suffering among riders makes the self-inflicted pain a sweeter pleasure. Now that the race has ended early, there are two ways to get back to the city. You can descend in the rain and ride the final 23km, or you can wait for the coach bus to reach the 136km mark and board the bus to go down. The bus might take 3 hours to arrive. And having no raincoat, I was soaked to the bone and would probably freeze if I stopped moving. And so with the great moral support from Young, who had been waiting for me and riding with me all day, I find the firepower to carry on. I’ll pause the commentary for the next 2 minutes and leave you with the Yunan Grand Fondo Instagram post about today’s race. If you’ve made it this far, leave a comment with your favorite cycling rain jacket. I’ll also be posting the official results at the end of this video. Stages three to five will be in my next video where we are joined by stars of the cycling world, more epic climbs, and more slick rain. If you haven’t subscribed to this channel, please do. And if you already have, thanks for being a part of it. Enjoy the rest of this descent and I’ll see you at the finish line. Uh-oh. Oh, Yeah. [Music] Hey, good. [Music] nothing lasts forever and all good things come to an end. Okay. Oh, great. Not only do we have emergency blankets, there is piping hot ginger soup and noodles for us. Okay. Woohoo. My life is so cold. Yeah. Finish. But like I also I also finish. How’s your butt? Okay. But it’s here cold, right? Yeah. Singapore not the same. Oh my goodness. It takes a while to recover from the race. I stood under a hot shower for half an hour while devouring the Snickers that I had stashed in my Chile pockets. Tomorrow is our first rest day, followed by the Queen stage with the same distance as today, but with about 20% more climbing. A tremendous challenge lies ahead. How will we do? As I watch our Misian seller dish out her best, I’m reminded of why cycling can be such a great sport. You always have an appetite which transforms even a plain bowl of rice into heaven. And you’ll always be surrounded by cycling lovers wherever in the world you go. And so I’m very glad this is my introduction to cycling in China. [Music] [Music] Oh hey. [Music] Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.

Welcome to my video covering the first three days of the Yunnan Gran Fondo 2025 七彩云南格兰芬多自行车节!

This is a five-stage race (spread across 8 days), and China’s largest amateur cycling festival.

In this Part One video, we explore Mangshi by bike, before tackling Stages 1 and 2 on consecutive days. Stage 1 was a fun warm-up and Stage 2 was epic in every sense of the word. Both will be rides I will remember for a long time, and be proud of when I’m older and greyer.

Stay tuned for Part Two, where we ride through Stages 3 – 5 among brilliant stars in the cycling world.

Official website 七彩云南格兰芬多自行车节 2025:
https://www.granfondoyunnan.com/home

Special thanks:
💙Rapha Shanghai (especially Young🐏) & Rapha Singapore
💜Entro Cycles Singapore
❤️RS Cycles Singapore
🧡Isaac Yap for the loan of your bike box!

Strava:
Mangshi by bike: https://www.strava.com/activities/16309862621
Stage 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/16317520226
Stage 2 :https://www.strava.com/activities/16328532028

😁Find me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/min.moves/