A marvelous little story in The New York Times: Reporter
Katie Thomas took a ride on regular old civilian bikes with
Olympians Jason McCartney (U.S.) and Michael Barry (Canada). She
wrote that McCartney seemed a little skeptical, but all that
changed once they were riding:
“… As we coasted along streets that were as flat as a moo shu pancake, McCartney was almost giddy. ‘Isn’t this the best way to see a city?’ he shouted.
“And it was. Heavy rains a day earlier had cleared Beijing of
the humid air we all had been living with for the past week.
The weather had been so oppressive that McCartney was one of more
than 50 riders who did not finish the road race.
“We breezed through Beijing in fast forward, pedaling past
storefronts decorated with Chinese flags, a mother washing her
toddler’s face, a pair of soldiers standing at attention. A block
or two later, the traffic cleared and the stone walls of the
Forbidden City appeared. Through an archway, we saw a cobbled
courtyard, stately trees, and hordes of Chinese tourists.
“ ‘You want to go in?’ McCartney asked. Although he had arrived in Beijing a week before, this was the first sightseeing he had managed to do, given his demanding training schedule. While the road race had taken McCartney past many of the city’s main attractions, they appeared as a blur. And because he is planning to compete in the Tour of Spain beginning Aug. 30, McCartney was leaving Beijing the next day.
We rested our bikes on their kickstands and had a look around. Within minutes, we had become our own attraction. First there was the man who wanted to sell McCartney a Mao watch. The leader’s hand bobbed up and down, ticking off the seconds. The man wanted 150 yuan, or about $22. McCartney smiled. ‘Twenty,’ he said, offering less than $3.
Then there was a teenage boy, who could sense that these two tanned, fit men clearly had something to do with the Olympics. ‘Did they win a medal?’ the boy asked. When he heard the answer was no, he walked away.”
[Belatedly: the story comes with a very cool two-minute audio
slideshow. Some great pictures of working bikes on the streets of
Beijing. Really well done on the part of the Times.]