Tour de Korea

The Tour de Korea started today with what I guess was more of a parade than a race. The distance was 1.4km. Tomorrow, Sunday, the competitors race 167 km to Chuncheon.

Here, courtesy of Oranckay, is a short description of the race:

Prologue 2005. 5. 7Seoul- 1.4 km

Stage 1Sunday May 8
Seoul Songpa to Chuncheon, Gangwondo 167 km

Stage 2 Monday
Chuncheon to Yangyang160km Arriving in Yangyang around 1:45pm

Stage 3 Tuesday
Yangyang to Eo-seongjin- 4 laps 160 km

Stage 4Wednesday
25 laps (Criterium?)

Stage 5 Thursday
Yangyang to Wonju166 km

Stage 6Friday
Wonju- Hanam 231 km

He has a more extensive description, in a HWP file.

I love cycling but I am not racer. I've done the distances these racers will do and over the Rocky mountains of British Columbia, so the difficulty might have been the same. Of course, I was never as fast as these guys are.

I once did a sprint triathlon. The distances were 750 m swim, 30km ride and 7.5km run. I ruled on the swim, coming out of the water 5th in a field of more than a thousand. I started the bike portion and pedalled hard...Then I started looking around. I'm really more of a tourist cyclist. Anyway, the ride was a series of alternating hard pedalling and scenic pedalling. My run was okay.

I have to be away on Tuesday but I hope I can watch some of the racing in Yangyang between Monday and Thursday.