Total distance cycled: 96 kms

Morning altitude: 4864 meters (16,000 feet)

Highest altitude: 5130 meters (16,800 feet)

Evening altitude: 2331 meters (7600 feet)

THE MOST FABULOUS BICYCLE DESCENT IN THE WORLD!! Sure, I've descended through Zion National Park, or over the Col de Sarenne and down from the Alpe d'Huez--and those and other descents are pretty spectacular. But the almost 10,000 foot drop from the Thang La pass to the border town of Zhangmu puts them all to shame. Trust me on this! But I'm getting ahead of my story...

We had our last night at high altitude and had a restless sleep. Even after two continuous weeks at over 4000 meters/13,000 feet, the 4800/16,000 feet nights still get to us a bit. I was braced for a bitter cold night but it was surprisingly mild. The stars were breathtaking and the wind died down, so my last night in my little tent was pleasant.

In the morning we woke to cold, grey skies for the first time. We got out the winter riding gear. Right off the bat we had a 7 km climb from our campsite at 4800 to the top of our last pass at 5130 meters. It took me 40 minutes of steady effort, riding hard to keep warm. I didn't wait at the top as I needed to keep moving to stay warm. The descent on the other side was beautiful--see the picture at left--perfect new road, swooping turns, craggy peaks all around and plunging into a gorge. We all stopped to regroup in front of a village when it flattened out, and warmed up in the sun which had finally come out. That was the first third of the descent.

When we started off again, an absolutely ferocious headwind had developed. I knew that I would live to regret my earlier comments on headwinds being easy up here! I took off with Stan and Laurent--two big, young, stong cyclists--and we started to paceline it down the valley. We were working very hard, and working very well together, but were hardly making any progress going downhill! It was brutal. We did about 30 kms like this. The slope here was not steep enough to help us with the wind, and we suffered mightily. This was the second third of the descent.

But then we got to the village of Nyalen, and after that the road dropped like a stone. The next 30 kms were absolutly incredible. We plunged down off of the high Tibetan plateau into a deep gorge full of lush vegatation, cascading waterfalls, and a thundering river below. Everytime that I pinched myself and thought that it couldn't get any better we would come around a bend to an even more incredible view. Down, down, down we raced, along harrowing switchbacks with no guardrail hundreds of feet above the roaring river. It was simply wonderful, and it kept going and going.

Our ride came to an end in the cliffside border town of Zhangmu. Our first hot shower in a week felt great. We are literally drowning in the thick air at 7000 feet. My poor nose is in heaven. The air at alitude is so dry that my nasal passages are all chapped and raw after 2 week of dry, dusty, thin air. The humid, thick air down here is just wonderful. Beer all around at dinner tonight for the first time!

It's raining as I write this--heavy, monsoon-like rain. Other than one afternoon of rain early in the trip, we have had simply wonderful weather.

Pictures below, left column: I'm gonna miss these yaks everywhere when we get down. Two shots of the first part of the descent. Regrouping. Right column: This part wasn't steep enough to overcome the headwind. Then three shots of the plunge into the lush, tropical gorge.