Pedalling in pink

THAILAND HAS A new sports hero in the form of Yuttapong Chatchawanwan, the country’s first and only competitive fatbike rider – indeed in Asia – who last week landed a very respectable 40th ranking at the Snow Bike Festival 2016. Held in Gstaad, Switzerland, this second edition of Europe’s winter festival of biking, saw Yuttapong going up against world-famous cyclists Tomas Misser from Spain and local hero Johann Tschopp who came in first and second respectively.

“It was more torturous than enjoyable,” says Yuttapong, who arrived back in Thailand not to the country’s habitual warmth but a decidedly chilly spell. “The cold there is extremely unpleasant. My feet and hands were numb and very painful. At some points I was really scared of developing frostbite and requiring the amputation of my extremities.”

Yuttapong, who is known as “The Kuii”, is a specialist with the fatbike, a low-slung bicycle with ultra-wide knobby tyres that was developed in the late 1990s by cycling enthusiasts in Alaska who wanted to ride trails in the winter.

His trip to Switzerland was supported by the Vee Rubber Group, a tyre manufacturer, which covered Yuttapong’s travel costs, cold-weather gear and training sessions in Adelboden in the Bernese Oberland with coach Mario Zimmermann, a former competitive snowboarder. Participation didn’t come cheap either, with Yuttapong’s expenses totalling Bt500,000; Bt40,000 or 990 Swiss francs of that just to enter the race.

“I’m a serious fatbike rider in Thailand and have taken part in several cycling competitions. I’m probably best known for always wearing biking gear in bright pink,” Yuttapong says.

Although invited to join the inaugural event last year, Yuttapong says he declined because he felt the preparation time of one month was too short. Determined to be ready for this year’s race, he started his preparations as far back as August. 

“I mainly focused on keeping healthy and avoiding getting sick. As we have no snow in Thailand, I asked national athletes from several countries for advice. I started by working on endurance – cycling for six and eight hours – and then worked on my sprint to allow me to follow other riders and strengthen my cardiac capacity. Then I worked on my muscles. Strengthening the heart and muscles go hand in hand and the regime includes food and relaxation,” he says.

“My original plan was to enter the competition on my arrival but after thinking about it, I asked the company if I could go five days in advance. In Adelboden, I stayed with my coach and we worked on all the stages I would face including riding up and down mountains and through a metre of snow. It was the first time I’d ridden down a hill with a gradient of 80 degrees. It was very hard and scary too.”

The first day Yuttapong found the going so tough that it took him more than two hours to ride just 16 kilometres. He fared better on day two, and actually found himself smiling.

“On the third day I rode seven kilometres up the mountain at night, following the same piste the skiers use to come down.

“Riding a fatbike on snow is like you are a baby who has just learned to walk. On that first day I felt discouraged and unhappy and often wanted to give up. The coach told me to enjoy riding and not to feel pressure,” he says.

“The following day, Mario let me push my bike up a slope. There had been an avalanche just two days before and some people had died. It was very, very tiring. I was often knee-deep in the snow and my fatbike felt even heavier than usual. 

“I spent most of the first three days adapting to the cold. The temperature was often below minus 17 degrees Celsius, which made me feel very tired. Whenever I breathed in, I felt like I had my face in the freezer. Adelboden stretches from an altitude of 1,350 metres to 2,400 metres and at 1,500 metres, I was suffering bad nosebleeds. Mario just told me to take a warm shower after training and stay in a well-heated room!”

Dressing for both training and the race involved several layers of clothing and Yuttapong stuck to his trademark pink, at least for the outside layer.

“Even with three pairs of gloves, my hands were numb with cold. My coach told me to shake them to get the circulation going. I wore my self-designed pink jersey over a coat. My feet were numb too despite the layers of socks. I worried a lot. The tyres of my fatbike are made of pure silica rubber with studs to give them a better grip on the ice. The course is dangerous as there are no fences and if you make a bad error, you could easily go off a cliff. Fortunately that didn’t happen.”

The competition is divided into four stages over three days. The first two days are spent ascending and descending a mountain. The third stage is the Rocky Mountain Eliminator Night Race and while the last stage is shorter, it’s no less gruelling.

“Many foreign riders thought I wouldn’t be able to finish the competition because most of those who take part are professionals. One of the foreign riders saw my pink outfit on the first day and commented that I would be a fashion rider, or even a mascot of the event. But, after I reached the finishing point, he came over and shook my hand and congratulated me,” says Yuttapong.

And the colourfully plucky cyclist also won a round of applause after winning the “Brand Pimp” award, for which the media get to submit the votes.