I am shocked, I just get to know this news by chance a few minutes ago, though he has passed away few months before.

My daughter asked me which country is the biggest one, I taught her how to search on the net, in the bottom the name ofMalta reminded me someone I knew before, who came from that tiny island. The second time I typed in the searching bar getting the right name, and this terrible news.

In March, 2009, I attended the first and only race in Jingqiao, Shanghai, in category B, when I was waiting with my family, a foreigner came to me, and asked if I could take some photos for him, I agreed, and then began our communications via email, just now I read the 20+ emails in my Gmail box, a lot of memories come into my mind, he encouraged me to get a good bike and ride more, eat more, and we had discussions on books and some other things about cycling. The image of a strong, maybe a little bit fat guy comes clear and clear.

I quitted race after that, one reason was it’s danger, I knew a Singaporean got severe hurt in a collision of about 10 people, just hundred meter before me, the ambulance took him away, and about 80k RMB was spent for it as he told me several month later, he called himself iron man because he had a metal bone. Another reason was the competition didn’t attract me much, I enjoyed the ride itself, so though Ishmael encouraged me a lot, I never attend a race after that. But I still admired him, a man lived with a passion can easily earn respect, even you just met him once. Live is short, for him, it’s just shorter than ours, and he left when he still had the power, the passion, so on the other hand, he is a luck guy, he is forever young.

I posted the first conversation with him below, just to show how passionate he was.

Hi,

I am so happy to receive your photos! ^_^ I was wondering whether you had saved my email address well :-P hehe

This is my 9th season of racing. I started for fun back in my home country,Malta- small island inEurope. Over the last 2 years (I have been inChinafor 2 years) I had little time to train for races. This past Winter, I made many sacrifices to train well.

I am sorry to hear about your race. Don't worry- you will get better- the secret is: ride, ride and ride. And rest well. Eat well too :)

My qq is: 757292659 - you can add me if you want.

I also have a professional photo camera - Canon EOS 400D - 17-85mm and 70-300mm lenses and the EXII flash, but i cannot take photos of myself racing ;-) hehe - 'mei ban fa'. I took photos of F1 and Moto GP inShanghaiin 2007 and 2008.

Here is my race report from my QZone: (my friend helps me write the good Chinese)

在上海金桥60公里公路车赛第6名 - 6th Place in ShangHai JinQiao 60Km Road Race 

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疯狂的骑车    发表于2009年03月30日 13:04 阅读(7) 评论(0) 分类： 体育日志 权限: 公开

上星期日，我参加了上海的一个公路车比赛。

我于星期五下午到达上海才知道，原定于星期六早上的比赛，因下雨被推迟于星期日早上进行。

因此，我别无选择，只能在上海停留3天，主要为自己的赛前做充分的准备！ 

在去年的冬天，我购买了一辆新的碳公路车，零部件由轻便的碳组成，碳轮毂，碳结合车把，除了我的车座〔我的臀部会在碳鞍上疼痛 呵呵〕之外，一切都是碳合成的。因此，我想测试一下我的新公路车在比赛时的状况如何，也顺便想看看在上海本地和国外的参赛者以及我的实力状态怎样。

比赛当日，气候干燥，尽管在12℃的温度里有很大东北风，我是唯一穿夏季比赛服的参赛者。 

从一开始比赛的速度就很快，令我恐惧的意识到，作为2009年第一个公路车比赛，很多参赛者都很紧张。我可以看出他们骑车的风格，真的害怕，因为我不想让我这昂贵的车涉及一起撞车事故！因此，我决定要么在参赛小组的前面或者在小组的后面，试图避免任何可能发生的事故。

在比赛进入到三分之一时，两名选手首先超越在前面。我注意到那些选手中有一个是来自很有实力车队的选手〔最后他赢得了冠军〕。我意识到他的队友不会超越他，我有一点乐观，将保持领先状态直到比赛结束。于是，我加快了速度超出了小组并紧随在2名选手的左右。数分钟后，另一名选手与我们在一起。〔请参阅下面这张照片〕

 

昨天最终获得比赛冠军的的确很强大。我们4个人大家轮流着想超越对方，但是他显然是我们中最有实力的。15分钟后，当我们被主要的选手超越时，我所有的希望成绩与这组的4位选手成为泡影。

正如我成为我这小组的主要选手在继续比赛时，我的比赛形式使我感到有些困惑。有时我感到很强大，有时我觉得有些力不从心。如果我的比赛成绩在组别中不是很好，我想为了参加这场比赛来上海花费了很多钱是否值得。 

当比赛快结束时，我准备自己用最后的冲刺完成。尽管当时的风很大，我超越到小组参赛者的前面，盯住我认为最强的冲刺对手。在500米的时候，我认为我应当用冲刺可以冲向终点时，其他两名选手用50米短跑的速度超越到了我前面！我决定以最大的努力冲向终点线，只是在最后150米处没能赶上。我以为我在比赛中获得了第5名，但是过后我被告知一名选手已经脱离了10公里〔在比赛中小组的成员早就与我分开了〕，最终我们的比赛赢得了领先。

事后我回顾并认为∶第6名还可以；虽然在比赛期间以我的能力或许可以获得第4名。事实上，我对自己也感到生气，让我的心情郁闷了一天！



English Version: 

Last Sunday, I participated in Shanghai's first road race of the season. 

I arrived in Shanghai on Friday afternoon only to find out that the race, scheduled for Saturday morning, was postponed to Sunday morning due to fear of wet weather on Saturday morning. 

So, I had no option but to spend three days in Shanghai doing mostly nothing, except prepare for the race and race the race itself! 

This past Winter, I purchased a new carbon road bike, with components made of lightweight carbon, carbon wheels, carbon integrated handlebar, the list goes on - carbon everything, except my saddle (my buttocks would be sore on a carbon saddle- hehe). So, besides testing how my new road race bike would feel under racing conditions, I also wanted to see how my race form was in comparision to Shanghai's top local and foreign racers. 

On race day, the weather was dry, albeit windy and quite cold. I was the only racer who decided to race in Summer racing clothing albeit the 12 degrees temperature and North-Easterly cold wind! 

The race pace was quick right from the start! To my fear, I realised that, being the first road race of 2009, most racers were nervous. I could see it in their riding style, which really scared me because I did not want to be involved in a crash with my new and expensive racing bicycle! Hence, I decided to either stay at the front of the group or at the back of the group of racers to try and avoid any possible mishaps. 

One third into the race, two riders broke away at the front. I noticed that one of the riders came from a strong team and was also a strong rider (he later won the race). I realised that his team would probably not chase him and I had a bit of optimism that the break would stay ahead until the end of the race. Thus, I quickly accelerated out of the group of racers and bridged the gap to the two racers at the front. Moments later, another racer joined us. (Please refer to the photo below) 

 

The eventual race winner was indeed strong yesterday. We all took turns at the front of our 4-man group trying to keep our break away, but he was clearly the strongest of us all. Fifteen minutes later, all my hopes of making it to the finish with this group of 4 riders were dashed when we were caught by the main group of racers. 

As I continued my race within the main group of racers, I was somewhat confused about my race form. There were moments when I felt strong; yet other moments when I felt slightly weak. I was wondering whether I had travelled to ShangHai and spent so much money for this race trip for nothing if my race result would not be high up in the classification. 

As the race drew to an end, I prepared myself for the final sprint finish. Albeit the rather strong wind, I moved to the front of the group of racers, eyeing who I thought was the strongest sprinter. With 500 metres to go, I thought I was in 3rd place and just when I thought it was time to start sprinting towards the finish, the other two in front of me were already 50 metres sprinting ahead of me! I decided to give my utmost effort towards the finishing line, only to be overtaken by another two racers in the last 150 metres. I thought I had managed 5th place in the race, but moments later I was told that a rider had broken away with 10 kilometres to go (the same rider who was in the breakaway group with me early in the race) and eventually won the race ahead of us all. 

With hindsight I look back and think: 6th place is not bad; albeit had I not wasted useless energy during the race I would have probably managed to achieve 4th place. Indeed, I was also rather angry at myself, for letting my confidence let me think I was not having a very good day!

Thanks again for the photos! ^_^ Looking forward to meet you next time.

Regards

Ishmael

ChangZhou