Taiwan Cup Cancelled!!! Dreams Of Taiwan Cycling Festival Blown Away By Typhoon

Due to Typhoon Megi, organizers of the Taiwan Cup and Taiwan Bike Festival have cancelled the remainder of the events that were to be held in the lead-up and conclusion of the nation's most substantive event for putting Taiwanese cycling on the tourist map.

Torrential rains in the Suao area have already led to severe landslides that collapsed a section of roadway with 20 Chinese tourists missing.

The cancellation was a necessary and responsible step with the dangers posed by seasonal typhoons that pass Taiwan between early July and late October.

I am a bit disappointed that visiting cyclists will be unable to experience the beauty and joys of cycling Taiwan, such as those I try to highlight on this blog, but it was an inevitable development in the face of a seasonal storm.

I hope the organizers will use a little due diligence and schedule events such as these during periods of more reliable weather. This was simply careless planning that unnecessarily led to a huge waste of both public and private resources that could have been better allocated to support Taiwan's cycling infrastructure.

Live and learn.

Taiwan Bike Festival Is A Wash

The First International Bike Festival is a wash after a week of rain and bad weather. The outer bands of Typhoon Magi have dumped buckets of rain on the participants and may have greatly impacted the number of attendees.

You can not predict nature, but you CAN look back on previous seasonal weather patterns.

Last year at about this same time I was preparing to ride from Hualien to Taichung over the Central Cross Island Highway. A typhoon came within hours of hitting Taiwan and then reversed course and saved the trip.

In late October, Taiwan often receives one last typhoon to end the storm season before settling down into a mild winter. Planners should have understood this and planned around the typically unstable weather.

Why choose October and run the risk?

Another GIO scheme goes horribly wrong. *sigh!*