Rehab Ride #4: 20km to Daya and Back

For those of you who have been following my slow recovery from my leg injury, I am pleased to report that I have made great improvements over the past two weeks. Even since Sunday's ride I am feeling a lot better. I hope my ordeal can be helpful to others who may be suffering the same thing, or who don't want to suffer the physical pain and the pain of having to sit out while everyone else has all the fun.

My treatment regimen has been as follows:

1. Rest: I have spent very little time on the bike, concentrating on short, slow rides that simply get the muscles warmed up and balanced. I have been focusing on my pedal stroke and technique.

2. Stretching: Every day, several times a day, I find an opportunity to stretch my leg muscles. Anything from using the side of a desk or a wall to stretch my calves, or doing some standing IT band stretches.

3. Massage: A couple weeks ago I bought a tennis ball to help me with some massage. The tennis ball is hard enough to provide appropriate resistance, and the roundness can really concentrate on a smaller point on the muscle. The ball can be used as a roller along the IT band, or I can simply roll it up and down my muscles. I worked out a lot of the pain in my calf with this method.

4. Ice: Every day after the tennis ball massage, I have been icing my calf and knee. I will wrap the ice bags tightly around the trouble spots for 20 min. at a time under pressure while elevating the leg. Usually before bed, so I can avoid standing.

Last night I went for a short 20km ride out to Daya without pain. I was spinning on the small ring, but I was able to work between 40-70% of my potential power. For the first time I was able to really generate some speed and work out of the saddle, which is the hardest on my calves. My wife joined me on this ride to push me along the route.

It will still be a little while before I can start planning more ambitious projects beyond my backyard, but things are looking up.

And:

Here is one more Paris-Roubaix video that really shows why this is such a brutal race. Many of the riders use cyclocross bikes to better handle the conditions.

Roubaix Heroics, Miaoli Triathlon and Other Gold

Paris-Roubaix wrapped up last night and for the 109th time it lived up to its moniker, The Hell of the North, as the riders bludgeoned themselves and their equipment over nearly 260km of farm roads across the French and Belgian countryside.

This year's edition was won by the lesser known Belgian rider, Johann Vansummeren, from the Garmin-Cervelo squad. Vamsummeren held a lead all day through the uncharacteristic heat of the day, which saw the peloton kick up a thick, yellow dust that wrecked havoc on both riders and their equipment.

Many of the race favorites were taken out of the race by mechanical failures and by the seemingly random crashes that dotted the route.

The race's greatest punishment seemed to have been taken out on Tom Boonen and his powerful Quickstep team. The most poignant image from the race may have been that of Boonen standing dead in the middle of the notorious Arenberg Forest section of fist-sized cobble, stranded with a drivetrain malfunction. The former Belgian national champion just stood dazed with a look of bewilderment at the futility of his situation as most of the riders and his own teammates rumbled past on either side before the team car could arrive for the rescue.

Boonen mounted a brave assault on the peloton and pulled himself within a minute of the front in a massive effort. Then, he tangled with another rider and hit the deck, effectively ending his attempt to tie the record for number of wins. Quickstep's misery was compounded by Sylvain Chavanel, the runner up in last week's Tour of Flanders, having a puncture after helping to drag Boonen back up.

The stor of the day, in my opinion, was not the lanky Vansummeren, who won the event, but rather the heroic effort Fabien Cancellara made as he continued to throw himself out into breaks in an attempt to challenge for the lead.

Immediately outside the Arenberg Forest, Cancellara laid on the gas putting distance between himself and the peloton. After several major assaults he, and a handful of other riders including Juan Antonio Flecha and the current world champion, Thor Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo. Cancellara of Team LeoPard (aka Tean Schleck) was unable to recruit the other riders to help propel him into contention at the front. Again and again he tried to put distance between he and Hushovd in a series of powerful thrusts to the front. And the Mighty Thor time and time again reeled in Spartacus (Cancellara) until the Swiss rider fought for enough of a gap to overcome a 50 second deficit to within 19 seconds of the lead. By then it was too late and Vansummeren had already entered the fabled velodrome at Roubaix to bring home the trophy of the day's toil-- a mounted road cobble.

Another fantastic race.

VeloNews has their own take here.

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Taiwan Cycling:

The Miaoli Triathlon attracted over 600 participants for two days of racing. The women's event was won by the Czech athlete, Radka Vodickova, followed by Hoi Long from Macao, and the Taiwanese, Chang Luo-yi in third.

The men's event was taken by three Taiwanese, Wei Chen-chan, Hsieh Shang-yen, and Chiu Wei-chang.

And

A Taiwanese cycling team of another sort has taken gold. This time in Geneva, where a team from Far East University in Tainan, won the first prize in an international invention contest.

The winning design was for a tandem bicycle that telescopes out for easy transport and storage. The team envisioned the bicycle to be used by families with limited space using the bikes for family outings with only one car.

Recovering on the Cobbles? Rehab Ride #3

Instead of hammering my legs into brutal submission on a 258km hell ride, I was merely satisfied with a slow tour around Taichung's Dadu Mountain to take a took at some of the area's listed bike routes.

I made my way down Wu Chuan West Rd. for a slow rolling warm-up, and turned down Anhe Rd. before the road could really begin climbing up to the Taichung Industrial Park. At Taichung Harbor Rd. I took a left until the Route 125 to Daya.

I was happy to be on the bike and two wheels under my ass felt fantastic after two weeks off. I deliberately kept the pace slow, but still managed to pass a few guys on mountain bikes.

It was at Daya on Chung Ching (Zhong qing) Rd. that I hit my first bike path, which consisted of little more than bicycle markings and roughened up concrete on the sidewalk. Some shops along the way had brought their wares out onto the path as well. I quickly retreated to the safety of the street. This road is also known as the Highway 10.

I had a wonderful descent into Ching Shui, a little town on the coastal plain, where the market was really too full of people to safely ride and take pictures. I didn't know how much longer I had on my leg, so I got moving south on Chung Shan (Zhong Shan) Rd. This makes for a nice alternative to the busy Highway 1 and it was on this stretch I was able to ride at my normal pace. After massaging my injured leg for so long, I could feel how much tighter my uninjured leg had become. Note to self: Achieve Balance.

Chung Shan (Zhong Shan) Rd. hooks back up with the Highway 1 in Long Jing near the base of Dadu Shan, where I met up with another bike path. Finally, I could hit the cobbles.

It was a raised pedestrian and bicycle path, which often means trouble, as we see above with a woman preparing to dry her garlic on the path. The rough brick is less than ideal for biking, but not too rough.

I stopped for a stretch and took in Changhua's bicycle infrastructure.

There are several spurs that break off from the main trail and go on up to the Zhushan-Nanliao Old Road, in which cyclists can chug up the hill to a dead end, where they can walk along an old rail line. Unfortunately, I didn't see any place to lock a bike. I returned to the Highway 1 and plugged along through Dadu. It was not long after this that my leg started to get sore. I was sure not to torque on it too hard and gingerly made my way home.

Unlike earlier rehabilitation rides, I was able to walk up the stairs to my house without any pain. A few minutes of stretching and 20 min. of ice, and I felt great.

Better, but not perfect.

The whole ride was about 40 miles, which I completed in a humbling 4 hours. Sometimes it takes a little discipline to hold back when you need to. I will keep working on this.

Bike route 897709 - powered by Bikemap

A Sunday In Hell

Here is the classic movie in full

and

Paris-Roubaix: Where To Watch

Queen For A Day: Paris-Roubaix Weekend!!!

This Sunday, the Queen of the Classics, the great Paris-Roubaix bicycle race gets underway... and I will be unable to join in the celebrations with My Own Sunday In Hell. My leg is feeling like I can ride, but I am nowhere near ready for a long one day ride. Maybe now I can sit back and take in the action from home.

After the exciting sprint finish at Flanders, I am looking forward to a thrillingly brutal Roubaix. Both Fabien Cancellara and Tom Boonen seem to be in fine form to challenge for the lead. Mark Cavendish, the world's leading sprinter and most hated professional will be in his first. Still, I would love to see Big George Hincapie finally take this race home with him.

See Roubaix Tech... here

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I will not be able to test my mettle over 258km of cobbled hell, but this weekend several riders in the Taiwanese ranks will. The 380km Hualien-Taidong-Hualien race will also kick off, with an additional 300km race and a three day event for duffers.

I hope everyone will get out on the bike this weekend to celebrate my favorite race.

Stray Puppy Leads Bike Boy... Astray

TTV is reporting that a 6 yo. Taiwanese boy from Xin Zhuang in New Taipei City was recovered 9km away in Shulin after following a puppy on his bicycle.

According to the report, the boy thought the puppy was cute and could not resist following the animal from 9:00am until 6:00pm, when the community chief in Shulin discovered a boy crying on his bicycle. The news was broadcast to local authorities who brought the lost boy to a nearby police station, where he was reunited with his father.

It is amazing how far we can ride when we just focus on our goal.

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Also:

Check out this insider report from The Cycling Tribe on this year's Tour of Taiwan.

Excerpt:

My lungs on the verge of exploding as I followed two riders up the climb on stage 8. Over the top, Tabriz once again finding their groove at 55kmph in the rain.

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Around The Horn:

• To give some perspective on why I routinely criticize how Taiwan invests in cycling, compare Taiwan's cycling infrastructure plan to Sidney, Australia's. A slight difference in objectives.
• Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast has some interesting numbers on cycling. Cyclists are overwhelmingly white. The surprising statistic is that most of them are the working poor.
• Frank Schleck is under investigation for a non-dope related advantage.
• An interesting statistical analysis of cycling mortality and longevity.
• Velonews has a guide to Paris-Roubaix, which is always a thrill to watch. Taylor Phinney will have to wait until next year for his first run at the cobbles for the full event.

The National Taiwan University Bike Rack: A Glimpse Into Student Bicycle Culture

Although I spent part of the weekend in Taipei off the bike, true to form, cycling wasn't too far off my mind. I was especially interested in the bike racks around the National Taiwan University campus, which have become a part of the university's more infamous features.

At NTU there are thousands of rusty bicycles clustered in single and double-decker racks around the perimeter of the school, like fruit rotting on a vine. Despite the dilapidated appearance, these machines still function to serve as cheap transportation for students and faculty alike, often being passed down from graduates to underclassmen like used calculus books or the "just-in-case jar".

One really interesting feature I noticed on several of the bikes at NTU, were the placards students attached to their bikes in an effort to advertise events organized for their departments or college clubs--effectively turning bike space into ad space.

Like many universities around the world, universities all over Taiwan encourage students to participate in groups or clubs. But unlike many of their international counterparts, Taiwanese students are directed away from participating in groups that may become too political, and universities have even been encouraged to dissuade students and faculty from engaging in political discussion or debate on college campuses. Instead of using the university experience as a forum to discuss and debate ideas and ideologies, Taiwanese students are encouraged to channel their energies into less contentious vocations like hip-hop dance, sports, music, movies and religious service clubs.

Compared with many "western" universities where students are regularly asked to free Leonard Peltier and Mumia or protest against the latest military adventure... or South Korea, where protests and face-offs with riot police are practically viewed as a rite of passage for any college student...it seems Taiwanese student groups are little more than vapid adolescent gatherings. The reason for such a stark contrast between these university traditions stems from Taiwan's unique political history, and in particular, stems largely from a series of events that transpired on the National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) campuses on April 6, 1949.

In the wake of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT's) bloody retribution campaign that followed the 228 massacre in 1947, tensions in Taiwan remained high as Chiang Kai-sheck's government prepared to cede China to the communists and evacuate to Taiwan by mid 1949. The KMT security apparatus was already deeply distrustful of local Taiwanese, whom they often viewed as "Japanese slaves" and not to be trusted.

On August 6, 1949, KMT security agents stormed both NTU and NTNU campuses to arrest students involved in a student organization that the party had deemed, "leftist". When students refused to hand over the group's member list, the agents began a large scale arrest in which hundreds of students were taken into custody on charges of treason. Some students fled, others spent several years jailed as political dissidents. This event is largely viewed as the beginning of the era of White Terror, when the KMT government used an expansive system of secret police, paid informants, kangaroo courts and murder to cement their hold on power using the rough tactics of fear and intimidation.

From this point forward, student organizations were severely curtailed as the government feared any type of public organization. With later periods of marginal political liberalization, less intimidating student groups were encouraged as both a safe outlet for youthful energy, and as a means for the party-state to keep an eye on the nation's youth. Furthermore, the KMT maintained some control over student organizations through patronage as many student groups received generous financial sponsorship from the KMT and were thus requested to perform functions for KMT voter mobilization and other partisan activities well into the democratic era.

Despite Taiwan's recent political liberalization, student groups have largely failed to mirror their international counterparts in other democratic countries, and remain aloof from politics. The advertisements on the backs of a few bicycles is a reminder of how Taiwan's unique political history has greatly influenced student culture here in Taiwan and how the events from decades ago still reverberate across Taiwan's political landscape.

Acoustic Guitar Club: Guitar Night

Countryside Service Corps

Cocktail Week

Dept. of Public Health Night

Yunlin and Chiayi Students Union

Dept. of Bio-industrial Mechatronics Engineering Night (woot!)