Taiwan 24hr Record Set: News, Links and Giro

Taiwan Links:

According to an article from the CNA, a local cyclist has set the 24hr. record in the first annual Pingtung County bike marathon. Fu Sheng-chieh rode 578.2km in 24 hours to take the win. I am still confused as he would obviously be setting a record in the first annual event. *head scratch*

Two stories on senior cyclists.

• The first: Lu Yung-chuan sets out on his cycling odyssey to raise money and awareness to help Taiwan's elderly residents. The "growing old locally" concept helps seniors live out their days in the familiar surroundings of home without having to endure the stress of moving in with their urban dwelling children.

• The second: A group of riders of retirement age set out to bike the rails and visit Taiwan's train stations. A careful reader will read between the lines as each article is edited with a particular viewpoint.
• Bike Hugger unveils his beer themed bike called the "Hodala" in honor of the Taiwanese drinking term for "Bottoms Up!"
• Cycling Satin Cesena takes on Ta Ta Jia.

Other Cycling News:

• Another elite cyclist dies in a tragic training accident. Xavier Tondo was killed last week in a freak accident involving a garage door as he was leaving to go for a training ride. It just goes to show, you never know when your number will be called.

• Washington State is named the top cycling state in the USA. Go Team!

• Cycling advocate learns to steer resources away from the 20% of Americans who are apocalyptic Christians as they will not share the belief in a need for long term transportation solutions.

• Hamstrung: Clouds over Texas as the Lance Armstrong case looks more and more bleak asTyler Hamilton levels accusations.

• New Zealand looking to make roads safer after 8 cycling deaths within weeks last year.

In The Pro Ranks:

• The Giro d'Italia: For a guy surrounded by doping allegations, Alberto Contador is a man on fire. He has taken an approximate 4min. lead on his closest rivals and has been performing like an extraterrestrial. On the climbs up the Grossglockner and Monte Zoncolan he kept spinning on up as poor Nibali looked as if he might be drowning. Contador also took the Individual Time Trial in the mountains to thumb his nose at doubters. It seems the battle is now for second place should Contador become ineligible due to the doping charge, which is currently on appeal. Stage 17 tonight.

• Amgen Tour of California (Sponsored by the company that makes EPO): American, Chris Horner, wins the ATOC followed by teammate Levi Leipheimer 38 sec. behind. The Radio Shack duo simply owned the race where the other half of the pro peloton has been ramping up for the Tour de France next month.

Tragedy On The Giro: Wouter Weylandt (1984-2011)

Wouter Weylandt

1984-2011

I was watching as tragedy unfolded at the Giro yesterday and went to bed hoping everything would turn out ok. Sadly it did not. On the descent off the Passo del Bocco, the Belgian rider for Leopard TREK apparently clipped a pedal going into a corner as he tried to make up ground on the pack.

The televised images of a rider face down on the tarmac was chilling and a sobering reminder of how dangerous this sport can be... and how fragile we are as riders.

Ride Safe!

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"I am unbearably saddened by the loss of Wouter today. As many know, he was my friend, training partner, and in many ways, another brother to me. His death marks and irreparable change in my life but more importantly, in the lives of his family and most loved.

"Wouter was one of the kindest, funniest, and most admirable people I have ever had the opportunity to know and his death is a tragedy to his family, his friends, and to the sport as a whole.

"I can only convey my deepest of sympathies to everyone who cared about him as deeply as I did, especially his family, his friends, his team and his fans – we celebrate his life and morn his death in equal measure.

"Wouter was and is the soul of this sport we all love – an athlete who sacrificed himself for the better of many and a champion who celebrated each glory as a victory for his family, his team, and his friends and fans.

"I will remember him always, and will always strive to do him proud, as he has always done for the sport and people he loves."--Tyler Ferrar (Cycling News)

Wuling Video, Links and Giro

Bikeman just posted a fantastic video of last weekend's Wuling Challenge. For those who don't already know, the Wuling Challenge is a ride to the 3275m summit of the Central Cross Island Highway. The final 7km are brutal. Kudos to all those who joined and moreover to those who finished. I was hoping to be there this year, but alas, it was not to be. Lots of bike action this past weekend.

Taiwan Biking Links:

• The World Is Not That Big documents his cycling trip through eastern Taiwan. Some lovely pictures.

• Hiking Taiwan has temporarily hung up his boots for a bicycle. Check out his trip to Maokong.

• Crazy Guy on a Bike details his difficult ride up to Smangus. Aside from being a simple cycling destination, Smangus has also recently been at the center of a clash between indigenous rights and state power as documented by David Reid, a Taiwan based scholar.
• SUN-E has some great pics from the Da Xue Shan event that was also held this past weekend. Team Neko was there as well.
• And one from OZ on the three-seater MILF bike (and no... not the Moro Islamic Liberation Front).

Other Links:

• Dublin gets into Bike Sharing.

• Mike Joos illustrates my dreams. Wookie Bicycles!!!

• Golden State threatens to shower tickets on speedy commuters across the Golden Gate (Say that ten times fast).

• El Diablo, the crimson colored caricature from Germany who found fame in prodding Tour de France riders up the highest peaks with his pitchfork, has crafted a rickshaw in honor of the royal wedding. Prince Philip was overheard commenting that it was the most welcome gift from Germany since the Blitz and since a gaffe-prone Consort from the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg joined the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha... er... Windsor.

Don't Forget:

The Giro d'Italia kicks off this weekend. Last year's race was a spectacle. This year they decided to add a few more mountains and an active volcano. Maybe next year we'll see a pool of sharks. Watch it HERE!

Basso Takes Pink: News Cycles

In cycling news today: Ivan Basso ascended the podium at the Giro d'Italia decked in pink after claiming one of the most memorable and epic Giros to date. The Giro, along with its twin sister, the Tour de France, make up two of the three classic stage races. Stage racing is a long game with strategies and tactics thought out well in advance that may be slow to materialize over the course of a three week race. Each stage can take several hours to complete and for the casual sports fan, that is just too long to tune in to follow. For those who feel nine innings of baseball is too slow, watching cycling is torture. Lots of armchair sports fans tune in to the final stage and that is about it. This year's Giro had me captivated day in and day out and here is why:

The Giro At A Glance:

• The opening flat stages in Holland threw some nasty winds at the riders, causing some pile-ups that threw the entire race into disarray. Early favorites like Sastre were virtually eliminated from the start. Other teams were crippled to the point of losing some of their more talented support riders and making the distribution of the workload more concentrated on a few.

• Again, the weather created chaos for the Strada Bianchi Stage 7 and a little bad luck and a few forced mistakes threw the contest back up in the air.

• Stage 12 saw the GC contenders hammer on each other to gain the upper hand in a stage that had originally been a bone thrown to the big sprinters in the group.

• Nibali's stupidly amazing descent on the slick roads of Stage 14 to give the Italians a taste of home filed advantage.

• The duel between Cadel Evans' thumping power and Ivan Basso's featherlight tip-toe styles of climbing up the Zoncolan on Stage 15.

• The Plan de Corones ITT mtn TT saw riders opt for amateurishly looking compact cranks with 26-28 cassettes to lamely struggle up the pukingly steep ascents.

• The insanely heroic descent made by Arroyo on Stage 19 on the wet roads that made the mighty, mighty Basso flinch.

• Stage 20 was amazingly beautiful. I caught some of it on an internet feed and it looked like a string of postcards. with a descent on the other side that crackled with crisp technical feats and the electricity of speed.

News Cycles:

Taylor Phinney of Trek-Livestrong won his second U23 Paris-Roubaix here. This is pretty significant as Phinney, son of the former Team 7-11 star and US National Champion Davis Phinney, and is actualizing all the expectations heaped upon him as America's next great cyclist.

Taiwan's Super Athlete, Craig Johns, covers the Hualien Triathlon and sadly announces his retirement from triathlons here. The local triathlete community can now breathe a sigh of relief that his reign of terror has come to an end. This does not mean the cyclists can have a reprieve as Johns will continue to pursue cycling which isn't so hard on the joints.

Nathan reports on our Sunday ride here. This is why a Garmin is great.

Michael C. loses a street brawl with a pothole here.

Sabinna schools us on component sourcing here.

Joe Friel tells us everything science really knows about muscle cramps here. The short answer is "nothing", but don't tell the sport drink and supplement companies. I always find discussions of cramping interesting as I suffer from cramping on occasion. I found the best solution is the kitchen sink approach. I take 3 Tums before a ride for the magnesium, a couple bananas before a ride for potassium, try to stretch my calves (usual culprit), adjust my fit, drink enough liquids with a mix of water and sport drink on hot days... basically everything short of voodoo magic.

Darryl has launched his awesome directory for bike blogs here. I have to hand it to him for putting out the effort to consolidate the bike-blog universe into an easy to use directory that is easily classified into category and location. Check the Taiwan blogs ;)

Virginia Xing blogs on her preparations for a weekend of racing (even if it was complicated by rain) here. I was happy to have chatted with her a bit on the phone the other day to officially make her acquaintance. I hope to ride with her in the future to learn a thing or two. If you visit her blog you can see how much effort she puts into her training... and with a fistful of little boys to herd. Truly heroic.

Anyone else have something to report?

Giro d'Italia Wraps Up Tonight

The Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) wraps up tonight (Taiwan time) and I have to say I have been able to follow every stage on live internet feeds or through some kind of live-blogging. What a great race this year. I have hardly cared to track the Tour of Californi-yawn.

Throughout the Giro the Maglia Rosa (Pink Jersey) has been up for grabs the entire way with the lead switching from rider to rider almost daily. I had been rooting for Cadel Evans, mainly because Vinokourov looks like Drago from Rocky IV and I don't like the way Basso's name looks. Yes, call me superficial. Actually both Vino and Basso were wrapped up in some pretty nasty doping scandals. Basso admitted the bags of blood found in the fridge belonged to him, but never said he actually doped. As it stands there are still several riders in contention. The Italians are poised to sweep the podium on home turf if Cadel Evans can't scratch out a victory on tonight's short TT stage.

As it stands now:

1  Ivan Basso (Liquigas)              
2  David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne)     + 0:51
3  Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas)          + 2:30
4  Michele Scarponi (Androni)          + 2:46
5  Cadel Evans (BMC)                   + 4:00

Giro Time: Giro d'Italia Saturday, May 8

The late Marco Pantani was a climber's climber and a thrilling rider to watch. In 1998 he won both the Giro and the Tour. That year he also won the Giro's Mountain Classification as well.

The Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) is already here. Three weeks of some superior cycling and daily rigors. The race has been won by Coppi, Merckx and Hinault, among other greats, and it serves as the preview for the Tour de France.

These grand tours are interesting to watch for the tactical aspect as teams rally around their star rider and try to safely escort him through the peloton while chasing down breaks and capping attacks. The pacing is much different than the Spring Classics and the variety of climbs, distance and Time Trials makes for great racing day after grueling day.

The leader wears the distinctive Maglia Rosa or "Pink Jersey" as opposed to the Malliot Jaune "Yellow Jersey" from the Tour de France...

Here are some links if you want to catch some of the action.

Happy Giro!!!