Weekend Update

Well... the weather kept me close to home this weekend, but I did manage to get a short ride with some hot climbing done. Dom and I did a little ride over Dadu Shan between Taichung and the coast. It was nice to try out my climbing legs to better evaluate how I am coming back from all that down time. 


The goal was to push heavier gears to about 70rpm on the climbs


The speed was there, but the recovery times were not. I guess I still need some engine work. 


Good times. 


Here is the route for a short jump over the hill with limited time. 


Links:

• Pedaling Madly Backwards has a nice article about Taiwan's child bike seat nonsense.
• I am also happy to see Bikemaps has reverted back from using a map in Hanyu Pinyin for Taiwan. Whatever your feeling on Romanization systems, the fact of the matter is that on the road, a visitor will need to know the local spellings. 
• Don't Miss OzSoapbox as he continues to take the piss out of Taipei's bike lanes. 

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In other cycling news, the big one-day races are over, with my favorites in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The Ardenne series also wrapped up without the heavy favorites faring terribly well. I get the feeling Radioshack, BMC and a few others are holding back before the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. 


I did enjoy seeing Nibali make a great effort to only place second in last night's Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He showed a lot of the courage that made him a standout in the 2010 Giro. 


It is a shame that so much racing is reserved for the final few kilometers of these races.  

Sunday Recovery Ride

Sunday morning we just took it easy. After a long Saturday on the saddle a more relaxing ride was in order. My wife and I decided to take a loop around Taichung.

We started out with a short ride to The Early Bird Diner on Chungming South Road. If you ever find yourself lucky enough to be asked to stay in Taichung for breakfast, The Early Bird is a great place to go. Pancakes, syrup, French toast, Denver omelettes, coffee.... mmmmm! We fueled up and then headed up to Tunghai University along the Industrial Road #1 from Wu Chuan West Rd.

The Industrial Road makes a nice climb with some sections to rest the legs a little before resuming the ascent. It then sneaks into the back of the Tunghai Market.

We crossed Taichung Harbor Rd. and climbed through International Street/Art Street and over to the Metropolitan Park.

The views were hazy, but nice from the top of the hill.

We then came back through Daya and stopped off to see Rocky at Mosaic LBS. Nice ride!