Central Century: Hell on Hills

Well... he IS from San Francisco!

This Sunday we had a monster ride planned that had been on the To-Do list for some time. This would be my second time hitting this route and I invited a few friends along to see how they liked it. Any century ride is hard work, and this was going to be even harder with four extended climbs to add to the distance. The estimated total was a combined 7200ft of vertical elevation gain over 160km. The weather looked promising with some cloud cover and the breeze had died down.

The Lay of the Land

This time we had a good group of guys joining in the festivities. We had Michael T. and Darren R, from Tanzi and Feng Yuan respectively. Patrick M. was back from San Francisco for the week. At a bike shop, Patrick found a strong rider in Philippe F., a native of Montreal, who is in Taichung working as an aerospace engineer. And finally, Michael C. was back in town from Linkou to have a go at his first true century-- and he picked a hell of a route to hammer it out on.

Hsin She

We met at the "big tree" at the traffic circle in Da Keng on the outskirts of Taichung city, where the 129 starts. The ride started with a wake-up climb of about 1000 vertical feet to Hsin She and then we trapsed along Xie Zhong road to the Fengbu Industrial Rd. Just follow the signs to the "Lavender Cottage" and you can't miss it. The road takes you down a great introductory descent and glides along the Dajia River to the Highway 21.

Introducing Philippe

We started our second climb up the Highway 21 to Guo Xing. This is a great, great climb. There are fruit farms on all sides and it is not too steep. Maybe 6% with a few flat areas to pick up speed and rest the legs.

Michael T. Leads the Lower Climb

The Highway 21 is a favorite route for cyclists and Big Bike motorcycle clubs. Sometimes it can get a bit dicy with motorcycles and cars overshooting corners.

Sunday Cycling Club

F-1 Dreamin'

The final section of the climb dispenses with the switchbacks and just sort of weaves to the peak to make sure you put some more leg into the climb.

Hoping Township

For most of the morning low clouds hung over the hills and gave us some cover, but they were threatening to burn away, so hydration started to become a major concern.

Coffee Talk

We waited at a little cafe at the top that offers spectacular views of the foothills leading up to the Central Mountain Range. As we sipped coffee and munched on complimentary chocolates, the owner, who spoke decent English, was happy to discuss her experiences traveling in the United States. It was at this point that Michael T. and Darren decided to cut it short for the day and the remainder of the group carried on as a quartet. We pressed our speed down the other side, carving into switchbacks and avoiding dogs sleeping in the road on the way down.

Taiwanese Cyclists

We stayed on the Highway 21 down to Guo Xing and then took the left to remain on the 21 all the way to Puli. There is a brief climb before dropping into a little green river valley. This section of the Highway 21 is a designated cycling route and there are all sorts of cafes and tourist stops along the way.

The Incredible Edible Bridge?

One of the more interesting features is the bridge that is completely held together with rice gluten, sugar and hemp. In 1940, with construction materials difficult of find do to war rationing, the local people used some more readily available substances for the mortar. The bridge held up until a few years ago when flooding destroyed part of the original structure. It has since been rebuilt using the original methods of construction.

Climbing To Puli

We continued through the river valley until we saw our turn-off toward Puli. There is a little sign hidden on the side of the road that indicated the alternate route. This is a much better route than I had originally planned and it avoids the heavier tourist bus traffic on the main road. Still, we were required to assail the ramparts of the wall-like ridge in our third major climb. By this time it was about noon and the sun was shining directly on us. I was beginning to feel the beginnings of a cramp coming on and was running short on liquids.

A Needed Respite in the Flat Lands

The top of the ridge opens up into a wide plateau of vegetable farms that seem to sprout up in neat box-shaped fields out of the deep red clay. It is a truly amazing sight.

Racing Toward Lunch

The road is wide, straight and fast. We were able to gain a lot of speed on the descent off the hill, which seems to go on forever, but lands smack in the middle of Puli. By this time we were are starving and crazy from the heat, so I led the group to a little place that sells everything and it was even air conditioned. It was a great time to pop open a bottle of ice-cold coke.

The Tunnel To Sun Moon Lake

Upon making our way out of Puli, we hit out fourth climb on the Highway 21 toward Sun Moon Lake. The climb is not steep, but it is long and steady, like the opening hill on a roller coaster. We just kept an even pace up, up, up. Now, in my opinion, Sun Moon Lake is vastly over rated. Maybe because I grew up in Seattle where large bodies of fresh water are all over the place, but I think it may be more because of the way unchecked greed and overdevelopment have run riot over the lake. Therefore I had no trouble steering clear of the lake and took the group on the Nantou Local Road #131 out toward Shuili.

The odd colored water makes the picture look like a postcard from the 60's

We had been investing in altitude all day long and it was about time for a withdrawl. The #131 is miles of curving descents toward Shuili. It is a good opportunity to take pressure off the legs while making up the distance. The best part is that it carves its way through some serious scenery. I wish I had taken more pictures, but the riding was too much fun to stop. I just love this section of road.

Ogling Melons

We finally arrived in Shuili and decided to stop for a snack. Michael C. disappeared and somehow came back with half a watermelon cut into pieces and we cooled off on someone's stoop dribbling fresh watermelon all over ourselves. Refreshing!

Shui li

All too soon it was time to warm the legs back up at make hay for Taichung. For most of the way along the Highway 16 and all the way to Nantou, we formed a pace line to help share the work. This really helped keep the speed up over that distance.

Keeping A Steady Pace

We finally pulled into Taichung and called it good at around 6:00pm. It was just a marvelous day of riding with some very great people. The people and conversation really make the ride. I would further like to congratulate Michael C. on the completion of his first standard century. There is just something special about the triple digits. He should really feel pride in his accomplishment and I was happy to be there when he crossed that bridge.

Thanks guys!

A Break at the 921 Memorial Earthquake Pylon

Here Is Out Route: I highly recommend doing any or all of it (Bike Maps seems to skimp on altitude).

Link

Bike route 529201 - powered by Bikemap

10 Questions About Cycling Taiwan

I stumbled across an article today in which Paul McMurray, a Canadian with 11 years of Taiwan experience, briefly introduces Taiwan cycling. This is a pretty good run down. There are only two points I found really annoying. The first is in framing Taiwan by its relationship to China. I don't find this necessary and in many ways it serves to, again, reduce Taiwan to a subordinate of China. You rarely hear Japan located by its relationship to Korea or Russia. Taiwan is actually close to Japan and the Republic of the Philippines as well. I think too much emphasis is placed on China when dealing with Taiwan and it merely reflects an unrepresentative policy which was promoted for several decades and is being rolled out again. Regardless, it is worth a read.

Read the full article: here

Plan For Sunday

With rain clouds scheduled to rift by Sunday, we have the all clear for a hilly ride through Nantou with some out of town guests. This will be a run-up to the Cross-Island tour scheduled for later in the month. That would be over 2200 meters of vertical climbing and 100 miles (167km). If at any point it looks too ambitious there are several outs. It should be fun. Anyone else want to join?

Bike route 522099 - powered by Bikemap

Election Season: When Everyone's A Jock!

The CNA through Taiwan Focus has found the journalistic integrity to campaign on behalf of the KMT:

Taipei, June 1 (CNA) The secretary-general of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) has agreed to take part in a triathlon Oct. 30, even though he will be running the party campaign for municipality elections at the end of November, race organizers said Tuesday.

In Taiwan, athletics and election stunts go hand in hand. Does anyone remember the ghoulish-looking Ma Ying-jiu taking his round island bike ride while crowing about being naked under his clothes so he could embarrass himself in front of someone's teen daughter in an effort to suppress his private image as a milquetoast, in exchange for a more botoxed and HGH-looking image of youth and virility? They've even got King Liu in on the charade to promote policies that threaten to undercut Taiwan's smaller manufacturers.

As we build toward the municipality elections, keep your eyes open for the bicycle to again feature prominently in electioneering and high talk of bike trails and green commuting to fill the ad space and party-owned news network coverage. Be sure to cast a cyclical eye toward all this posturing as there is only one real Taiwanese political athletic He-Man：

Spike The Bike

With accusations flying against the biggest names in the peloton and current points leader Alejandro Valverde suspended for two years for doping, what more could happen to tarnish the sport. If all the athletes are presumed to be doping... then it is still a fair fight... right? Until you spike the bike.

Oh yes my friends... now there are rumors flying that Fabien Cancellara was riding a "doped" bike when he won Roubaix and here is how they say it could have been done. Bullshit... or not!

And Now For The Rest

I don't have too much to worry about for the month of May as work and family commitments have limited my ability to follow my inclination... on some damned fool crusade... to destroy myself on the seat of a bicycle... all in the name of a good time. But the month of June I hope to tear it up something awful.

When I get these crazy notions in my head to push myself to my physical limits or train to achieve some seemingly arbitrary goal, I risk the dangers of overreaching and overtraining; two common conditions that occur in ambitious athletes.

After a major physical effort I am more prone to sickness, injury and I have even felt a type of general malaise. It happens to us all. The stronger we get the more it takes to push us to that edge. Still, rest is a very important part of training and it can make a huge difference in performance increases. So, today I will rest and then hit tomorrow hard and fast, do some climbing practice on Thursday, before resting up for a hill century on Sunday to make sure my glycogen stores are filled and I am ready for a long day in the saddle.

There is a great article on training here with an excerpt below:

"Overreaching lasts from a few days to 2 weeks and is associated with fatigue, reduction of maximum performance capacity, and a brief interval of decreased personal performance. Recovery is achieved with a reduction in training or a few extra days of rest.

Overtraining (overtraining syndrome, staleness, systemic overtraining) is the result of many weeks of exceeding the athlete’s physiologic limits and can result in weeks or months of diminished performance - symptoms normally resolve in 6-12 weeks but may continue much longer or recur if athletes return to hard training too soon. It involves mood disturbances, muscle soreness/stiffness, and changes in blood chemistry values, hormone levels, and nocturnal urinary catecholamine excretion.

Stress factors such as the monotony of a training program and an acute increase in training program intensity lasting more than a few days increase the risk of development of overtraining. On the other hand, heavy training loads appear to be tolerated for extensive periods of time if athletes take a rest day every week, and alternate hard and easy days of training.

Pathologic fatigue is deined as fatigue and tiredness that cannot be explained by the volume of training. These are generally medical conditions such as infection, neoplasia, disorders of the blood, cardiovascular, or endocrine systems, and psychologic/psychiatric disorders. Included in this grouping are the side effects of medications and "chronic fatigue syndrome" - an ill defined medical condition. A recent article has muddied the water even further by describing muscle changes from years of high volume exercise training that may be related to this entity. Another controversial possibility is iron deficiency without anemia - although this is much more common in endurance runners than cyclists."

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?