Weekend Racing, Riding, Reporting and Links!!!

This weekend will be the 2011 running of the Hualien -Taitung-Hualien 380km road race. There will also be an amateur race that is a mere 300km, along with a ride for weekend duffers who just want to enjoy the scenery. Good Luck!

In other racing news, the Taiwan Cultural Portal has a pretty detailed write-up of this year's Tour of Taiwan. Lots of stuff to read here beyond bikes.

July 3, The Taiwan Urban Athletic Association will hold its, Alishan Extreme Challenge, in which participants are required to pedal to 2100m above sea level amid Taiwan's awesome mountain peaks.

This contest is divided into two groups- self-challenge and athlete. Participants can not only challenge your strength but also appreciate the magnificent mountains. The contest also combines energy station, concept of safety timekeeping, TUAA finish commemorative cards, etc.

The concept of timekeeping means not to count the time, spent on downhill, for contestants’ safe sake. As for, energy station is for contestants to regain their strength and for audience to cheer up challengers.

Registration period is until May 16. Anyone must considerate his/ her physical condition before joins in the event and must take enough physical training! For further information, please visit the organizer’s website: HERE

Alishan is a beautiful area to ride.

And Finally...

I took my Salsa in to switch out some of the stock parts with some old favorites and have a better fitting done. I switched out the Salsa Moto Ace Bell Lap bars for Deda Newtons, like my Seven. I switched the disc rotors between the Avid BB7 and the Shimano disc brakes. I will use the stock Salsa Delgado wheels as off-road/abuse wheels, while the custom built DT Swiss/Chris King wheels will be my standard touring/commuting wheel. Most importantly, I replaced the stock bottom bracket with the Shimano Ultegra bottom bracket, which was 1.5 times heavier. Not to be a weight weenie... but I brought the total weight (including pedals) down from 24lbs to about 22lbs. Note: Cheap bottom brackets are often the cause of mystery bike weight... if that matters to you. At 22lbs, I am not concerned. The bike is looking good and is a lot of fun to just ride around on.

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Links:

• Cycling in Hawaii goes viral. And not in a good way.
• Bike commuting in decline. Are friendlier cities the answer?
• The UK mulls laws against cycling like an asshole. (Caution: Much of the report is in "English")
• Oriental Cyclists (Not what you think).
• More From The Silk Road.
• If you are on the market for a road bike, check out VeloNews for their buyer's guide.

Biking Michael In Pingtung Part III: Kenting

Be sure to visit The View From Taiwan for the third installment of Michael Turton's Kenting leg of his Tour of Pingtung. He has some really excellent pictures and commentary.

Also:

• Cycling Satin Cesena offers a great meditation on bicycle design.

and

• Bicycle Sidewalk shows off his awesome legs in an impressive report on his Hualien riding and Miaoli Triathlon results.

• The Daily Bubble Tea explores the foothills and mountains leading up to the base of Alishan along the magnificent 149甲.

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.