News From Around The Hub

• Joe's sixth day around Taiwan. Interesting recommendations for bike travel.
• Bikedan on his exploits in the Tour of Formosa.
• Dr. Freil-good on Force Reps.
• Bikesnob NYC blogs on Fred-dom.
• Velonews Letters about tire pressure along with the Sheldon Brown link.
• Cycling news from the Asian Games.

Tour of Changhua (環化賽): Body Defeats Man In 110k Race

Yesterday I competed in the Tour of Changhua race sponsored by Merida Bicycles. It really wasn't much of a race as the sponsors pulled the timed competition out of concern for rider safety following a period of light drizzle that fell on the area. My health hasn't been real great over the past few weeks following an asthma attack in Seattle and an increase in the frequency of the attacks over the past two weeks. I started taking some medication to bring the symptoms back under control, but the cure is as bad as the disease. As I have described before, the regimen consists of 12 pills per day that effectively render me useless beyond daily tasks. They induce insomnia, dehydration, muscle tremors and appetite suppression. I feel terrible. When I asked the doctor about exercise, she said, "don't over do it."

Regardless of this obstacle I decided to line up at the starting line with 4000 cycling enthusiasts to take part in a bike lover's ride.

Saturday, I went to T-Mosaic and collected my race pack; an assortment of swag including a water bottle, electronic race chip, socks, and energy gel. Earlier I went to Famous Bikes to pick up an early birthday present... a Garmin Edge 500 to record training stats and track my energy.

I rode the 12k from my house down to the starting line and was putting up an effortless 22mph. I figured it might be a good sign and rolled on into Changhua, where a light rain had begun to fall.

As I approached the Changhua city, riders of all type were appearing from alleyways and side roads to join a virtual convoy to the starting line.

It was great to see so many riders all together for this event despite the weather. There was a mix of road bikes and mountain bikes, with some folding and 20inch wheeled wonders in there too. Several teams showed up... but mine went home after hearing that the actual "race" component was cancelled and it would be a glorified mass-ride. I saw a few guys from our group who decided to stay and slog it out in the rain, but not many.

The start sounded and the mass of rolling humanity lurched forward into the dark wet morning. I kept my jacket on to stay warm and stuck with my plan to pace myself for a fast century ride.

I used the lead up to Bagua Shan to pass most of the field before the hill climb, which worked well as I had a pretty good run up the hills to the top of Bagua Shan. I was feeling good, and confident. I was also up near the front. I figured with nothing but flats and descents I could plod along at my typical pace at about 19-23mph and end up with a respectable finish. My goal was to make it back at around the 3:30 mark. I have averaged some pretty fast centuries, so I was optimistic.

I went into cruise control on the top of Bagua Shan to recover a bit from the climb and sit in with a small group of riders who were plugging along about the same as I was.

Then my first cramp hit. My left calf tightened up into a ball of pain and I had to unclip to shake it off. That made me increasingly concerned about my level of hydration. I typically can do very well with liquids, but with the medicine I was in desperate need. I had figured to fill at each feed station and there was one up ahead. By that time I realized it wouldn't be a banner day for me, so I took out my camera for a couple of blog shots.

The scenery in the morning was absolutely stunning. The sun provided backlight for Taiwan's central mountain range and a low gauze of fog hung over Cautun in the valley below.

I was still spinning along quite well over the little hill climb before the descent into Songboling. The slick roads with decomposed leaf debris made it too dangerous to pass anyone on the descents.

We quickly spilled through the tea town of Songboling and into the final descent. I have ridden this route a few times and was familiar enough with it to hit 37mph on the descent.

One poor bruiser of a fellow who had managed to power his way up on one of those funny 20-inch-wheel bikes, lost control on a turn and hit the deck in spectacular fashion.

I completed the descent and hammered along at 19.1mph while ducking into some pace lines and even leading for a bit... and then the wheels came flying off. Well, not literally, but at just about the half-way point I was developing a bottomless cough and my breathing felt "tight". I kept trying to clear my lungs, but they just felt full of crap. I made the hard decision to pull back to a touring pace and just breathe. I couldn't pull enough oxygen through my clogged alveoli to keep my muscles running strong.

I watched as all kinds of riders blew on past me. It was shameful, humiliating and rough. I knew where I should have been and felt awful for where I was. I hoped I would recover and get back into it.

Then I was hit with a major cramp in my left quad. This was followed by a cramp in my right quad. I dismounted to ease my legs back into shape, but almost tipped over as my right hamstring cramped up as I was unclipping. I was in total agony. I stopped at the feed stations to keep filling up on water, but I couldn't lose the sensation that any exertion over 16mph would result in a cramp. My muscles just felt dead. I couldn't summon anything out of them. Essentially, I had asked my body to perform lacking the two major ingredients-- water and oxygen. The result was an absolute physical breakdown.

At one point I dismounted to get a sport drink. My leg cramped at a 90 degree angle for 30 seconds as I propped myself up on my bike waiting for it to straighten out.

I finally slogged my defeated self into Changhua city at such a shamefully slow pace, that I didn't care. My wife was waiting for me at the finish line with a big smile and that was good enough for me.

We waited in line to collect my participation award and then I hopped back on the bike for some food before riding the 12k home. Official time: A disappointing and agonizing 4:24:18.

I will just have to get my body back into racing shape and show'em next time.

I think my face says it all.

My Tour of Changhua?

Tomorrow, bright and early, I will be riding in the "Your Tour of Changhua". The event is being sponsored by Merida Bicycles and will start with a quick climb and descent over Bagua Shan, before long sections of flats to the coast and back.

The event takes on a delightfully local flavor in the name. In Mandarin the event is called the 環化賽 (Huan Hua Sai), which, when pronounced with a Taiwanese accent, sounds like the Mandarin term for the Tour de France (環法賽). Har har har!!!

I really haven't trained in weeks and had a pretty bad asthma problem last week, so I am taking some seriously heavy drugs, but I will make a go of it and just go out to have some fun, meet some people and feel good about life.

News:

Police seize "substances" at Popovych home.

Taiwan's Hsiao Mei-yu wins bronze at Asian Games 500 meter TT.

Pirate's booty stolen! Pantani's yellow jersey lifted.

Mark V. Cruises Through Taiwan: Ride Report

While I was in Seattle I stopped by Elliot Bay Cycles and was surprised to learn that one of their employees was actually visiting Taiwan for the Bike Festival. I was pretty excited about that (as everyone with connections to Taiwan seems to when a person in a foreign country can find Taiwan on a map), bought a few things and left my contact info. The employee was Mark V. at Bikehugger.

I have to admit that I am pleased with the reports that have been coming in. Mark Blacknell, Beverly Garrity and Mark V. have all done a wonderful job giving readers their impressions of visiting, while negotiating the minefields and pitfalls associated with reporting on Taiwan, especially on a government funded junket.

Here is Mark V's report from his trip.

The only part I had any issue was this little quote:

You see a lot more of the aborginal culture in the east than you do in the other parts of Taiwan, which are heavily influenced by the Han Chinese of mainland descent.

This passage is problematic in many ways. The foremost is that it makes the typically broad assumptions about Taiwan's diverse cultural heritage and loads it with the ideological term "mainland", while further asserting that somehow "Han culture" is uniform and monolithic. This view also fails to take into account the cultural drift that has occurred on Taiwan as the result of Taiwan's unique history of administration from indigenous, Dutch, Cheng, Qing, Japanese, KMT, and constitutional ROC. Each of these structures erected and eliminated borders, shifted economies and engineered new schemes for social mobility within their program. Lastly, this little blurb follows the Chinese nationalist method of conflating concepts of "Chinese/Han" with ideas of modernity and risks linking indigenality with traditionalism.

I know this is a little issue to comment on, and I don't want to detract too much from Mark's wonderful ride report, but I do think as writers we need to be aware that we can inadvertently perpetuate the ideological language of a political program that continues to be colonial in nature.

I probably still have a bee in my bonnet over our missionary encounter last weekend.

Riding When Sick: I'm Not Woozy... I'm... A ... Princess!

The title of this post was inspired by my friend's little daughter who uttered those priceless words before passing out after getting some medicine and a shot. I still love that story as I think of her eyes rolling into her head, asleep, after declaring herself royalty. That is how I am feeling today. Woozy!

Last weekend I did my first long ride since I returned from Seattle. Periodically I have a little allergy related asthma that a little puff from an inhaler takes care of. Maybe one episode per month tops. Since that last trip it has been every day and many times per day. The inhaler lost its effectiveness and I just felt like crap.

Yesterday I had enough and made a quick appointment with the doctor for after work. I walked in immediately upon entering the hospital and was having a consultation. The doctor prescribed a set of medicine to bring everything back under control, but the side effects are not the greatest for riding. One is a steroid (DOPING), another is an antihistamine. I got a couple of other things too. The side effects are insomnia, dehydration, wooziness, light muscle tremors, possible constipation and all that goodness.

Needless to say, I will still be doing the event this weekend, but I am highly disappointed I will not be feeling very competitive. The doctor says I can ride, but not to over do it. We shall see.

Frankly, I keep dreaming of gnarly climbs and not riding in the flats. I felt so good climbing last weekend. I need more. Hopefully this will all blow over fast and I can get back to my routine. Huh!

The Road In The Air: Taiwan's "Other" Bike Movie

The hit bicycle movie, Island Etude may have served as the spark which ignited the bicycle trend that took Taiwan by storm between 2007-2009, but there was another bicycle movie that hit DVD racks about the same time. The Road in the Air was an aspiring Merchant Ivory film that never had a red carpet opening beyond the front door of the local Blockbuster, and deservedly so. Still, it is worth checking out if only for the satisfaction of seeing places you've biked depicted on film.

David's Review Of The Film

New Research May Lead To Better Cycling Routes in Taiwan

A recent paper published by two researchers from Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University seeks to improve infrastructure planning around popular cycling routes in Taiwan. The researchers analyzed survey data that divided riders by frequency (ability) and evaluated their calculous in choosing routes.

One major problem with the cycling routes the government has plotted around Taiwan has been the manner in which the routes are designed and allocated. Taiwan's cycling routes are often designed without consulting the community the routes are supposed to serve, and often lack many of the features that cyclists look for when choosing routes. Routes are designed in a top-down manner in which the central and local government mandates a route and it is built (often with political considerations in mind).

Another problem is the complete disorganization of cycling advocacy in Taiwan. There are few, if any, organized cycling advocacy groups the government can turn to for advice. It is not surprising in light of Taiwan's recent political history that Taiwan's cyclists avoid joining cycling advocacy groups that could act as a political force or may cross existing lines of political affiliation.

Click on the title for the full paper or simply read the conclusion at the bottom:

Estimating recreational cyclists’

preference on bicycle route facility

-Evidence from Taiwan

Ching-Fu Chen ,National Cheng Kung University

Pei-Chun Chen ,National Cheng Kung University

"CONCLUSION

This paper analyses recreational cyclists’ preference for attributes of bicycle route

facility in Taiwan. The SP method was conducted in which recreational cyclists were

asked to state their choice from three unlabelled bicycle routes’ alternatives on the

basis of their attributes. Choice modeling was applied to the collected data and

recreational cyclists’ preferences for each attribute are estimated. This study used

MNL model which include facility attributes and ASC interaction with recreational

specialization dimensions; the model captures the systematic heterogeneity in

recreational cyclists’ preference. Subsequently, LCM is used to account for

heterogeneity in the preference of bicycle route and facility attributes.

Empirical MNL results indicate that recreational cyclists prefer bicycle routes with

attraction along the route, basic facilities including toilet and simple maintain

equipment, tourist information center, and bike path. In addition, recreational cyclists

who have frequent participation in cycling are more likely to prefer bike route. For the

frequent recreational cyclist, bike route can provide diverse experience. Recreational

cyclists who take long time in cycling are likely to prefer restaurant service, and low

cognitive level in recreational specialization cyclists are more likely to choice leisure

route.

Using LCM with segment membership functions for predicting segment

membership of recreational cyclists, it allows for explicit identification of recreational

specialization concept. Moreover, LCM also improves the model fit to the data, and

allows for testing the impact of recreational specialization variable on segment

membership. As a result, high recreational specialization cyclists are more likely than

low recreational specialization cyclists to choice challenge and endurance grading

route.

From a managerial perspective, bicycle route should be classified according to

different group of recreational cyclist, for instance, riding experience, distance, slope,

etc. In addition, base on safety conscious, roadway type is very important attribute to

consider bicycle route. Bicycle path is separate from general roadway that cyclists can

use exclusively route. It can improve safety considerations for barriers to bicycle use.

From a long term perspective, increasing the number of recreational cyclists would

contribute to efforts to increase the number of commuting cyclists."

Also:

• Check out Bevco's impressions of her Taiwan Bike Festival trip.
• Wallstreet's laws for hit and run. Fund manager gets off on hitting cyclist.
• Mark Blacknell writes on Taiwan's cycling infrastructure.