Erased!!!!

Nathaniel Miller said:

Check out who came to my local bike shop, just around the corner from where I live. Rui Costa, doing a promotion for Merida. My son is wondering what the deal is with flash bulbs and crowds. Either that or he's pooping.

Hey Everyone,

I just returned from an amazing trip to Taiwan, visiting my brother and his family who live in Taipei.  It was certainly great to visit family and a new country, but as this is a cycling forum, I will skip boring parts and get right to the biking details ...

Of the 8 days I was there, 4 of them were dedicated to riding. Taipei is certainly a chaotic city and makes NYC appear relatively tame.  On the first and fourth days we headed out of my brother’s front door fighting for space amongst the pedestrians, mopeds, cars, buses and trucks.  Anywhere there was dedicated flat terrain, we were in traffic, however, once we started climbing, the traffic didn’t follow us and we essentially had the roads to ourselves. There were dedicated climbs north of his apartment, with one of them topping out at ~3,400 ft (Mt Datun).  The view of Taipei was striking (OK, the view would have been striking, but the air quality during the week wasn’t the best … so I had to leave it to my imagination).

We also did an in/out ride.  On the second day, we spent the first 12 miles on a wonderful bike path that ran along the Tamsui River, and headed south through Shiding, stopped in Pinglin for lunch, then along carless roads to Gongliao for the evening.  The third day, We travelled from Gongliao north along the coastline then climbed to Jiufen for lunch.  A huge descent followed by another long steady climb and accompanying descent into Pingxi, the host of annual lantern festivals in the country.  We then climbed back to the Taipei and rode to Tamsui River bike path back to his home.  We had consumed enough noodles and rice the following 6 meals that I needed a break, so we made the most of American dinners and headed to Chili’s that evening.

Except for the first day, each day was at least 62.13 miles of riding and of the 240 total miles we rode, we did 22,500 ft of climbing.  And while some of the roads were vertical walls, other climbs were rollers, or as my brother would like to call them, “stingers”.  The joy of the climbs were followed by amazing descents with what felt line never-ending switchbacks.  The remoteness of the roads meant the roads were virtually carless.  Each switchback however had large mirrors installed so you could gauge whether or not a car was coming. 

While I didn’t go to Taiwan thinking this would be a cyclists’ dream, I certainly left with that impression.  The only drawback in my opinion is the air quality and the difficult time change (12 hrs ahead of EST).  In fact, we opted not to ride one of the days because it was too smoggy.  My brother noted the best months for air quality are between September - December.  The jet lag wasn’t that bad actually as we consistently exhausted ourselves during the day that sleeping through the evening was the only option.

Other than that, however, I would go back to Taiwan for a cycling trip in a hot second.  The climbing and downhills are both insanely tiring and fun … don’t even think of bringing a cassette smaller than 28.  The roads and bike baths were quite well maintained, even the most rural of roads.  The culture is very open and friendly to cyclists.  While I’d say that Taiwan isn’t known for its architectural delights, once outside the city and villages, you were surrounded by green mountains, streams and rivers. And the local food was fantastic.  Bits of street food at times gave us a needed kick to keep pressing through.  Did I also say the country us relatively inexpensive and there is a daily direct flight from JFK to Taipei?  Finally, many thanks to Redbeard for the bike bag loan. EVA Air charged me $0.00 for my bike both there and back.

Here are a a few pictures.  If you'd like a google earth file of my rides, shoot me a note (they won't upload here)  If Taiwan is of your interest, I’m happy to discuss further.  I will definitely head back in the near future.

Bruce van-Schalkwyk said:

That sounds like a great trip, though maybe a bit far for a cycling camp.  But authentic noodles without a 45 minute Brooklyn wait sounds like a good deal.
Any chance you picked up some 'in-house' carbon wheels, or a frame that may or may not look like a Pinarello?

SeanMiles said:

Nice Jules, speaking of Kissenas around the world. I'll be in San Diego and rented a bike (TCR Advanced no less to keep sponsor correct) this Saturday the 30th through the 4th of August if anyone is around/ knows of any ex KCCers who live out there??