30th April‐ 4th May 2010
After the last re‐group next to the high point of Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in central Taiwan and a final group photo. We continue our last 10km to the superb five stars Fleur De Chine hotel located on a small hill feature within the Sun Moon Lake district to enjoy our hot SPA, lunch and celebrate our achievement of consecutive four days of central Cross Island cycling from Taipei (台北) to Taichung (台中) before heading back to Taipei.
Originally intended training ride to prepare a small group of four riders for the upcoming Etape 2010 in July in France Alp, this eventually turned out with thirteen cyclists from eight countries (America; England; Germany; Hong Kong; Indonesia; Japan; Scotland and Singapore) coming together for this Taiwan central cross island ride. [Ed: Our heroes were: Alan Cannon, Larry Sperling, Peter Downs, Hadisan Sridjaja, Otto Rusil, Lee Hoi Ming, Mayumi Morihiro & Yoshitaka Ichikawa, Martin & Madelaine Roennebeck, Alvin Goh, David Newlands and yours truly.]
The 4-day ride included a warm up ride; two days high intensive climb and a recovery ride on the last day covering a total distance of 400km, including 7,000m climb. Some of us soon found out that the route was meant for the expert level, and was not for the faint hearted cyclist. Take for example the warm up ride involved climb up to 1400m. Our original cravings for good Taiwanese feast; massage and to enjoy the beautiful Taipei scenery were swiftly replaced and overwhelm with the pain from the endless climb…..Ha!
- The Negotiator Nicky
Read on for Nicky's excellent PDF article here.
