2023 Tour de Taiwan

Another year, another deception.

The stage in Taipei is the same joke as usual.

https://www.tourdetaiwan.org.tw/index.aspx

it’d be more interesting if they had to grab their water and fuel at convenience stores along the route just like everyone does and use MRT card as payment

3 Likes

I’d be more curious about if cyclist nerd to share the road woth cars…

1 Like

added bonus is that the tour riders must share road with morning scooter commuters

1 Like

Is stage 1 a crit race?

I’ve been watching the race in person for the past 3 years and there’s been in improvements on police and traffic control blocking off the small roads so people don’t cut across.

Honestly, it’s better than nothing and at least we have a UCI sanctioned race in Taiwan, for some of us that live in Taipei, it’s at our doorstep. Just waiting for the day they have the KOM route or anything in the east coast as a stage.

1 Like

It’s a circuit on Ren Ai. Taipei City Hall down to Presidential building (and back).

One small question, because I have never been to any stage of the ToT: For the Taipei stage, is the event just the race or is there some more fun for spectators? For example: exhibitions, stores, fun sponsor activities. I was a volunteer at the Tour of Japan in Sakai some years ago, and I remember they had lots of cool activities open to the public. (I would also like to buy some merchandising)

1 Like

Even if it’s just a 5% of what cycling stages are in Europe, it should have some of what you said. Especially given how compact the stage is. Everyone will be in the same place.

2 Likes

Coming down Jiannan Rd today saw a pack of foreign riders going up. Looks like they were here for the tour. Later saw a different pack on the river trail near the Grand Hotel.

Checking my Strava feed found out one of the team I saw was “Maloja Pushbikers”.
One of the rider is Patrick ReiBig. https://www.strava.com/activities/8693965458
The team going up Jiannan was Hrinkow Advarics .
https://www.strava.com/activities/8694034352

1 Like

It’s a prologue. Not sure what your problem is. Prologues on city circuits are very common in Europe.

That said this may be the first year in forever I can’t be bothered shooting it.

No, it is not a prologue. Prologues are usually very short time trials. This is a short stage (88.55km) in a very short and boring circuit. And it’s always the same kind of stage in Taipei. As if Taipei area doesn’t have any interesting road for a race.

It’s, again, a missed opportunity to promote Taipei.

I would respectfully disagree. If you’re going to promote the city of Taipei, what better way than to ride in the heart of the city from one landmark to the other. You’d also get the most amount of spectators.

I would argue YMS would be great, but mountain road would be a nightmare with all the small roads that could leak grannies on 50cc scoots onto the race course.

Actually in Chinese they call it a criterion (繞圈賽) and there are sprint primes in it.

I dunno it’s still a better watch than some of the other stages. They really need to take the race up some big mountains.

In case you don’t read to the end (sorry for the rant): do you know where to watch the race on TV (MOD) or streaming?

I don’t know anyone from the organization or how they work. I’d say they want to make the best possible race, at least most of them (there’s always people who just want the easiest work), but the lack of support from the authorities and the lack of support from big sponsors (most of them are cycling related) makes it impossible. So, my criticism is not towards the organizer (if in fact they want to design better stages) but the way Taiwan handles sports, and traffic. Because private traffic is sacrosanct and cannot be disrupted, not by a race, not by pollution events (they don’t even conceive to suggest people to leave the car/scooter at home in case of high pollution, no, “stay at home if you’re sensitive and wear a mask” is all they do).

I’m not asking that every stage should be an epic mountain stage, I’ve been watching pro cycling since the 80’s, I know how it works. But, given the orography of Taiwan, an epic mountain stage every once in a while would only make sense. I can’t remember any, but please correct me if I’m wrong because once I saw how this race was in my first years in Taiwan, I kind of stopped tracking it.

Let’s be honest, Taipei is not Paris and Renai Road is not Champs Elysees. And everyone in the world knows Taiwan has highly dense cities, and the spectators of cycling races are usually more interested in mountain or countryside scenery than big cities and skyscrapers. Again, my problem is that it is always the same stage in Taipei.

You know there are many roads around Taipei with little to no traffic and not many intersections. There are lots of cycling races in highly populated areas with complex road networks organized every year in the world. And many people living and driving in those areas don’t give a damn thing about bikes either. And, who knows? It could be a good training exercice for Taiwan police: actually enforcing rules and handling traffic for once.

Again, my money is in that authorities have zero interest in supporting sport events, especially a sport that disrupts some roads for some hours. It may also be another stupid political competition between Taipei/New Taipei and they don’t want to share the stage.

Also, lack of experience in handling races cannot be an excuse. Because if experience is the excuse to not doing something, how do you gain that experience?

But, intermediate sprints are normal in cycling stages. They are the main source of points for the points jerseys.

2 Likes
1 Like

In my opinion social media combined with ToT could increase the exposure of cycling to promote positive awareness of the activity in the minds of the public. IOW make it more safe for cyclists throughout Taiwan. Traffic safety is one of the low points to living here. Anything that can raise traffic safety for cyclists should be encouraged. E.g. software that disables viewing cell phone use while moving. More CCTV traffic and acoustic cameras. Increasing traffic law enforcement and fines.

I enjoyed the last kms of this stage. I actually cycled the same roads in December, just slower. Victory for a Spanish rider!

1 Like

I mean, you kind of nail it where we know the org can do so much more, but it just doesn’t. That’s the Taiwanese dilemma of chabuduo-ism for you. “We have a UCI sanctioned race in Taiwan. Goal met. Let’s not improve”

The great example of an international event that did well in Taiwan was the university world games in 2017.

But the tragedy of that was that the public didn’t get behind it until way too late. They saw some great track and field performances on the news and turned up on the last night by which time Taiwan had no medal chances.