My ride started out like this
https://youtu.be/v45VTqLziyY
Then, I smelt a waft of dead animal of some kind and almost lost my breaky so, this
https://youtu.be/-NbFaZcWI4Q
and ended with this
https://youtu.be/0EudoLTRBWQ
great ride today.
Ranlee and Oko keep on keepin that mountain tall
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So…weather man wasn’t really on point with his weather predictions. Originally was going to be a rained out weekend turned out to be a rained out Dragon Boat Festival.
We had a good group of guys on Sunday including an old friend I met here on the forums that was in Taiwan for a business trip, guys from the cycling group I ride with and @okonomiyaki . @Liub was supposed to make it, but had a good excuse.
I usually don’t clash my local friends with expat/foreigner friends on rides because I personally don’t want to be stuck translating or having anyone left out if they didn’t speak the language, but this time the more the merrier. It’s a coffee ride after all…right?
Initially, I had planned to only do one peak of Xi Wan Road in Xizhi and have coffee, but turns out, old friend (who we thought only wanted to do one) wanted to do one more after coffee. Lucky us, it was feasible with the drastic change from gloomy weather to clear blue skies. Half the group left after coffee and the other half headed up towards Feng Gui Zui via Jian Nan Road.
Here’s two pictures, that, I shit you not, were taken in the same morning within a span of 730AM-12PM
2.5 hours later…
I hope you guys got out for a nice ride and dodged the rain!
It seems that everybody is doing great, hard rides but me. This is a bit depressing, it’s like everyone’s advancing and I’m stuck or even going backwards. Indeed, the other day a friend (ex) told me she made it all the way up to HHS from the north (well, starting at Nan Shan, like 87 kms from HHS). I’m not sure if I would be able to make it these days, TBH.
Maybe because of that when I went to ride the other day to a big park in my country, with lots of trails and so, I kinda felt good when the fools in front of me crashed. I was faster and more agile than them, despite all their flashy and expensive bikes and gear. I tried to pass them but it wasn’t a good segment for that, because it was kinda narrow… so I gave them a bit of room and waited for a better chance to make them eat my dust. Dunno if they got nervous or what (the one who was leading wasn’t aware of me probably), but they were doing their best I guess. Anyway the first guy went to the ground and the one in front of me tried to brake and ended up flying over the handlebar and onto the first one. I stand still on my bike, and looked at them and showed some interest on their health condition “are you OK? oops, that looks bad! does it hurt?”. And “how did it happen??”
The first guy was like “gnnppffffff” and the second guy told me that it was his friend’s first day riding. Not sure if he was just kidding, or being ironic, or what, but the friend’s clothes and the worn tyres told me otherwise.
So I took off and told them to take it easy or perhaps be careful.
OK, I’m trying to sound more of an asshole than what I actually was, but there was a bit of satisfaction on seeing slower people clumsier on the trails.
Later on I almost crashed myself in a tricky slope, even skidding on my front tyre when braking downhill. Dunno how I made it safe, but I kinda controlled the small situation.
Anyway, it was fun, but I didn’t put more than 50km, which is lame if compared with the 80 km my friend had put on a much steeper and harder ride. Come on, she’s 24 and supposedly I was stronger than her…
I think I need to do more long, epic rides.
I will post later some pictures on how to pick up good soil for your home plants.
Don’t ever think this. There’s so many factors in which one can or cannot do long rides and there’s always always going to be someone doing longer, harder and more epic rides than you.
What’s really important is, going out to ride, enjoying the ride and getting back home safe.
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Haven’t done much of that either xD
Last time I checked, you were doing a fair amount of riding on your vacation.
If you’re replying here, that means you got home safe.
Enjoyment of the ride is obviously a personal opinion, so I can’t comment on that, but at least you got to ride!
Bhffgf
!
Get her dirty !
Usually she’s dirty in the down parts. !
Put her in the shower. Make it hot. !
A lot of precious mud will come out. !
Dirty water! !
!
!
!
Get her dirty !
Usually she’s dirty in the down parts. !
Put her in the shower. Make it hot. !
A lot of precious mud will come out. !
Dirty water! !
!
!
!
Don’t they have water hoses on the outside of apartments/hotels/buildings that can spray a dirty bike?
Whose bathtub did you just help to clog up a bit? 
Nah… I used a thin cloth for covering the drain. So small particles might have gone down the pipe, but since the big ones were trapped no damage should have happened. It took hours to empty the tub.
I tried to find a place where to use a hose but I couldn’t, and I was in a rush. A good hot shower does miracles 
I’m sure the bike felt very relaxed afterwards. 
She deserved it.
Yesterday, I re-visited Wuling. This time, from Hualien.
For race prep, a lot of things did not go the way I planned, but despite the poor prep, I was pretty happy with my finish time.
We started right near the beach and despite starting early, we didn’t get a chance to see the sun creep up. Still a nice view to see in the morning.
I went into the race with pretty tight muscles and despite a quick stretch at each rest stop, I had a really really hard time getting the legs to wake the f up. Eventually, they never did.
I had a rough time from the gorge entrance all the way to Xin Bai Yang. There, I took a breather and had a chat with some familiar faces. From Xin Bai Yang to Bilu Tree, I was feeling much better and took off with a guy from the UK, who happened to know a few of my cycling friends. We chatted all the way to Guan Yin before the downhills. From there on, it was a solo battle between me, weak ass legs and altitude sickness.
Right from Da Yu Ling, standing up and riding out of the saddle had me immediately feel dizzy, so I had to take a lot of the steep sections in the saddle. Something I’m not very used to. I emerged from the final downhill thinking the last bit I could run my fuel and go into the red, but I didn’t even have the strength to do so! No walking for me, but I did take a breather against the rail 200m distance from the finish.
It was actually a bit on the cloudy side at the top, so tough to get a nice pic of either side of the mountain. I stuck to pics of the bike instead.
Congrats to @okonomiyaki , who finally got the chance to ride Taroko/Wuling and also finished first on the team. He said the last 15km starting at DaYuLing was not fun, but I beg to differ.
Until next time.
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Sorry for the double post, but I forgot that yesterday, despite the registration number for the race not being very high, it was quite an eventful (and emotional day).
Last year, a Japanese cyclist came to participate in the same event and unfortunately, due to heavy amounts of rain and a shit ton of bad luck, he got hit by falling rocks in the gorge and passed at Tzu Chi hospital in Hualien.
This year, his dad came to participate in the race to commemorate his memory. He thanked the hospitality and warmth from Taiwanese cyclists that he and his family received after the death of his son and gave a short speech before we got on our way.
It wasn’t the first thing I want to hear at 5:30AM, but it was good to see that the organization did go out of their way to invite (or accommodate?) the father to come and speak.
Feelsbadman… 8(
Ok wait, the dad didn’t actually participate in the race (it would’ve been pretty damn epic if he did), but he was more of a guest of honor.
“I’ll complete the race to honor the memory of my son!” → gets hit by a rock
I wholeheartedly agree with his decision of not participating in the race.
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It would’ve been nice if he was giving his speech a the top. His speech before the start kind of reminded me that any of us could’ve been hit by a rock during this event. Well…his speech was then overshadowed by the pretties on the line…
who’s the giant around the third row?
a head above the rest.
Hahaha, after posting the pic, I did realize he’s does stick out like a sore thumb.
There were some other foreigners in the race, but a lined up a bit farther back.