Grim, it’s grey and horrible here. Buy more expensive unnecessary cycling products, that encourage you to get out.
Julian’s run of bad luck continues, firstly the early victory salute in the photo, not only was be beaten, but also relegated for failing to ride in a straight line, and then yesterday he breaks one of them hands after failing to see a moto in front in Flanders.
Oh bugger. He was a favourite too.
Certainly a favourite of mine.
Yes, probably just random. Story is that Simon Yates tested positive in the first week some time, and then a few days later several staff in the team, so they withdrew. Them and Jumbo-Visma, although not sure if there was any spread between those teams.
Really sucks to see a whole team have to leave, but at least they are taking the right precautions.
Finally got out on the bike again, for the first time in three weeks! Felt … um, well, actually, the way I’m walking right now, perhaps it didn’t feel that good! Up and around in the Danshui, Sanzhi, and Shimen hills. The ride itself was mostly good, even if my legs are suffering now.
The hills were showing these weeks of rain. Some of the backroads were covered with leaves and debris. I descended more slowly because skidding out seemed more of a threat - and there were a few too many “ke-krunch” moments over twigs that turned out to be branches that sure didn’t feel good for the tires.
I started and stopped riding in the hills many times over the years, before finally starting to do it consistently this past year. Today was a reminder of why I had so much trouble developing the habit: on the way back down, around 11am, phew, too busy on the main roads, not fun. Those early starts of summer at least have me avoiding the more crowded times of the day - it looked like there were a bunch of temple things going on today.
My new toy is an Apple Watch, and today was the first time I’ve monitored my heart rate while riding (and it was far deeper into my supposed training zone heart rate than I expected, FWIW). I need to figure out how to do this properly … I recorded the ride with Apple’s Workouts app on the watch, AND with Strava on my iPhone. “Syncing” in fact led to two rides - Strava tells me it was a group ride, and I guess I’ll have to delete one. So … OK, the Apple Watch gives me heart rate data and the route and Strava later figures out the segments - but the Apple Watch won’t recognize when I’ve stopped riding. I need to figure out if I can get a recording that includes heart rate information AND will recognize when the ride has paused. Right now the “heart-rate ride” has a much lower average speed than the other one, and that’s not what I want!
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I stayed away from those kinds of roads this weekend.
Let’s hope the weather holds up and we can do a bit more sharing. October was supposed to be glorious, but had 3 full weeks of nonstop rain in Taipei.
Cycling computer + heart rate monitor solves your issues! 4000-6000NT can get you a decent computer with Bluetooth to connect with your phone and ANT+ for your heart rate and speed sensors.
I never liked relying on my phone for GPS, you never know when you have an accident mid ride and you are eating up your phones battery and do not have enough for a few emergency phone calls.
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FIFY. There’s still 5 days left, and they’re looking nice. 
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+1 to finally having some good weather! I managed to do a little YMS loop going up to LengShuiKeng and then down XingYi rd, it was great to be outside.
I did however end up discovering this crazy segment - https://www.strava.com/segments/774526
I didn’t pay attention when creating the route so somehow this was used to get over towards Xingyi rd. There’s no way (at least for me) to safely descend this road, it’s crazy steep and super narrow - more like a paved hiking trail. I ended up walking down (which also was a bit of a challenge as well).
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One of the steepest “roads” in Taipei. It’s difficulty lies 100% in the width of the road. Going down that after weeks of rain is a feat on its own.
Doesn’t route creation give you the most traveled route? How was Goat Road even considered? 537 Attempts By 306 People, is nothing compared to the main roads to and from Xingyi.
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Yeah - it’s insane. Even the road just getting to this is super steep, there was no way I was going back (at least on the bike).
I used the Garmin web app to make the route. I think what happened was I had a pre-existing route that went up via the LengShuiKeng climb, but down via BaLaKa. I just hastily dragged the route to XingYi right before leaving without double checking.
It’s still crazy that the Garmin app would even suggest this though. It seems to use the road any time you try to loop around towards XingYi, even with “popularity routing”:
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Popular…amongst crazy people. 
Wow. How did I not know about this little goat track? I thought i had them all ticked off…
Windy but otherwise perfect.
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I commuted to work today and have the same thought.
A bit on the windy side, but can’t complain!
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Nice report, albeit it kind of ends abruptly with only 1 paragraph covering the last 70km.
Sweet anecdote how Ebsen won the KOM in 2012, went to local cafe to celebrate, and fell in love/married a local lass.
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First ride in over four weeks. How did it feel? Surprisingly good. It was good to get back in the saddle and also to head up and away from Taipei (at least it always feels that way to me). Much better time than I expected for this mountain. I’m two kilos heavier since Wuling but my legs felt good the whole way up. I plan to continue with these short rides this winter.
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Nice to see that you stick to your former bike
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I really don’t ride enough to justify buying a new one. And I’m not that good. I would actually feel embarrassed on an expensive bike. I do sometimes wish for a slightly better one, though!
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