Hmm, maybe that’s one I remember. Hard to tell. A bunch of roads that look like that have been a mix of fun and fear in the past couple of years.
I do enjoy that Google Maps shot - almost like an X-Files clue, with the ghost car in the roadside mirror.
Going up Pingjing st this morning around 8am I saw a very large group of waiguoren all in the same pink kit stopped right in front of the police/sheriff’s station which is a popular rest/meetup spot for group rides it seems. Even minus that group today, it was the most amount of waiguoren i’ve seen out on a ride. 
Must be the same group. It was 9:30 when I saw them.
That’s why I stay away from any of these spots on weekends and holidays … luckily I can do them other days.
Bikingreen treated me to a free set of 30-46 chainrings for my force 22 crank! I’m the beta tester, first set produced. Most fast people seem to stick to compact cranksets. But before I hit 4.6w/kg FTP or higher I will stick to biking green. It’s shifting so smooth, way better than SRAM 30-43 and way lighter. Should be pretty durable too, they use high quality steel coating (though I really would like that golden SRAM coating, that’s hard as fuck).
Yeehaa, feels much faster now, is much faster. Dropped over 120g too. Those SRAM chainrings are dead heavy and don’t even shift as well as the biking green ones.
Had a group ride up zhongshingling, Taichungs most popular climb. Haha but I believed we go to the second 7-11 and as I knew that’s close to 30 minutes I went for 30 minutes all in. New wattage 264w.
Had a high school student sucking my wind shadow half the way only to drop me then (that kid is on national team AFAIK and one of the best climbers once it’s steep as fuck due to his light weight, on the podium of the 136 climb just a couple seconds off John Ebsen)… Bad form even though I signalled him to go ahead in the wind.
Somehow the second 7-11 KOM didn’t register… Even though I made a dangerous drive in and out the parking lot with a car parking in same time 
Next time I force that kid to go ahead In the lower flat part, see if he drops me then as easily 
.
Damn that ride killed me literally. Cannot sleep since 3 hours and my stress level is still at 85. Had fever for an hour and muscle pain… seems it is better now hope I can sleep soon … my heart rate is still at 90 … usually after hard Sport it would drop to 60 within 3-4 hours. And RHR is 45-60 depending on training volume. 45 if I take 2 days break (break lately means like 1 hour of sport like gym for me)… I think I rode around too long after that 30 minutes effort while freezing a bit. Had no jacket and tonight it dropped to 20 quickly (had to bring a friend some things so it was like 35km after the max effort). My heart rate was above 95% for 16 minutes, 28 minutes all together minutes over 90%
Don’t know why this it tagged with “Taitung”. But anyway.
50km, Danshui to Banqiao thereabouts and return. Caught some of the high UV sunshine and feeling it a bit now.
On Youbike
They should release YouBike 2.0 with sunshade, sounds like it’s vital for summer rides
Did my standard ride today, uncommon day of sunshine here in the UK. Spring is arriving late, it feels like.
I’ve noticed recently when i get back from a ride, even though its only an hour or so, my shoulders and elbows ache pretty badly. I assume this must be some kind of fit problem?
One of those for the rain would be my DREAM. With that, I would never have to commute by bus, even when it’s pouring outside.
I realized after a few years of commuting in Taiwan that rain does not really matter that much in the hot months at least. As long as you can have a shower and fresh clothes when you get to work. Which I could.
And then suffer for two minutes getting back into wet kit on your way home later. After that there’s no worries.
Until you get home and realize you need a whole week of fresh kit. But I’d recommend not waiting a week to wash as the mold does get in. Hot wash within an hour of getting home.
I’d ride shirtless, where I could and if its warm enough. It’s really refreshing, your kit stays dry, and you can probably skip the shower. Skin dries fast when you are up to operating temp as well.
Epic ride today… 5:32 from my home in Xitun to taichung district highest accessible road (2940m) via dakeng, so 3100m climbing and 84km at 159watts average or 164 watt normalized power (there is a 20minutes descent from zhongxinlin).
Then after enjoying the sun and first time getting into daxuesheng visitor center, decided it’s gonna be 200km 4000m climbing and rode up again 10km 380m from dongshi, and again 270m and 8km at dakeng.
First ate a full meal in dongshi, then another really big one in dakeng. And then dessert after being home… Phone died in the end, I always use it with jepster as Bike computer, and even though it was mainly in airplane mode it didn’t survive the day…
Really loving my 30/46 bikingreen chainrings. I improved by 40 minutes vs 1 month ago on the climb to daxueshan end of main road at similar heart rate, at least half is due to me being able to always ride at 80rpm or higher while sitting. Needed to stand for maybe 10-15 minutes only in order to keep up Cadence.
In order to ride a normal compact chainrings crankset i would need over 4.3w/kg FTP on my usual ascents. Or something like 5w/kg FTP to stay in zone 2… Well that also means I could really still use a 11-36 cassette so I can ride the mountains around Taichung in relaxed pace while keeping 80rpm or higher. I aim to ride at 90-95 but yeah 80 is good enough to not burn out after an hour.
I got a chance to visit the beautiful easy coast this past weekend with the cycling group. Even though relatively flat routes aren’t really my cup of tea, it’s still great to head out with the club and help many ride the route(s) for the first time.
Not many were concerned that CoVID was blowing up as this year we saw over 1,000 cyclists at the start line in Hualien.
Day 1 was Hualien to Taidong 170km along the coast and relatively the same distance the second day when we rode back to Hualien in the ravine.
I ended both days with the infamous 500cal mocha frappuccino.
Weather was spectacular despite the hilarious tan lines on my face from my helmet strap. Luckily I have no meetings with customers this week. 
Perfect cycling weather is upon us! Hope everyone is getting out to enjoy it before it gets stupid hot.
You look pretty beat there. Nice helmet!
Based on my ride yesterday, we may already be finished with the perfect cycling weather.
Not yet stupid hot - but warmer than I’d like. And, ouch, that feeling of sweat and sunscreen dripping into the eyes.
I was really happy to start riding early enough to nearly make it to the forest before the clouds disappeared. I don’t even bother to use sunscreen while riding in the heat. It’s sweat away soon anyhow. I do wear a baseball cap below my helmet if the sun is strong.
Arms ans legs are used to the sun without ever getting sunburned even though I’m blonde.
But yeah temperatures are rising so it’s mainly high altitude or at night/morning now.
My performance plummets in the heat. If it’s hot enough my girlfriend will be faster than me even though usually I’m at least 20-30% faster…
And for those who like a rough ride, Paris-Roubaix is on this Sunday.
I saw this tandem group today in Hongshulin station.
Everyone was in the bathroom, hence why so many tandems and so few riders.
I’m now wondering about tandem toilet design, and I wish I could get that out of my head.
Last summer I liked starting early.
5:30 or 6am.
Trying to reach cover before 10am or 11 at absolute latest.
3pm earliest but liked 4pm start again.
My problem was keeping myself occupied, cool, suitably relaxed, for 4-6 hours in the middle of the day at some tiny spot somewhere in Taiwan.
