I never sleep well before a big ride. It happened before doing “The hand” and also before going to Toucheng. This was not an exception. The problem was that this time I couldn’t make an early start, and I paid for it later. It was 7:20 am already when I jumped on the bike, at least one hour later than ideal.
By the time I was around Dingbu, it was very hot already. Plus I was quite uncomfortable from the slow digestion I was having. I could not eat anything before Sanxia, where I forced my body to finish a nocciola sandwich.
The climb and descent of the 7乙 road was a bit of a hell. Literally. My bike computer was showing 42 °C and I had to stop in Sanmin to cool down and to drink cold water inside a Hilife. After around 40 minutes I felt ready (actually I wasn’t ready but I had no more time to lose) to keep going. I still had another 10-15 km of very hot weather, but after that the mountains and the altitude made their part and everything was much better regarding temperature. Also the traffic improved once I left the Shimen Reservoir behind.
Highway 7 is a constant up and down (with more ups than downs). As we say in Spain, it is a bit “pestosa” and “rompepiernas”. But I was happy to be there riding on a Tuesday, on a mostly empty road. Then I took the Yufeng Road to head West, towards Hsinchu and the big climb of the day.
I have to admit that I stopped just before Mamei Road to consider whether or not to climb it, or to stay in Yufeng Road for a less brutal climb. I knew these two roads from driving them a few years ago, and of course from planning the cycling route. I was very tired and absolutely convinced that I wouldn’t be able to climb Mamei Road without walking a significant part of it. On the other hand, Yufeng Road is not a walk in the park either. What convinced me was that Yufeng Road was under maintenance works and I already rode a section of it through relatively fresh and sticky asphalt. I didn’t know how it was going to be further away and I didn’t want to ruin my tires or, even worse, my frame. So, brutal climb it was.
https://www.strava.com/segments/2354752
9 km at 9% and in Komoot it has a quite long section at 30%. After 90 km and more than 1000 m of elevation, my plan was clear: 30-40, zig-zag and to ride as slowly as physically possible.
I followed my plan and I am happy to say that I only had to stop a few times to eat. During these 9 km I ate as much as during the previous 90 km. Of course, these refueling stops also allowed me to rest a bit before continuing. Actually, I lied before, I walked, or should I say I crawled, a super steep short section (no more than 30 m) of very wet concrete covered with moss and wet leaves. I didn’t want to risk a crash due to losing traction and not being able to unclip on time (one of my specialties) in a remote area without phone signal. Luckily, there wasn’t any crazy 30% long section as Komoot says.
My wife took a train with our daughter to Hsinchu, so we could spend the night in a hotel and then come back to Taipei the day after. I did most of the Mamei Road convinced that I was going to spend the night in a room in the mountains, while they were in a hotel in Hsinchu. I only had one hour left of sun by the time I made it to Yulao Lookout. After talking to my wife I decided to start descending to try to make it to Hsinchu. As usual in the area, fog was intense for the first kilometers of the descent. By the time I made it to Neiwan, it was dark already. Since I had lights (one front and two rears) and the roads had some lightning, I decided to take the risk and to descend all the way to Hsinchu. It was almost 8 pm when I finally arrived at the hotel for a well deserved shower and dinner.
156.14 km and 2,410 m for my longest ride ever.
Notes about Mamei Road:
From East to West, the first few km (maybe a bit more than half the climb) it has a good asphalt surface. After that, it is rough concrete. Moreover, in the higher and flatter section some parts are more a dirt road than anything. I would not recommend cycling this road from West to East, at least not with a road bike (a gravel or a MTB with bigger tires should be fine), because the first part of the descent will be a very steep, rough and probably wet and slippery concrete road.
Cycling friendly trains!
. Wanted to leave at 6:00 but was too tired so left around 7:30 and just returned (after waiting for ages for my dinner…).
Besides, I was short of time and I barely took photos.
but yeah, give yourself some credit, do an amount that you enjoy and know what is enough.
, a half-marathon distance. I hadn’t trained for such an event, I was feeling utterly shattered at the time generally, but as the girl who asked me to do it with I was madly in love with I agreed. By the end, we hated each other, and I don’t think I spoke to her again after that. Good riddance.