gorgeous gorge

monday 11.07.11

the weather had been nice for the first week, now it was turning rainy, putting a damper, so to speak, on our biking. we were heading to taroko gorge national park for a day of riding but nobody wanted to climb the roads in the damp. instead we drove to the top and as we were getting ready the rain started again. this is what the ground looked like after picking up a bike. we took this as a sign from the biking gods that all is well, and took off in a light rain....going very slowly.

taroko gorge is one of those not to be missed, eye poppingly beautiful natural wonders. taiwan is loaded with them in it's 12 national parks. we rode down in the warm, wet air for about 12 miles, stopping frequently for another breath-taking photo op.

 this is is a very crowded park with tourist buses, loaded mostly with visitors from mainland china, clogging the roads and parking areas.

thus, riding our bikes was sometimes a little hazardous, you might say. not because of any overt hostility on the part of the drivers, we felt none of that the entire trip, but because the road is very narrow, often morphing into a single lane.


rocks are constantly falling from the tunneling and landslides are frequent. we were delayed by a rockslide on the road that occurred only minutes before we got to that spot, and had to wait while equipment was brought in and cleared it.

believe it!

our "slide" (lily's term for riding downhill)  from the top was fun. along the way we stopped for a toilet break and i dropped my gloves in the urinal when 2 chinese women suddenly popped out of the toilets in front of me just as i was easing on up to a urinal. i wonder what they were giggling about?

at the bottom i bought a "sweet apple" from a street vendor and we all shared in this tasty sweet surprise before boarding our bus for a 6 hour ride north.

along the way we stopped for lunch at an aborignal amis restaurant and art center that lily knew. fantastic - both the food and art. and both were made by the same person, an extraordinary women with a huge smile. sorry no picture of her, her food instead. superior meal, wish you were there.

we sat on this artwork

hot rock soup

race day

sunday, 11.06.11. race day. 

our press bus was waiting outside the hotel to take us to the starting line at 9 am. we hung around interviewing racers, taking photos and watching them get ready for the 10 am start. the international teams were introduced and brought on stage, again. this being the fourth time these guys had to go thru this process. that's the life of a pro racer at an invitational event, where they are paid to show up, be available for public events and race. giant brought some members of their european rabbobank team to compete in the taiwan cup.

there were a number of local taiwanese teams, not all at pro level, in the event, as well as the international pros. one interesting local team were these guys i shot taking a smoke break. yes, 2 members of the gbike team were smoking when i walked up and took their picture. you can see they gave me thumbs up.

while the race was on our group went into downtown hulien for lunch, eating at a local dumpling shop. after lunch we went back to the race, visiting the vendor's booths and road testing the fleet of bicycles giant brogught to the event. i rode 2 of the carbon fiber bikes and fell in love. they were both very smooth riding, xlnt handling machines.

two of our group wanted to buy bikes there, but things didn't work out. prices are about 1/3 lower and i looked into getting an anthem x 29er, but the salesman at the giant bike shop told me they don't get 29ers in taiwan - the people are too small! it's true.

the finish was pretty exciting as 4 riders were bunched together sprinting up to the finish line. the winner was a 23 year japanese racer from the shimano team. he really pulled out all the stops at the end, after an intense hot and muggy 125 miles. he finished in 4 hours, 47 minutes, pretty incredible. a local team did get 3rd place on the podium and the kom (king of the mountain - best climber

 here's a picture of the winner with lily our guide. she was with us virtually every waking hour providing non-stop info on taiwan, the culture, foods, the metro, bikeways, you name it - she knew it. she was also a very sweet, easy going person.

after the race we had a rest period, yes, just like camp. lily told us to be down for the bus to take us to dinner at 6:30. we were going to another dumpling house which gets very crowded. they use only organic ingredients and no msg. it was special because the owner is a certified master dumpling maker, having achieved 18 folds in each of his dumplings. his artisan dumplings contain ingredients from the farmers posted on the wall with their certifications. very impressive. taiwan is serious about organic labeling. and yes, the food here was far superior to our lunch.

i was challenged

saturday, 11.06.11 was our big ride day so i got up at 4:30am. see my article in splash magazine to find out how it turned out, by clicking this link:

http://www.lasplash.com/publish/International_151/2011-taiwan-cup-self-challenge.php

after the self challenge there was a pre-race party at the the hotel. once again all the vips from giant, taiwan tourist board and government agencies were introduced. the racers were given gifts and taiwanese aborignal dancing completed the event. during the presentation we were served an elaborate 7 course dinner. guess what the entree was? yup, roast beef! i ate lots of fruit for dessert and went to sleep. kinda tired after my self-challenge incomplete ride.

taiwan cup press conference to race headquaters

friday, 11.04.11 we bussed to the banqiao train station for the taiwan cup press conference. all the major players were introduced including sponsors, government and ttb officials. all of the international teams were brought on stage and the riders and managers introduced. there were media from all over the world.

that's me with king lui, chairman and ceo of giant bicycles and janice lai, president of the taiwan tourist board, our sponsor. both exceptionally nice people. i asked liu if he wants to ride down the california coast with me.

after watching the vips and teams board a special train for hualien race headquaters, i found a rotisserie chicken place and we all took out bags of chicken for lunch on the train. problem - they forgot to give us plates. ever eat a hot, juicy chicken out of a bag on your lap on a moving train? it's chicken fat up to your elbows. yes, they forgot napkins, too!

3 hours later we arrived in hulien, stopped at giant bike store for a minute, then checked into the race headquarters, park view hotel. nice room with view of pool, mtns, golf course and ocean. went into town for dinner at old germany! yes, a german expat married to taiwanese woman run a german restaurant. lilly picked the place for us. i had roast beef with sauerkraut, protein needed for tomorrow's big ride.

after dinner we walked around the nite market and i bought a fanny pack and saw some even more interesting food than we had for dinner. back to hotel, up very early for 6 am start of Taiwan Cup Self Challenge

the weather is not cooperating

it's thursday the 10th and we haven't biked since 11.05.11. only 2 days left, both with 90% or better rain projections. anymore bike riding seems unlikely. today is another catch up day for this blog.

correction - last post should have read, wed, not tues. this is about thur, 11.03.11. we woke up to a cloudy day at the cingjing guest house. this was a rustic, bare-bones hotel in the mountains. we had driven for several hours up a long, narrow twisty road arriving too late to see or do much. i was tired and cold and immediately went to sleep as lilly expected us outside, rtr (ready to ride) at 8:30 am. the van from giant was arriving with our bikes, so the expectations were high that we would get fitted and have our first easy familiarization ride before the big ride on saturday.

the van was driven by A-Nan who also set up our bikes and help us get properly adjusted. the bikes were what i would call respectable, but not anywhere the top of the line. my bike is actually not the right size but seat adjustment made it work, and i was actually fairly comfortable.

the ride to top of wuling mountain is brutal. out of the hotel parking lot grades of 10 and 12 percent immediately fried our legs. fortunately, the giant bikes were fitted with triple chain rings so the climbing was tolerable...for awhile. i somehow managed to grab the lead and stay there until lilly called it quits due to a time crunch. time was always a problem as we had too much to do and see, and not enough to do it all. i can't say i wasn't glad the ride got shortened as it was truly steep, and getting steeper. but as you know i am a glutton for punishment and would have liked to finish the few more miles left to the top of the mountain.

we had a 3 hour drive to make dinner reservations at the gorgeous grandview hotel, which could not wait. lunch was a pre-made wonton soup kind of thing we got the 7 - 11 next to the cingjing hotel. hot and spicy, it was not easy to eat because of the rocking and rolling of the bus on the mountain roads. proud i didn't spill a drop, my mouth was burning as i ate 7 - 11 brand fried seaweed. the health benefits of the seaweed completely diminish by the frying? likely, right? who cares, it was good and i needed something after all that climbing.

we arrived at the grandview tired and cranky, but upon seeing this taiwanese leisure suit i figured, "what the hell," showered and put it on for our group dinner. i was alone in trying it! the others were just not cool.

the best thing about my room was finding the incredible, sophisticated, fully automatic, heated seat, rear-end washing electronic toilet.women have a front wash option as well. this is it, the state of the art in toilets. all you have to do is open the door to the toilet room and the toilet does the rest. lifts the lid, lifts the seat, then lowers the seat, lowers the lid, flushes and turns off the lite when you close the door. hot damn!

no riding today, raining, raining, raining + wind

today is 11.09.11, going back to the earlier part of the trip is not easy. we've done so much, who can remember everything. so i'll just cover some of the highlights.

tues, 11.02.11 we left the novotel on our bus heading for taichung, where the giant factory is located. along the way we stopped at the original bubble tea company. bubble tea is cold flavored tea made with those little tapioca balls that squiggle around in your mouth. i first had it san francisco a few years ago and loved it.  there are some places in la that make it, mostly around korea town and downtown. the drinks are great, flavored with mango or other fruit. try it, you'll like it.

after making our own bubble tea we got back on the bus and headed for giant. we had an hour long interview with king liu, the 77 year old founder, chairman and ceo. you can read my article about him here  http://www.lasplash.com/publish/International_151/king-to-rule-over-cycling-paradise-in-taiwan.php

touring the factory was really interesting as we got to see how they make the cheapest to most expensive bikes. we had a no holds bar view of the actually manufacturing, up-close and personal with many of the workers. they were mostly young and waved and smiled back at us. couldn't expect much more when they were working huge press or extremely hot welding eqpt.

giant is the world leader in carbon fiber technology and there were frames with names you would be surprised to discover are produced by giant. i saw cf frames with an italian brand name being fitted with di2 all lined up for completion to go to bike shops in the us, where they will sell for $8,000 or more! that was enlightening, there is nothing italian about them, except the name. the entire bike is built and assembled in Taiwan.

i road-tested the same frame with the giant name on it a couple of days later and was mightily impressed, especially at a cost of many, many thousands of dollars less. if i didn't already have my fantastic davidson i would buy one of these bikes in a bike messenger minute. they are even cheaper here because of conversion you can save around 25%.

after leaving giant we boarded our bus for a long twisty mountain road ride up to cinjing, where we stayed at a rustic resort. but first we stopped at a nite market. here's a taste! more tomorrow.

catch up

after a 10 minute bus ride to the hotel, which was practically on the runway (the wing of 747 almost touched my window) we went to our rooms at the novotel hotel. nice. showered and got into bed exhausted and waited to fall asleep. did not sleep a wink the entire nite! when 6 am rolled around i "got up" and prepped for our first day in taiwan. part of the reason i couldn't sleep was that i was so hungry from not eating the nite before on the plane.

since that first nite, this trip has been wild. have not had the energy or time to post. will catch you up in the next couple of days. i can tell you the breakfast at the novotel was huge and i tried almost everything. well, couldn't get the chicken feet down so early in the morning - only kidding. they do serve all tradional chinese foods for breakfast, but more later.

15 hour flite - my circadian needs adjustment

marilyn dropped me off at lax and i cruised thru check in, except for the wrench again, which they measured. i made it by about 1/2 an inch. what a relief. i met sarah, jason and doug at gate 105 about 2 hours before the flite and we were playing where-are-you-from and where-have-you-been until i went to charge up my cell phone and the cord was missing. tore everything out of my suitcase, hydration pack, pockets - oh shit, i left it plugged in the wall above the toaster oven the kitchen at marilyn's.

she told me she was going to the gym where they don't allow calls and i was nervous. fortunately, she had naturally gravitated to a shopping mall instead and was able to get home, get the charger and drive back to lax in plenty of time. marilyn is a precious doll. i told security i was going back out to get the cord, which was fine. except coming back in i had to go thru the full security line again and i didn't want to be zapped by the humongous body scanner again. i was an "opt out" meaning full body search. some giant approached me and told me he was basically going to feel me up all over, including my genital areas, but only using the back of his hand on the private parts. oh goody! that finally over i made it back to my new comrades who were probably thinking what i ditz, forgets the most important piece of eqpt for a 12 day trip. but they were nice, even if they were thinking that, no one said anything. i bought some pretzels and water and shared it around. sarah bought some delicious fruit yougurt which she shared with me.

we boarded about 15 mins late and had another 15 minutes or so to acclimate to our seating arrangements and prepare our stuff for take off. i stated watching about 4 movies, but never got to see the ends as i kept falling asleep. after dinner, which was edible, it was finally time to got to sleep for real. i took a sleeping pill and was woken up for breakfast about 7 hours later. problem was they were giving us breakfast when it was dinner time in taiwan. and then we had to go to sleep again at the hotel. we found our guides lily and samantha in the terminal and i posed everyone for a group shot.

                                          there's bin, jude, me, sarah, doug, liane, eddy sitting,
                                                        in back is jetta, riley, jason

the novotel hotel bus was waiting to take us about 10 minutes away to the hotel. couldn't wait to brush my teeth and shower. shower has a "magic window." push a button and the glass changes from opaque to clear for exhibitionists. that was cool - taiwanese do have a sense of humor.

the others were meeting at the lobby bar. i chose to skype marilyn and blog. gotta go to sleep now at 12 am because i have to be up for dinner tomorrow at 6 am. we're heading to the giant factory by bus to get our bikes and interview king liu, the 77 year old ceo of the world's largest bicycle company.