A Kiwi Cycling In Taiwan

The Taiwanese really get what cycling is all about. Cycling in another country is always a buzz, but Taiwan also offers a great climate with temperatures between 21 and 260C and light breezes all day.

- Erik Skilling

Add to that smooth tar-seal/ roads, a culture where it is ok to share the road with bikes, a wide variety of terrain to choose from, and at the end of the day NZ$4.20 for a 600ml bottle of cold Taiwan Gold Lager, and you see the attraction as a place to cycle.

In our case we had added a bit of tension to our trip by choosing to ride to the top of the Mount Wuling undeniably one of the toughest mountain climbs on offer anywhere. A continuous gut-busting 55 km of climbing at an average 8% gradient, into the thin airs at 3,275 metres, or 10,740 feet. To put it into perspective, the summit tops Mt Aspiring by about 240 metres.

There were consolations. The road surfaces are a cyclist dream, clean and genuinely smooth, and shared with very considerate drivers. We were also followed by a van loaded with water, packed with bananas, apples, passionfruit and enough packets of gels, electrolytes, biscuits, lollies and dried fruit to fuel the next 10 cycling tours. The best news though was the main climb was split over two days - 1,865 metres the first day and a mere 1,300 metres the next. Easy.

Our group of 11 cyclists could not be more diverse, ranging from novice cyclists who were very happy to accept an E-bike, to Brett who recently completed the Tour of Aoteroa – 3,000km of mainly off-road cycling from Reinga to Bluff, carrying all his gear. Even more intimidating, Brett completed/finished in 19 days. Although obviously born with titanium knees, the achievement demands respect. /Respect.

In between are 3 of us over-60’s who were very happy to accept almost brand-new Giant Advanced bikes with its smart looking climbing frame and Integra gear including a very forgiving 34 sprocket in the cassette. The low-body-fat members of the group either had their own bikes or were very happy with the Giant Propel, 8.5kg of Aero-bike replete electric gearchange. Like they needed that advantage.