01/08, My first half triathlon ☺️
I haven’t done much bike touring since the end of April, because I’ve been preparing for my first ever half triathlon ☺️ a back to back 1.9k swim, 90k bike ride and 21.1k run 😳 When I subscribed for the event at the beginning of May, Covid numbers in the Netherlands were down and vaccinationContinue Reading
08/12, ride around the Island, day 18, Linkou
It rained consistently throughout the night, making me a bit worried about today’s ride. Rain, low temperatures, slippery remote mountain roads, lots of downhill, occasional climbs, riding the last bit through the busy city (rain turns motorists crazy for what ever reason). Despite the rain I took of this morning and the first two hoursContinue Reading
07/12, ride around the Island, day 17, Mingchi
Today was supposed to be the last day of my trip, but rain, hills and low temperatures have made me cut my ride short today 😯 Taiwan has shown all it’s types of weather to me during the last two weeks, including clear blue skies with a blazing sun and 34 degree, storm force windsContinue Reading
06/12, ride around the Island, day 16, Yulan
I started the day today with a clear blue sky 😊 As I would be mainly riding downhill today, I had a late start at 0800. At that time it was only 8 degrees at 1500 meter. Before the long downhill I first had to conquer a hill between me and the long downhill, soContinue Reading
05/12, ride around the Island, day 15, Lishan
Wonderful ride today. Left around 6am, hoping this would give me enough time to complete today’s climb to 2650 meter. I made it to the top of my planned ride at around 2pm. Slowly climbed out of the gorge along near vertical cliffs, providing amazing views over the gorge and the rive flowing down below.Continue Reading
04/12, rest day at Taroko Gorge
Nice day off the bike today, despite the many warning signs for falling rocks, landslides, formosan macaque’s with herpes, killers bees and venomous snakes. Enjoyed the stunning Baiyang trail towards a trickly waterfall and spilling watercurtain. The trail was originally built in the 1980’s as a construction road for a hydroelectric dam, which would haveContinue Reading
03/12, ride around the Island, day 14, Taroko
Always save the best for last… Starting on the Island’s west coast and riding counter clockwise has been a conscious decision. The western half of the island is more populated and industrialized, while the east coast is quite know for it’s natural beauty and stunning coast line. Next to that, the north east also providesContinue Reading
02/12, ride around the Island, day 13, Hualien
Made my way up through Taiwan’s eastern rift value today. Pretty strong headwinds again, totaling 350k of cycling into the wind now 🥵 out of some 1080k cycled in total. Scenery again amazing, with rice being harvested, mountains on either side of the valley and large rivers coming from those mountains!
01/12, ride around the Island, day 12, Yuli
Today I could feel that yesterday had been a tough day, making today quite a tough day as well, even though on paper it was not as tough as yesterday. The rains had disappeared, but unfortunately the wind was still there. So my first 70k were along the coast, against the storm force winds 🙈Continue Reading
30/11, ride around the Island, day 11, Taimali
Had a nice and quiet day yesterday. The weather wasn’t very good, so I spent most of my time relaxing in my hotel room, giving the legs a proper rest. This morning I left around 7 and unfortunately weather hadn’t improved much over night. This means I spent most of my day riding in theContinue Reading
28/11, ride around the Island, day 10, Kenting
Not a very eventful ride today. 145k on the flats made for smooth and relatively fast riding. Temperature was very comfortable, mainly due to the presence of some light clouds. The day ended with some crazy crosswinds though, which kept pushing me of the road 😂 Had an early start again and took my time.Continue Reading
27/11, ride around the Island, day 9, Fo Guang Shan
A while back someone told me about the pilgrim’s lodge that is part of the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, which is located here in the south of Taiwan. I was told that normally the lodge would allow for tourists to stay overnight, so I figured that this lodge would be an interesting place to spendContinue Reading
26/11, ride around the Island, day 8, Tainan
Today my legs did feel the work they did yesterday 😯 Luckily today was a 70k 2200m downhill, followed by 80k on the flats with a slight tailwind. It was a shame that the downhill was interrupted with a few short stints of uphill, otherwise it would have been perfect 😊 Waking up to aContinue Reading
25/11, ride around the Island, day 7, Alishan
Long day today. 102k ride with some 3000m of elevation gain, with the main climb over a length of some 66k. Climbing from 325m to 2615m. That’s quite lot more than I’ve ever done on my bike 😳 While planning my rides I always try to limit my max elevation gain around 1500m, because IContinue Reading
24/11, rest day at Sun Moon Lake
Beautiful day at Sun Moon Lake 🥰 Had an easy morning with an elaborate breakfast, and then took a boat to the other side of the lake. Took a short hike to one of the temples on top of the hill and climbed the pagoda for some nice views. I ended up in a littleContinue Reading
23/11, ride around the Island, day 6, Sun Moon Lake
Left really early again, and to my surprise that meant that I had the streets of Taichung all to myself 😊 So I was able to leave the city without inhaling an unhealthy amount of 2-tact exhaust gasses. Mentally I had already prepared for the worst. On paper today’s ride shouldn’t be to hard… 70kContinue Reading
22/11, ride around the Island, day 5, Taichung
Got on the way at first sunlight this morning, trying to avoid the heat and traffic. The first bit of riding was really nice: morning chill and no traffic 😊 Got my first 500m climb out of the way without any trouble. And at the top of the climb I came across a family ofContinue Reading
21/11, ride around the Island, day 4, Nanzhuang
Time to attempt a loop around the rest of the Island! Great idea to do it only six days after last week’s triathlon, but who cares right 🙂 I’ve been here for almost 5 months now, so it’s time for a nice break! Now should also be the right time weather-wise. Hopefully temperatures will notContinue Reading
15/11, Challenge Taiwan, 51.5k
Trying something new today: stand in line in the pouring rain for 30 minutes for registration – attend pre- race briefing – sort out all my stuff after that – go to bed early – have a shitty night of sleep due to nervous anticipation – wake up at 0400am – check in my bicycleContinue Reading
03/10, ride around the Island, day 3, Linkou
Day 3 of my little moon trip 😊 Although I must say it was a tough one. Left at 0700, assuming that it would still be early enough to beat the heat, but this early in the morning it was already 28 degrees 😳 I started the day by bringing my bike and my pannierContinue Reading
02/10, ride around the Island, day 2, Jiufen
Day 2 of my short 3 day trip 😊 only a 70k ride today, but with a 300m steep climb at the end. Followed the pacific coast north, to the beautiful old gold mining town Jiufen. With 28 degrees it was a lot warmer today than it was yesterday, but managed myself well. During theContinue Reading
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