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OPINION

Taiwan KOM Challenge: I'm ready

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Or as ready as I'll ever be, anyway...

The Taiwan King of the Mountain Challenge is looming ahead of me like the mountain in the mist that it is.

At 105km long, with an average gradient of 7% for the first 95, then kicking you in the face by leaping to 17% for the last 8km it is, quite frankly a ridiculous thing to even contemplate. And that's before you ponder upon the 27.7% ramp....

With a little over 12 hours until the 4am wakeup call it's all starting to seem very real. Claustrophobic in its closeness,  we are all very aware of what's coming up, the jokes and banter are less frequent as the time draws near.

I've spent this week riding hills, getting dropped like a stone by Tiffany Cromwell of Specialized-lululemon, and having breakfast with Nicole Cooke. Frankly: it's frickin' awesome!

Tomorrow I pay the price, with interest.

I've managed to cram in about 200km of riding in the last few days, on smooth quiet roads, with views that are breathtaking, winding around banana groves, climbing up through mist covered forests. all in an attempt to burn off the cumulative effects of the Taiwanese hospitality industry.

The experience so far has been superb, I'm looking forward to being able to say that the race is too!

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6 comments

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tandellcycling | 9 years ago
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There are many places to cycle in Taiwan,welcome to China

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ragtag | 9 years ago
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Yeah the worst is at the top. Love riding there..

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james-o | 9 years ago
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Which side does it go up? T.E, the east side I think it goes up is a relatively easy gradient for most of it but the steep sections above 3000m are crazy hard. It is huge. It also descends a bit before going up again. Good luck Martin!

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Flying Heron | 9 years ago
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I'd be well up for the reverse leg!!!!

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Yorky-M | 9 years ago
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awsome

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TeamExtreme | 9 years ago
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Quote:

At 105km long, with an average gradient of 7% for the first 95

How did you work that out?! I get less than 4%.

Either way it looks like an epic ride!

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