Sorry, it's not even a 'humblebrag'.... (updated)

.... no this is a full on, unabashed, unadulterated brag... For the moment at least, I think I’m pretty cool, and I’d love to tell you about why (we’ll be back to my regularly scheduled mostly humility soon).  Don’t worry, it won’t devolve into total narcissism - there’s still room for some self doubt and coulda woulda shoulda in there too.

It’s called the Taiwan KOM Challenge... KOM standing for King of the Mountain.  It’s a ridiculous thing - a bike race that starts at Sea Level and rises to 10,744 feet at the finish.  Oh and there are a few descents along the way so you end up climbing a few hundred meters more.  Total race length is 105 Km...65 miles. ( there are tabs for route map and  elevation profiles of the race if you down towards bottom of linked page)  


 The first 18K are ‘neutral’ meaning the race hasn’t actually begun - there is a pace car leading the field, keeping control of the peloton.   So those first 18K are flat along the beach.  Right after you turn West and start heading up the race route, the actual climbing starts, the flag drops, and race begins.  

 



The race route is up Taroko Gorge - a very, very deep, narrow marble stone gorge.  So it’s 87 KM or 54 miles to finish at 10,744 feet of elevation.  Not *so* bad if it were evenly spread out, but the lower elevations are quite civil in terms of grade - which is good and bad, easier to climb = good.   Faster to stay with the group = bad.   Group consisting of pros (including Tour DeFrance level pros, Asia Tour pros, elite locals and finally schlubs like me) is also good and bad.  Riding with pros just sounds cool (not that I saw them too much beyond at the start line) = good.   They’re pros and freakin fast riders = bad and painful pace to match.  

So you want to stay reasonably in contact without blowing up... which I did, until the time when I didn’t (which was a good thing - I found my pace, which was wise cause the overall winner finished about 69 minutes before me - not a pace I would or could hope to maintain, trying to do so would be bad).  I found a great pace for me and it was ideal in that it was faster than a bunch of the people who fought to stay with the lead group and did so longer than they should have.  That caused them to move backward - so I had my favorite thing of all on a bike - a constant supply of people to chase down.  Perfect motivation. 

While the grade is pretty civil, to keep a good tempo is still  very hard work.  And this climb is so much longer than most, including all of the marquee climbs of the Tour De France, the Tour of Italy or the Tour of Spain.  It is punishing just for length of time you are going up.  Eventually you come to a really nice descent, which is also good and bad.  Not climbing for a while = good.  Descending on a twisty road closed to traffic = good and fun.  Knowing that you have to regain all of that elevation that you just lost (200+ meters worth) = bad.  

Plus after the descent, the average gradient kicks up a few notches.  Still not gruesome, but getting worse, coupled with the increasing fatigue, it starts to get memorable.   Then you hit the small ‘town’ of Dayuling, which is the start of the last 10Km or so....   This is where the race gets really interesting.  Not only is it getting high enough in elevation that the air is getting thinner, the road starts to climb for real -  averaging 9+% in many places, with a few kicks into the teens, and one .3km stretch at 27% grade.  Thankfully there are a few short flats and one actual gentle descent in the final KMs, but it then kicks back up for the last 1Km to make sure you really got the point about this being a hill climb.

I was battling cramps in both my legs, but was able to keep it together to finish inside of my rather arbitrary goal of finishing in the top 100.... I was 98th, in a time that was very satisfactory.  

On the road, you are able to track your age group competitors based on their race numbers.  All of us in the 400’s were in the 45-50 group, so I knew who I was battling with amongst those I could see - I wasn’t sure who all was farther up the road of course.  

As motivation, I was riding as though anyone with a 400 series number was the difference between me being on the podium at the finish for my age group.  A while after the I finished,  I learned that the guy with a 400 number who I watched finish just about a minute before me was the last podium place for our group - at that grade our speeds were not that high, so I was quite close in distance but still a minute away on time.  

I know it’s likely tedious listening to how satisfied I am about this race - so here’s a moderating dose of doubt and questioning - I'm left wondering if I knew in definitive terms in those last few Kms “hey, that guy up the road is the difference between you on the podium and him up there”,  would I have found any more energy to chase him down?  I’d like to think that maybe I would have, but I also like to think that I’d already wrung all I could out of myself.  

Near the start of the barricades, probably 100 meters from the finish line.  This camera angle exaggerates the grade, but not by too much!

It sure felt like I gave all I had after I crossed the line - which was really the biggest victory of them all to me.  It sounds trite, but I have finished races where I felt frustrated that there was still more in the tank - no fun.  This time it didn’t feel that way, who knows if there was a bit more that adrenaline might have contributed to chase that one last guy for 6th place, but despite that wondering I’m content and really satisfied with my first go at this race.  But I followed my plan for the race really well, and that's always a bonus too.   I’m already looking forward to next year.

On top of the racing, this is a stunningly beautiful area of mountains and gorge.  Julia and I have been through the gorge both driving and riding a few months back - unfortunately as pretty as it was both of those times, it was also quite rainy.  

For the most part, this time up was clear and amazing views.  There are also numerous places where you can see the road far above and far below you... which is both good and bad.  Seeing how much you’ve already climbed = good.   Seeing how much you have yet to go up = bad. 

 As you can see from the photos of me, the finish is above tree line.  The vegetation up there is called dwarf bamboo I think, it's pretty cool to see. And true to form for the times I’ve been at the top of Wuling, it rained and was cold.  No rain the whole way up during the race, fortunately, but moments after I crossed the finish line it started raining.  The area at the top where the finish is located is quite small, so we had to head down the Western side of the mountain to meet up with our transport back to Taichung... so it was about a 3Km descent in the pouring rain.  One of these days I’m looking forward to finishing a race here in Taiwan without freezing being involved - which is always ironic given the normal heat and humidity down lower in elevation.  Fortunately it didn’t rain for too long and I had warm, dry clothes to change into.

For any who reads this who rides - you should train up and come join in next year or in 2015, it is an unforgettable experience.

And finally, the finish line... not yelling, just trying to breathe!

Updated 11/12/13 - One other bit of context/info, Mt Wuling, where this race finished is the same mountain top that I raced to and mentioned back in August here, only that time we started on the West side of the mountain and began around 480 Meters of elevation... same mountain, same finish area, but very different race.   Also here are some more  cool photos I came across....

One of many memorable bridges on the Taroko Gorge road

I'm pretty sure this rockslide got a whole bunch bigger between April and November.  I think there was one there when Julia and I drove through back in April, but I don't think it was this big - and there have been a number of typhoons and earthquakes since then.  From the looks of the hillside, there are always going to be rockfalls here - it would take an incredible amount of work to shore this up to stop the falls... not that the Taiwanese road engineers aren't up to the challenge to give it a go.

Another cool bridge