Leon, Ron and I met Henry at Sean's shop at 5:30 Saturday morning. It took us about forty minutes to ride into the city to Banchiao. Although the skies were gray, the roads were dry.
At the challenge ride start, hundreds of cyclists, many on mountain bikes, city bikes and folding bikes milled around, registering and enjoying the early morning singers and dancers up on stage. Leon declined to dance the warm up. Curt met us at the start, as he had been staying at his in-laws in Banchiao with his two week old daughter.
The group rolled out promptly at 7 behind scores of uniformed bicycle policemen on new full suspension Giants. Traffic was stopped at every intersection as hundreds of cyclists moved through to the outskirts of the city. At one point, our path was blocked by a political rally complete with firecrackers and bottle rockets, so the massive group just backtracked to the next road down and continued on. It was at this point that we met up with Harry and Victor.
Unfortunately, about an hour into the ride, the skies opened up and it began to pour. Because the organizers were blocking roads for us, we had periodic rest stops to regroup which proved to be quite chilly as the temperatures dropped and the rain continued to fall. Many of the riders turned back when the organizers promised to mail them their completion certificates even if they didn't finish.
After what seemed like several hours of bucketing rain, the skies let up, and we pulled into a local elementary school for our first food break. Spirits rose like the pork buns set out for us when the rain stopped completely.
When we hit the coast at Fulong, a group of road cyclists formed a small peloton at the front, led by Harry and Curt. When a massive headwind sprang up, Leon launched off the front, chased by several Giant Asia riders. This continued for two more rest stops, until we pulled into our lunch stop in another elementary school just outside Keelung.
We were all impressed with the spread of food laid out, considering that there was no entry fee for this challenge ride. The doors to the classrooms were open for those who needed a little more warmth, but you could imagine that on a nicer day, the quad would have been filled with lunching cyclists.
Victor provided us with a map and helped us figure out how to navigate through Keelung, so Ron, Harry, Curt, Leon and I left early and rode as a small group to Wanli where we decided to head into the mountains rather than continue along the rainy coast.
After refueling at the Wanli 7-11, we began our first real ascent of the day up the back of Helen's. Of course, the rain came heavier and heavier as we ascended, but the waterfalls and misty vistas balanced the cold that was beginning to seep into our bones.
The descent back into Tien Mu was quite chilly, but the hot showers waiting for us at the end of the line made it all manageable.
The final stats (for me):
10 hours door to door
7:02 riding time
162 km
Even with the weather, I'd recommend the challenge ride to anyone looking for a manageable long ride with good support.
I'm looking forward to this weekend's Yangmingshan Challenge!
Bill
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