This year's edition of the Tour de Taiwan started on Sunday down in Kaoshiung. English language results are available on www.cyclingnews.com. The Tour finishes up Saturday morning with a criterium around Taipei City Hall. Below is a map of the course.
The course is easily accessible for the Taipei City Hall stop on the blue line of the MRT. There is a citizen's race on the criterium course of 20 laps of the 1km circuit from around 7:30 until 10am. At 11am, the pros hit the circuit for 60 laps. If the weather is nice, it's a great spectacle. Actually, it's a great spectacle even in the rain!
While you're down at the course, you may want to head over to the Taipei International Cycle Show held at the World Trade Center. Although the show is mainly for vendors and buyers, it's pretty neat to check out if you're into bikes. If it's similar to past years, tickets are usually sold at the door or they can sometimes be obtained from Sean by asking nicely. Young children are not allowed, however.
Sunday is the North Coast Race, a 47 km club race that runs from Wanli around to Baishawan and back, finishing on a 5 km hill. There are 801 road cyclists and 512 mountain bikers registered for this year's edition of the NCR. There are close to 20 local expats mixing it up as well. If you'd like to ride out to check out some of the race, the Google Earth file
can be viewed by right-clicking (control-click on the Mac) the previous link and saving the .kmz file to the desktop. It can then be opened with Google Earth.
Have fun!
Bill
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