The football was postponed due to rain at the weekend, the launch of the new BML season delayed for the second time. Without having kicked a ball yet, the new season looks like it will go in to April, instead of March which was originally scheduled.
So as the rains stopped and Sunday morning brought northern Taiwan stunning, clear blue skies, this fat old body of mine needed some exercise, so the mountain bike was checked, the wife and noodle kissed, and off I went.
As usual, I did not know where I was going to go, which route I would take. Recently I have taken the hard route up the mountain several times, but I wanted to go for a little more distance, then head up the climb, so I took the river route, headed out to Sanchong along the bike route that has been constructed in by the Hsin Bei government, then back along another river that heads south towards Sanxia and Tucheng. I had a favourable wind, and was adding up those km as I got to the Shulin/Banchao border, so I figured I would head over the embankment and make my way towards Hsinchuang and then back to the mountain and begin my ascent.
200 metres after rejoining the main road, I noticed I didn’t have control of the thing, and stopped, seeing that my rear tyre had a massive rip in the side. Carp. So I walked along for a while, hoping to find a main street with a bike shop. Down towards Shulin, I find a market street, so I turn down it, and whereas there were loads of veggie places for me, there was no sign of a bike shop.
After maybe 20 or 30 minutes of walking, I found a major road, but there was no sign of a bike shoip along it, so instead of turning off my chosen route, I went across the road and kept going in the direction of Linkou and Taishan. After all, that was the road that would take me to the mountain, so I carried on. Shortly after that I saw that I was close to the Hsinchuang stadium, and I thought I remembered there was a bike place on the left. There was. And it was open. Cool.
15 minutes later, new inner tube and tyre had been fitted, my wallet was a tad lighter, and off I continued. I headed up across another major intersection where there are loads of cars for sale, resisting the temptation of having a look for a new motor, and carried on in to Taishan. From there it was a nice flat road across to Wugu before the climb up the mountain.
Making it to 150 metres with no problem, then the serious climb began, and it was fairly slow pedalling, the effects of the longer ride along the river taking its toll on my already low stamina levels, but I was enjoying it, and I am not going to turn back on this sort of climb. A couple of assholes decided that this is a good road to race their cars, so they tonked past me, their tyres screeching as they went round the corners, obviously having a fine time. I just thought they were complete morons, but there’s no shortage of those inside Taiwan’s cars.
The very mild November has brought many flowers in to bloom, and there were some beautiful purples and whites along the side of the road, spiders also taking advantage of the fine weather, waiting up in their webs for an unsuspecting insect to fly in, hoping for one last meal before the winter hibernation.
Behind me I could hear people talking, obviously other bikers, and not long after, one of them raced past me, got a ferw metres in front of me, then turned to look back. He then turned back, went down the slope, and five minutes later, all three of them raced past me once more. As soon as they had overtaken me, they stopped for a rest.
I continued up this fine slope, not feeling too bad, the legs pumping away, whilst I was enjoying the exercise, the fresh air and the view of the Taipei basin. Finally I reached the summit, and it was downhill all the way to Bali Wharf. On one segment of the road, if you’re lucky, you can get up to some mega speeds, but as I was tonking down, there was a car blocking my way, and whereas I managed to overtake it, I had had to slow down beforehand, so there was no chance of breaking my record. Thank goodness though that the bike has ceramic brakes!
Finally, at the bottom of the slope I turned right along the river for the final few kilometres to the apartment, where there were smiles from the wife and Noodle waiting for me. After such a nice, three hour trek (excluding the puncture break) that is the sort of welcome home that any man will love.
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