This morning, 20 teams participating in the Tour de Taiwan, the island's premier bicycling event, will struggle through Stage Five of the race: 148.3km around Hsinchu. It's the most grueling stretch of the competition.
As of press time, Giant Asia Racing Team was in the lead, but with four stages left it's still anybody's race. Tomorrow, the racers are scheduled to arrive in Taipei County and will complete the race with two final stages in Taipei City.
The Tour de Taiwan has been moving north throughout the week. The race started in Kaohsiung, looped through Pingtung and then headed to Changhua, Taichung and Hsinchu on the east coast.
PHOTO: CNA
Tour de Taiwan is part of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Asian Tour and since 2006 has been integrated into the Taipei Cycle Show, organized by Taiwan External Trade Development Council (see story above).
With five local teams, out of 20, the event is a major training ground for local cyclists who have ambitions to join the international circuit. There are also teams from Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Canada, the UK, US, Holland, South Korea and Australia.
During the event, Taiwan promotes its cycling industry. This year, both Giant and Merida, Taiwan's largest cycling manufacturers have teams: longtime rivals Merida Europe and Giant Asia Racing Teams. While both feature international stars, they also give locals a chance to show their potential.
The total race covers 800km, with both road race and circuit elements. Saturday's race around the Nangang Exhibition Center also highlights the important role played by Taiwan in the production of top-end cycling components.
For those who want to watch the races, the fifth stage will be setting out from the plaza in front of the Hsinchu City Government building (新竹市政府前) at 9am today. The 127.7km leg in Taipei County will set off at 10am tomorrow from the plaza in front of the Taipei County Government building in Banqiao, cross the Guandu Bridge and finish at the same location. Racers are expected to complete the leg around 1pm. The seventh stage is a circuit race around the Taipei Cycle Show at the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall (台北世界貿易中心南港展覽館), which covers a distance of 58km. It starts at 9:30am in front of the main entrance to the exhibition hall. The event concludes on Sunday with 60 laps around Taipei City Government building, along Songgao (松高路), Songzhi (松智路), Songshou (松壽路) and Shifu roads (市府路), starting at 10am.
Updated information can be found at the Tour de Taiwan Web site at www.khhtri.org.tw/tourdetaiwan.
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
JUNE 30 to JULY 6 After being routed by the Japanese in the bloody battle of Baguashan (八卦山), Hsu Hsiang (徐驤) and a handful of surviving Hakka fighters sped toward Tainan. There, he would meet with Liu Yung-fu (劉永福), leader of the Black Flag Army who had assumed control of the resisting Republic of Formosa after its president and vice-president fled to China. Hsu, who had been fighting non-stop for over two months from Taoyuan to Changhua, was reportedly injured and exhausted. As the story goes, Liu advised that Hsu take shelter in China to recover and regroup, but Hsu steadfastly
You can tell a lot about a generation from the contents of their cool box: nowadays the barbecue ice bucket is likely to be filled with hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beers and fluorescent BuzzBallz — a particular favorite among Gen Z. Two decades ago, it was WKD, Bacardi Breezers and the odd Smirnoff Ice bobbing in a puddle of melted ice. And while nostalgia may have brought back some alcopops, the new wave of ready-to-drink (RTD) options look and taste noticeably different. It is not just the drinks that have changed, but drinking habits too, driven in part by more health-conscious consumers and
On Sunday, President William Lai (賴清德) delivered a strategically brilliant speech. It was the first of his “Ten Lectures on National Unity,” (團結國家十講) focusing on the topic of “nation.” Though it has been eclipsed — much to the relief of the opposing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — by an ill-advised statement in the second speech of the series, the days following Lai’s first speech were illuminating on many fronts, both domestic and internationally, in highlighting the multi-layered success of Lai’s strategic move. “OF COURSE TAIWAN IS A COUNTRY” Never before has a Taiwanese president devoted an entire speech to
RSS