About 600 cyclists from 32 countries are to compete in the Taiwan King of the Mountain Challenge (KOM) that begins on Friday.
Launched in 2012, the KOM Challenge has become one of the highlights of the Taiwan Cycling Festival.
The French magazine Le Cycle has rated it as one of the world’s top 10 toughest races, as cyclists compete on a 105km route where elevations can go as high as 3,275m above sea level.
Photo: CNA
The most challenging part of the race is the final 10km, in which the gradient changes from 17 percent to 27 percent.
Cyclists must finish the race within six-and-a-half hours.
The Taiwan KOM Challenge has developed a reputation among cyclists at home and abroad as a competition that they must attempt at least once, the Tourism Bureau said.
The Taiwan Cyclist Federation, which organizes the annual event, said several high-profile cyclists will compete in this year’s challenge, including 2011 Tour de France winner Australian Cadel Evans and three-time Powerman Duathlon world champion Emma Pooley of the UK, who won the event last year.
Evans on Monday met President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who said his participation in this year’s race would help promote the Taiwan Cycling Festival and connect Taiwan with the world.
One of Pooley’s main challengers in this year’s event is likely to be Japan’s Eri Yonamine, who won the race in 2013 and 2015.
Italian Vincenzo Nibali, who won the 2010 Vuelta a Espana, the 2014 Tour de France and the 2013 and 2016 Giro d’Italia — making him one of six cyclists who have won the three Grand Tour titles — is also scheduled to compete.
German Claudia Lichtenberg, who won the 2014 Giro d’Italia Femminile and the 2014 La Route de France, is expected to compete, as is Camille Deligny of France, a professional triathlete and the French record holder for distance in the Ironman competition.
Taiwanese Feng Chun-kai (馮俊凱), an East Asia Games gold medalist and 2012 Philippines KOM Champion, is to compete this year.
He was forced to drop out of last year’s race after his team were unable to repair a flat tire in time.
In response to calls for “equal pay for equal play,” this year’s top prizes in the male and female categories is NT$500,000 (US$16,554), the federation said.
Since 2014, the top prize in the female category had been NT$200,000, while the male champions won NT$1 million.
The total prize package for the race this year is NT$2.14 million.
The federation reiterated its commitment to enforcing the International Cyclist Union’s anti-doping policy, adding that any rider with a doping violation would not be allowed to register.
The first three cyclists across the finish line will be asked to undergo immediate doping tests, which will be administered by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, it said.
The women’s group has a record 50 cyclists competing this year.
For the first time, the number of foreign cyclists outnumbers local cyclists, with 318 of 592 cyclists coming from overseas.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at