More than 400 cyclists from 22 countries yesterday competed in this year’s King of the Mountain (KOM) Challenge race despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Danish cyclist John Ebsen, who has won the race three times, claimed another win in the men’s division, while Kuo Chia-chi (郭家齊) won the women’s division.
The number of competitors dropped from 730 last year to 425 this year, the Tourism Bureau said, adding that 103 of this year’s participants were foreigners living in Taiwan.
The bureau also reduced the top prize for the winners from NT$1 million (US$34,582) to NT$100,000 due to adjustments of budget priorities, Lin said.
The race, which is in its ninth year, has become an internationally well-known cycling competition, bureau deputy director-general Trust Lin (林信任) said, adding that it had in the past drawn many professional cyclists from Europe to compete.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many of the international cycling races have either been canceled or postponed, and travel restrictions led to many professional cyclists not participating in the event, Lin said.
Despite the decreases in participants and prize money, Lin said that the bureau had decided that the race should be held as scheduled, as it is part of a long-running campaign to draw international tourists.
“As the bureau is promoting next year as the ‘Year of Cycling Tourism,’ we are preparing a series of events, including a virtual KOM Challenge race. Cyclists who are unable to come to Taiwan can experience what it is like to be in the race through virtual reality technology,” he said.
French magazine Le Cycle rated the 105km race as one of the world’s toughest races, as the cyclists climb to up to 3,275m above sea level.
The most challenging part of the race is the final ascent of about 10km, where the road has a slope of 17 to 27 percent steep.
Cyclists must finish the race within six-and-a-half hours.
Additional reporting by staff writer
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but