Some of the world’s top cyclists said on Thursday that they are looking forward to the challenges that await them in the upcoming Taiwan Cycling Festival, which will feature a daunting climb in the Wuling (武嶺) mountain area of central Taiwan.
Riders from around the world, including Anthony Charteau and Francisco Mancebo said they have heard of the route’s reputation and are ready to test their mettle.
“I will do my best,” said 36-year-old Mancebo, 2004 the Spanish National Champion.
About 380 riders from more than 20 countries are set to line up at the start of the grueling route today to compete in one of the highlights of the festival, which runs from today to Sunday next week, and is being organized for the third year running by the Tourism Bureau to promote Taiwan’s cycling scene. Prior to this, the annual event was organized by local cycling associations.
The riders will have to climb from sea level to 3,275m above sea level over a 100km distance, an experience described by many veteran cyclists as a “pilgrimage.”
Greg Chang (張壽生), a seasoned cyclist and the editor-in-chief of the Chinese-language magazine Bicycle and Life, said he that reveres the route, which takes the riders between Cisingtan (七星潭) in Hualien County and Hehuanshan (合歡山).
“If you hit the trails without sufficient preparation, you will learn about the true meaning of the word ‘endless,’” he said.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Bureau said the challenge, along with nine other cycle courses at tourist destinations such as Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) and the Alishan Forest Railway, are expected to help integrate the sport with tourism to make the country more appealing to foreign visitors.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater