The top prize of this year’s Taiwan KOM Challenge cycling race has been raised from NT$100,000 (US$3,285) to NT$1 million as an incentive to increase participation in the race, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday.
Launched in 2012, the 105km mountain-biking race is part of the Taiwan Cycling Festival, an annual event that the bureau hosts to raise publicity for Taiwan.
As cyclists competing in the race have to ride uphill for 87km continuously as the altitude rises from zero to 3.725km above sea level, the race was listed by the French magazine Le Cycle in January as one of the most difficult cycling races in the world.
Tourism Bureau Deputy Director-General Wayne Liu (劉喜臨) said the KOM challenge has succeeded in increasing Taiwan’s exposure internationally, adding that the bureau would continue working with the Sports Administration to further develop the race into a top-tier cycling competition.
Danish cyclist John Epsen, who won the KOM Challenge in 2012, has been living in Taiwan for a year now and has been training for the race.
He said that raising the top prize to NT$1 million this year has motivated more good riders to come, adding that the organizer’s new anti-doping policy also helps to keep the sport clean.
The most challenging part of the race is the last 8km, the steepest part of the mountain route, Epsen said.
“You are going downhill right before the last 8k. When you hit the uphill, that is when the race really starts for the guys going for the win,” he said.
Taiwanese cyclist Chiao Chi-wen (焦志文) and his team are non-professional cyclists. He said that non-professional riders join the race for different reasons, whether they are doing it to win, to challenge themselves or to have fun.
Cyclists taking part in the KOM Challenge this year can choose to go the full route from Cisingtan (七星潭) in Hualien to Wuling in Hehuanshan (合歡山), or they can finish the race in Tayuling (大禹嶺), 10km before Wuling.
Aside from the KOM Challenge, which will be held on Nov. 15, the other highlights of the Taiwan Cycling Festival are “Formosa 900” and “Sun Moon Lake Come! Bikeday.” The former is a nine-day around-the-nation bike tour, while the latter allows the riders to tour around Sun Moon Lake (日月潭).
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