About 2,500 cyclists from 32 countries yesterday joined two Grand Tour cyclists for the first-ever L’Etape du Tour de France in Taiwan.
Seven-time Grand Tour champion Christopher Froome and recently retired all-time great Mark Cavendish, who in July achieved a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win, took center stage in the Tour de France sportive series event in Nantou County.
L’Etape du Tour de France, which was launched in 1993 and is organized by the Paris-based Amaury Sport Organisation, offers participants a glimpse of the Grand Tour experience.
Photo courtesy of the Tourism Administration
The event in Taiwan featured two routes: a 104km and a 29km course.
The 104km route included a yellow jersey competition and two King of the Mountain sections.
The mountain winners earned slots in next year’s L’Etape Championship in France.
Cyclists on the longer route passed cultural landmarks such as Xuanguang Temple, Ita Thao Pier and Shuishe Pier while enjoying the stunning scenery of Sun Moon Lake and the surrounding mountains.
The Sun Moon Lake cycling route has been recognized by CNN as one of the “Top 10 most beautiful cycling routes in the world.”
Thai women’s badminton player Pitchamon Opatniputh became the first known doping case at the Asian Games in Japan yesterday, testers said. The 19-year-old returned a positive test for banned substance furosemide and has been provisionally suspended, the International Testing Agency said. The teenager, ranked 18th in the world and regarded as a rising star back home, had been due to face China on Tuesday. The first full day of badminton action at Asia’s biggest sporting spectacular was on Sunday. “The athlete is prevented from competing, training, coaching or participating in any activity during the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026,” the ITA said. The agency noted
Japan has been starved of swimming success in recent times but with the Olympics two years away junk food-loving teenager Shin Ohashi has emerged as their next big hope. The 17-year-old, who stands just 169cm, has posted the two fastest 200m breaststroke times in the world this year and is aiming for the world record at this year’s Asian Games. Earlier this year he came within almost a second of the 2:05.48 record held by China’s Qin Haiyang. Ohashi has already won gold at the Asian Games in the 100m breaststroke after a dead heat with China’s Dong Zhihao, beating Qin into third
A NEW SEASON: The Games’ MMA bouts bear a limited resemblance to American UFC fights, sparing the cage, but organizers hope this is a step forward A sport once banned in much of the US and famously decried as “human cockfighting” by a high-profile politician is making an ambitious play for the Olympics. Mixed Martial Arts, known as MMA, is making its Asian Games debut this week in Japan — a milestone that fighters and organizers hope leads to bigger things. Galastein Tan, director general of the Federation of International Mixed Martial Arts, said being at the Asian Games was “a big step.” “As for any sport, the inclusion in the continental games is critical,” he said. “Obviously the inclusion means that you already have a good governance structure,
THREE BRONZES: Martial artists dominated Taiwan’s gains for Tuesday, while the baseball team delivered Thailand a thunderous 15-0 shellacking that morning Taiwanese athletes at the Asian Games collected another three bronze medals yesterday, bringing their medals to nine, leaving them in 10th place overall as of yesterday evening, trailing Uzbekistan and leading Iran. Taiwan’s baseball team roared back from a 5-0 defeat by South Korea on Monday to squash Thailand 15-0 as they head into their game today against Hong Kong at 6:30pm at the Games in Japan. KARATE The women’s team kata squad and men’s kumite competitor Chung Meng-yu won bronze medals yesterday. The 34-year-old Chien Hui-hsuan, who won bronze in the women’s individual kata event on Sunday, was joined by
RSS