Why Taiwan should be your next cycling destination

Our friends from Singapore, lead by our Sales Partner, Stefan Ansorge, decided to conquer Taiwan mountains and share with us the beauty and features of the land.

It took us four months to carefully plan this trip, and here we are – Taiwan, the Island nation to the West of China's Southeast coast. Let’s get started!

We are a team of six riders of five nations: Singapore, The Philippines, France, Ireland, and Germany. It's a truly international group of cycling enthusiasts.

Following our plan, we were heading for one of the most epic climbs in the world. Mount Wuling is one of many high peaks along Taiwan's Eastern mountain range. With the summit road at 3,275m it is one of the highest peaks that can be reached on a road bike.

Every year in April or May Wuling hosts the epic KOM (“The King of the Mountain”) challenge – 70 km uphill, with inclines up to 27% on the last 5 km. This is not for the faint hearted.

We have reached Mount Wuling a few weeks before the challenge to test out the road. The ride starts at the bottom of the mountain, almost at sea level.

It's a scenic road, with beautiful gorges, mountain streams, tunnels, and the odd Chinese temple on the hill along the way.

Soon the road run uphill and we were riding up at an average incline of 10-12%. The higher we got, the more beautiful the landscape turned, with opening into valleys and rocky terrains. Bridges in different colors led the way.

Once we came out of the many tunnels, the first rain hit us. A few kilometers up, and the light drizzle turned into heavy rain and temperatures started to drop.

This was a good shake-up. Luckily, our apparel smoothed the experience with Taiwanese weather. This day we were all wearing the new Isadore Taiwan jersey. With a 29% Merino blend it is perfect for the increasingly cooler temperature on the way up the mountain. The blue and red colors resemble the Taiwanese flag and stand in a beautiful contrast to the green and grey surroundings.

When we finally reached the summit on 3,275 m above sea level, the rain was coming down horizontal and the visibility was around 20 m in the fog. The temperature has dropped from 15 Degrees Celsius at the bottom of the mountain, to 2 Degrees at the top and we were drenched in water and sweat. Fortunately, our support van was waiting for us, with dry clothes and hot drinks. End of the ride for today!

Taiwan is a fascinating island which has so much more to offer for cyclists. Apart from amazing views, it has a well-developed infrastructure – most of the country roads have cycling lanes, and the traffic is friendly towards road bikes.

We got tested by the local mountainous terrain and the weather, got exhausted and soaked, and yet, we were happy to experience all of that. But who said that it should be easy?