台灣 Team Cinelli Ritchey 車隊

One more year we were at the start line in Hualien ready for the Tour of East Taiwan, 300km, 2-day race up and down between Hualien and Taidong, and back.

As usual, the route profile dictated a race in big groups, where is hard to breakaway but easy to follow. I noticed the groups were really bigger this year (basically both days it was just one big group), it seems the average level has increased, the speed was high as well, and I didn’t see dangerous riders or moves as other times.

We tried to escape many times,  but it didn’t work out that well this time, only a handful of riders did succeed. We stayed at the front, alert and in good position the whole race. Personally, I felt at good level, but lacking more speed and ability to attack really hard to escape, I was fast but not super-fast, in a rather flat course that perhaps is not the best match for me. All in all, we had 2 great days of racing, with variable weather, a nice view of the coast on stage-1 and the adrenaline of racing bicycles.

After waking up at 5:30am again, 172km at 40km/h average speed, 4 hours of race of which 2 hours of pouring rain sucking water from other racers wheels,  3 snickers bars, a couple close calls and a few unsuccessful attacks, still had energy to put a smile on my dirty face at the end of Stage-2.

Would like to thank our support crew (for the help and for the smiles), and also all our sponsors that provided again the best material a racer can have.