5/2 騎塔塔加 up the tea mountain
The long weekend was just another excuse to put on some long and hard training rides, to prepare the upcoming climbing races. The perfect setting was the climb to Ali-shan, better know to many people for the quality of the tea leaves cultivated in there.However, as much as we like tea, there was nothing better than some coffee to get us started in the morning. Riding Cinelli bikes there isn’t anything more apropriate than a couple espressos to fuel up!
The day was clear and sunny, beautiful but also more challenging as the temperature was around 30 degrees early on. Thankfully, Tim and I had the assistance of Xiaoyu, who would hand us Profile bottles of water+honey, minerals and cola to keep going strong.
After leaving Puli, we bordered SunMoon lake and dropped to Shueili, which sits almost at sea level. From there we had another 60km and almost 2400mts of elevation to the top of Ali-shan. The approach to the actual climb is quite demanding, going up and down constantly, with the steepest sections of the day to be found here actually. By the time we crossed the bridge and faced the real climb we had been riding for 2 hours and were at 1,000mts high. All this data was provided accurately by our VDO Z3 computers, which showed that the incline of Alishan stays around 4-5% for the most part (not that steep), but the distance and altitude are the biggest factors.
The Cinelli bikes proved really good also for climbing. I am sitting a bit further back than last year, which seems to help me when climbing on the saddle for extended time. The bikes are light thanks to all the Ritchey components, so there is nothing draging us, really.
I kept a constant fast pace for most of the climb, to attack a couple times in the final part and do an all-out last couple kilometers. My Cinelli Willin is a light bike, but I most appreciate it feels solid when standing up and sprinting. Over 2,000mts and after almost 4 hours of demanding riding, this was a good place to test my condition, and I was satisfied about it.
Up the top it was overcast and chilly, it was a shame because otherwise the views are spectacular. In any case, Tim and I were looking forward to change to warmer clothes and eat and drink, it had been an exhausting training! Xiaoyu was on top to provide all that and more, and drove us back home too, thanks a lot!
訂閱台灣 Team Cinelli Ritchey 車隊
total climbing from Puli was 2848m. we already did about 1300m of climbing by the base of the “real” climb. man you were going pretty fast. I have never seen so many bikes on that road, especially road bikes.
yes, many road bikes and just a couple “tiny-wheeled” pseudo bikes. Is interesting to see that people are getting over that trend from last year but still want to ride bikes, not leave the sport. But I understand, Alishan, for example, is such a beautiful and epic place to ride, how can’t you join cycling?