ultracycling | RandoTips

Cycling Challenge – Around Taiwan in 48 hours

Going around the island is a pretty popular choice for a full weeks cycling trip in Taiwan.

Whole families, young folks, old folks, you name it, many have tried.

I’d say an average trip goes for 10 days or so.

So how about completing the whole thing in just 48 hours?

Route Planning

In terms of ease, taking the outermost roads the whole way around the island is the most sensible.

These roads are the flattest and the straightest. Roads that head off into the hills involve longer distances and more climbing.

The trip needs to start on the outermost roads. When the timing is tight, it’s necessary to cut out any excess travel to and from the coastal road. Timing of the route must start on the actual route and exclude time from home to the route. My house is really close to the route so only 15 minutes to the starting point.

Here’s the distances I worked out for a counterclockwise trip:

Start in Jiali – 0km
Jiali to Oulanbi – 195km
Oulanbi to Suao – 411km
Suao to Guandu bridge – 179km
Guandu bridge to Jiali – 310km
GRAND TOTAL – 1095km

So I’ll use 1100km as the reference point. Google Maps is fairly accurate with distances, so that’s it.

Average Speed

So, you get 48 hours to complete 1100km.

1100km divided by 48 hours = 23km/h (rounded up) average

My last ride to Taipei and back was 667km, completed in 33 hours (including breaks), which works out to about…

20km/h…

Too slow to circumnavigate the island in 48 hours.

But, 3 hours were spent off the bike eating, taking photos, etc. So 667km in 30 hours gives…

23km/h…

But that’s doing without any breaks from the bike and doesn’t include hills.

So what can I do to get my speed up?

Increasing Average Speed

So without any time for excessive training, how do I get my speed up without me actually being fitter and stronger?

There will be more hills in a full circumnavigation, and those will work against me. Fortunately, the hills are not mountains, so the speeds going down will not be hindered by tight bends and excessive braking.

Here are the tactics for increasing my average speed.

Eat on the bike & take food on the bike
Plan fuelling stops
Monitor average speed more closely
Avoid big cities and traffic lights
Use a navigation system

Now let’s look at them in more detail.

Eat On The Bike

Eating on the bike is okay, just have to eat finger food. The seaweed covered rice triangles from 7-11 are cool for that. They are filling, and rice is safe on the stomach and high in carbs.

Need a container for the front of the bike to hold the food. A randonneur style handlebar bag is necessary so I can get to the food without stopping to get something out of the panniers. Also, the saved time from not stopping far outweighs having the extra weight on the bike.

Planned Fueling Stops

Typically I just stop when I need food. But that’s pretty random, and sometimes it will mean waiting too long after I need a refill of either food or water. There are plenty of convenience stores, but I’ll need to actually plan ahead where I want to fill up, avoiding looking and searching. The more certainty to the plan, the less wasted time there will be.

Monitor Average Speed

I believe I can keep the average speed up without any extra “effort”. This will simply take focus, especially away from any pain building up. With a controlled speed I won’t “hit the wall” but I need to monitor my food and drink intake carefully too.

The 667km ride I was able to pull off a similar average speed in the last 4 hours as I had in the first 4 hours, I simply had to dig deep and ignore the pains, mostly sitting pains, that were bothering me so much.

Avoid Traffic and Traffic Lights

Big cities make riding slow. Traffic lights and traffic all work against average speeds. Fast riding speed that comes from fitness helps, but good route planning and reduced stops are essential for making higher speeds pay off well.

Navigation System (Don’t Get Lost)

Using a navigation system is just about not getting lost (wasted time). I’ll need to investigate this more, and I’d have to sort out how to power any such devices for such a long period of time. Most electronics will last up to 12 hours, doing what they’re supposed to do. That’s not long enough.

A dynamo hub, with a usb charger looks like the best option, but is pretty costly for such a simple device. However, they are light and efficient, and will not run out of power at the speeds I’ll be going.

The Plan

I want to do this before the year is out. That gives me three months.

Get essential equipment like seat and handlebar bag sorted out. Navigation system is not essential, just a luxury.

Then there’s probably one other long ride, of perhaps 800km to make sure my equipment is all okay.

Now I just need to get these done.

Any ideas, suggestions, route tips or otherwise? Leave a comment below.

Saddles for Long-Distance Riding

My butt hurts.

To put it bluntly that is the challenge I am having right now as I increase the distance of my long rides. I’ve never really had this problem before, but now it’s getting to me.

Racing vs Randonneuring

The biggest difference between these two is the speed and the time on the bike.

Racing is faster paced and only lasts, at the maximum, a few hours. Randonneuring stretches many hours or even days and is done at a much slower speed.

The pressure on the pedals and standing for speed keeps bum-to-seat time to a minimum. The downward push on the pedals also gives an upward push away from the saddle, relieving pressure on all the sensitive bits.

Randonneuring is almost all in the saddle. Hard bursts are not recommended, and neither is standing for greater speed. So the body’s full weight is planted on the seat all the time.

This creates new pressure on the sitting bones and the other bits around there.

My Pain

On longer rides, in fact rides of over three hours, the greater pain for me is the pain of sitting on the seat for so long.

This is a major problem.

Going longer and harder is getting easier through changing techniques and methods, but the saddle soreness is not.

And my current seat is not going to cut it.

Super-Comfy Seats

So I’m looking for seats.

The Brooks B17 and the Selle An-atomica both came up in this discussion on comfortable bike seats and this review of the Selle An-atomica. But this mention on the daily randonneur got me looking at the Selle An-atomica.

Selle An-atomica Titanico

The Selle An-atomica site has a long schpiel about how it has been designed for absolute comfort. And it looks quite convincing.

The seat is called the Titanico and the model designed for heavier folks (over 82kg) is the Clydesdale version. It offers extra material to cope with the extra load.

It features the Second Skin Watershed Leather which is leather that doesn’t need to be constantly treated. I’ve never owned a leather saddle, but I’m guessing they need treatment to keep the leather from going soggy in the rain.

They also have this video of it in action (not the prettiest sight, but shows a lot)

So I think I’m sold and this will quite possibly be the first thing I buy for my bike as an upgrade.

But…

The Price

A local shop offers it for NTD5200 (US$150) which is nearly one third of the price I paid for my whole bike.

I was planning on getting a second-hand STRIDA for some commuting for a bit less than that, but I think I’ll scrap that idea as the seat should make a huge difference on my rides. That difference is far more valuable to me than the commuting advantage as I do most of my travel by public transport anyway.

So, time to start saving, although I’m choking a bit it should be a great investment and, like my other expensive purchases in the past, pay for itself through sheer longevity.

When I get it I’ll report back on how much of a difference it makes, although anything would beat out my current saddle I’m watching for the long ride comfort.

Have you got a favorite seat? And why do you like it?

The Challenge

I enjoy riding.

I’ve always enjoyed riding a lot. Being out alone with my thoughts, with the challenges of the ride, the scenery and the people I pass. It all adds together for the most satisfying sport I’ve ever done; that I’ll ever do.

Long distance riding lets me take in the scenery and landscapes, moving from my neighborhood, out through the city and into the more rural areas until there are no houses or people left.

This is where I have peace.

Being out in the quiet darkness of the early morning on the road with absolutely no traffic, the bright, orange sun rising over the horizon, just my legs turning over in that rhythmic, rolling pattern.

Heaven.

And I mostly get that, and the variations and contrast of different scenery, when I ride a long way. But I’ve never taken that on as a challenge directly.

Until now.

Brevets

There is a race known as a brevet, which is 1200km long, and based on a ride that originally went from Paris-Brest-Paris. It’s easier now with better roads, but the concept lives on. Ride a damn long way as quick as possible.

This is not a tour. The difference is that overall speed does factor in here, and although the going is relatively slow compared to most road racing, the slower speed is mostly because of the huge endurance needed to simply complete the race. No 100km for the day then take a break; rests are likely and still on the clock.

The Challenge

Ride around Taiwan in under 72 hours. The distance is about 1200km, so with two 6 hour sleeps, that’s 60 hours of pure riding at 20km/h average to make it under that time.

I’ll have to sacrifice sleep, massive amounts of time and energy, change my eating habits and daily habits to make it. The training will start first, and will be part of the platform for testing foods, diet and other training.

The training will culminate with 600km training rides and finally the 1200km round country ride.

A New Focus

Compared to previous long rides. I know I can’t do this at the moment. I have only tackled up to 200km in a single day before, but I knew I could make it. This time I have to train myself to make it, and I’ve had no single, major target before.

I won’t be able to do this alone. Although I’m riding on my own, the motivation and help from others will make this more likely to succeed.

This blog is a platform for recording and tracking all of those efforts.

Make sure to check the sidebars for updates from all my other places online.