I went for one of my normal rides on Tuesday. I do about 20km warm up out of town, through some flat farmland and into the foothills. I ride the same 20km back as a cool down. In between are a series of 7-10km bits of smaller roads that I can mix and match and put together a ride from 70-120km. I can mix it up based on weather and how I feel.
This for me is 'normal'.
The problem is, lately, normal is anything but. First off, I was dealing with narrow roads strewn with debris from the recent typhoon. This makes things like traction and punctures a real concern.
This isn't really much of a big deal though. I ride good tires and the real concern on this ride was more about the birds. By this I mean the Hitchcock variety.
First off, the ride I set out to do had 8 climbs in it that range from 300m to 800m in length. The grades run from 6% to over 14% (really). I never do hill repeats. I just jam my way up these babies and it is a power climbing workout extraordinaire.
This one is two 14+% jams with a 10% respite stuck in the middle. It is also THE LAST of 8 of these power climbs. The photo shows the last of the 2 14% sections.
Flash back several climbs and I'm feeling a little frisky. I was in the 53/23 and just about to pop over the first climb when, out of the corner of my eye, I swear I saw sparrow swoop down at me and deposit some sparrow droppings on my back. I crested the climb and stuck my hand on my upper back and, sure enough, I came up with a smudge of sparrow crap.
Now, in Chinese culture, this is supposed to be good luck. I can't for the life of me figure out why but, as these are Chinese sparrows, I figure
they must know why so this must be good luck. Feeling lucky I continued on.
I got about 10 meters down the road and I saw two more sparrows dive down at me and crap on my head.
"Damn!" I though, "I must be really lucky now."
Not wanting to go to the well too many times I nailed it and tried to put as much distance between me and the luck bestowing rodents with wings as I could. These sparrows seemed to sense my good fortune and headed of to find some other poor soul in need of a little luck. I hit a few more poppers and all was good.
I got to one of the points where I needed to make a decision about which section to do next and I made a decision to go right.
Now bear in mind that I have been riding these same roads for the last 10 years. I know them very well and the farmers who live there have seen me enough times that I am on nodding terms with several of them.
I swooped down the first tight descent and swung around a blind embankment only to find that, due to a recent earthquake and a couple of typhoons, one of my favourite sections of roads was, well... gone. It was already dodgey after the quake but it was still manageable. I hadn't ridden it in about a month but I guess one of the last typhoons had finished it off (eroded under the road causing it to collapse) and already the jungle had began to claim it back. No hope in riding through this one.
Now I realized that I had two options. I could double back through swallow alley or double back and take the left instead of the right I took. That sounded like the better idea so I headed off.
Back up and over and I dropped down into the next valley. I hit a few more poppers and all was good. I started to relax and really enjoy the ride. The typhoon had passed, the skies were clear and blue and the humidity hadn't had a chance to return yet. Just then a bunch of chickens ran across the road in front of me and I had to do a two wheel lock up to avoid hitting lunch. It seemed the farmer's chicken house had been damaged in the typhoon and now there were hundreds of chickens running around like...chickens. The worst part was that I had scarred these foul fowl so much that by the time I rifled through my jersey pocket, fished out my cell phone, and got it ready to snap a picture, every last chicken had disappeared into the shrubbery that lined the road. WTF! So I took a picture of the farmer's house.
I clicked back in and off I went. 3 more poppers to go.
I started thinking about all the weird crap that had been happening to me lately on rides. Recently I'd gotten it into my head that the Fates had set out to ruin my life. They were messing with me and causing me grief for their own perverse pleasure. Then, it seemed, they had tired of me and my petty struggles and moved on. Now I wasn't so sure. Maybe one of the twisted lesser Fates had been given a chance and was having her go at me.
I started thinking about all the weird weather we'd had this year. We had a long cold winter (unusual) a really wet spring (a bit unusual) and already 2 big typhoons early in the season.
Taiwan has these indigenous birds (the Black-Spoon Bills or something like that) that had suddenly flocked and then just flocked off, completely out of season. Even my wife had been nice to me lately. Things were just not right.
As I was turning this over in my mind, I hit the next climb and tried to jam up it in the big ring. This has always been an indication to me of when I am ready to race. If I can power my way over these babies then I am ready - I am at least at the point where I can hang. Once I start to toy with these climbs then I know I can be competitive. Right now, I am in the early hanging stages.
Anyway, as I was turning all this over in my mind, and cresting this climb,
I heard this honking and hissing behind me.
This was the final sign of the apocalypse. A big goose was hissing at me and chasing me over the top of the climb. He was about a breath away from getting a good taste of my hamstring!
If you've every been around these birds then you know that this is no joke. The have a bad temper and some bulk. At this point, if this bastage got a good piece of me I was going down and there would be some serious welts to go with my road rash.
Luckily he scared me just enough that I had an adrenalin rush and I opened a few meters between us as the grade eased off. But he didn't give up. He was pissed and he kept after me for another 50m or so. Finally I hung a left and he was quickly out of sight.
Now I had 1 more short popper to go and the last 14%+ leg breaker that serves as my reality check. After that it was a few short rollers (that don't count) and the last 20km home.
The thing is I just didn't know what to make of all this. I mean really. Was I being paranoid? Was this just some strange series of events that I was connecting together because I have a blog I was in need of some detritus?
I was a few hours into this ride and had slammed back 3 large bottles already. I needed a nature break. I stopped at a familiar spot and went about emptying my bladder. As I did I had a moment to look around and, specifically to look down at the collapsed riverbank below me.
A few years ago this had been a small stream with a little shack and some crops. Now it was an actual river, the shack long since washed away, and the quickly eroding field lay fallow. I was briefly amazed at how quickly and irrevocably things changed around here.
Then it was 2 shakes and on with my ride.
So which was I? The river? The riverbank? The shack (all washed up)? Or did none of this concern me? Was I just a casual observer getting in the way? And what about those wicked sisters - the Fates? Were they really messing with me? Or was I just looking for interesting stuff to talk about at our next poker game?
I still don't know. What I
do know is that I have a couple of 4-5 hour rides scheduled for the weekend. In the last few weeks I've survived rain, lightening, old age, all manner of fowl, my wife's temper and bodily injury. I'm either prepared for what's next or my luck has run out.
I'll let you all know on Monday.
The ride starts off at near sea level in Tainan County. This is where rice comes from, BTW.
The ride has about 20km of flat as I head towards the mountains. This gives me a good warm-up. This is a typical Chinese Gate.
After the warm-up, I cross over into Chaiyi County and the climbing begins.
I'm headed to the one on the bottom. That is up and over 2 mountains and then back again.
After 20 minutes or so of a 2%-4% grade, the real climbing begins around this left hander. I can also get my first peak of what the weather might be for later in the day.
This is part of a series of switchbacks that gains just over 500m in 5km. The pitches are between 10%-14% with the 'level' sections around 8%-10%. This climb is a good indicator of how I will feel the rest of the day.
Part way down the descent on the other side and I get a GOOD look at the weather ahead. Not too bad but there could be trouble. I don't mind the rain on these rides. It's 30C+ so I don't get cold on the descents. It's more about what condition the road might be in. More on that later.
I continue down the other side. The last time I road up this I was being chased by some ratty old, smoke belching, mud spewing, trucks driven by Whisbe drinking, Bin Lon chewing truck drivers on their way to lunch.
This was where I got my first good look at the trucks. Yikes!
More mountains. Does this ever get old? You can see several ridges in the distance. Some have roads, some don't. The roads that are there are tattered and small. I like those best.
I hint to all the Jr. Geologists as to how the mountains here were formed. In some parts of the country there are entire mountain sides with their layers exposed like this.
Part way up the second (bigger) climb and you can see the road, in the distance, where I took the last picture.
This is the real problem with rain in the mountains here. This was mostly cleared away last week after the typhoon. It is a small slide but it is still blocking almost a full lane. You need to be careful during descents. You can come ripping around a corner and come face to face with one of these.
This is a slightly bigger slide. Apparently it blocked the road completely just around the bend. I never got to see it though, as this was a far as I could get. It is about 5km from the summit. This means I lost this 5 km, the descent, of few ridges after that the turnaround and the climb back up. I was a little pissed but this is par for the course here. The worst part was that I usually get water and a coke at the turnaround. Not today. I was pretty low at this point so I had to sip a little less until I could find suppliers. No biggie.
