Tour de Taiwan, the nation’s premier professional cycling race and part of the Union Cycliste Internationale Asia Tour, commenced March 11 in Taipei City.
Nearly 200 cyclists from 29 countries and territories representing 19 teams, including six locals competing for Team Taiwan, are battling it out over the 718.8-kilometer north-south route.
After the 83.2-kilometer Taipei stage, which was won by tour debutant Hayato Okamoto of the Japanese national team with a time of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 55 seconds, the cyclists will contest the next three in Taoyuan City and Hsinchu and Nantou counties before completing the final one at Dapeng Bay March 15 in Pingtung County.
Hot local favorites include Chen Chine-liang and Feng Chun-kai of Team Taiwan. The former won best rider from Asia honors at last year’s Tour, while the latter is a three-time best climber champion in previous editions.
Foreign riders to keep an eye on are Colombian Edwin Avila of Israel Cycling Academy, winner of the Tour’s 2017 points classification category, and Spaniard Benjamin Prades of Japan’s Team Ukyo, winner of the general classification category the same year.
Established in 1978 by King Liu, founder of Taiwan-based bicycle-maker Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Tour de Taiwan was first included in the UCI Asia Tour in 2005.
Since 2003, the Tour has climbed from the lowest 2.6 grade on the UCI scale for international cycling competitions to its current position as a 2.1 race, one level below the UCI Continental Circuits in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania and two below the UCI World Tour events, such as the prestigious Grand Tours in France, Italy and Spain. (SFC-E)
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