Lunch Ride

Sunset walk

A watch beeping wakes me up from a day dream. It's pitch black, all I can see ahead is a rugged steep narrow road and I'm zooming down it on my bike. My brain is in auto pilot, avoiding the pot holes without really thinking . By the time the beeping stops, I have come back to my senses. 24h ago, the same 5am alarm was getting me out of bed for an epic ride that I had on my mind for a very long time. Yes, I remember now, I've just everested the KOM hill and I'm on my final downhill! Moments later the day slowly breaks and I can recognize the iconic Taroko gorge, opening up on the east Taiwan coast. That's it, I made it.
And everything went pretty much to plan. Yes, it sounds boring, but it did. But the feelings were unexpected. The first hill, by day, ended up being the hardest. The start seemed to take forever, the low gradients of the first half making it hard to think I will ever get to 8848m. And then that final 10km wall, oh there it was, flashbacks from the KOM race 1 year ago where I totally blew up right there. This time I feel OK, I've been saving energy, in endurance mode, and I setup my bike with lower gears, but I'm thinking I will have to do this again, tonight, and that seems unbelievable.
Then at the top I meet Emma Pooley and her friends, on their final day of bike-packing around Taiwan. It's a short chat, but during the conversation it slips, and I say it. There is no turning back now, I told them I'm doing an Everest, I have to do it!
The second climb is bliss. I love riding at night, and this is no exception . Stars, the moon, fireflies, sounds of animals (or is it a water pipe?), it's such a high. With the Garmin screen blacked out and not really seing much of the road ahead, it's just really serene and zen, one stroke after an other. And, without really noticing, I'm at the top again!
This is when it got tough. A quick glance at my Garmin : it's 1degC. I'm prepared but it's still going to be a long cold ride down. And, as the traffic and campers start to thin out, I notice that there is an ultra running race, some guys crazier than me maybe?
Back down around 1am, good timing. Now only 1300m of climbing to do. Oh but they took ages... Luckily the crazy ultra-runners are keeping me motivated, we "ja-yo" each other as loudly as possible to keep us awake in the middle of the pitch black night.
It had crossed my mind to maybe keep going and do a full 3rd climb, or even just go up to the sacred tree or the police station... But no way, I'm going to add an extra few meters just for safety, that's all, and at 8888m I call it "a day" (it's been just over 23h now) . It turns out, the tunnels don't log elevation, so there's actually plenty of margin there.
The bike : my trusty Boardman Endurance disc prototype, 3 years old now, took me on my first Everesting (on the bike's first ride!) and Paris-Brest-Paris. This time, fitted with 30c tubeless tyres (awesome to relax a bit on that rough downhill) and a sub compact 30/46 chainset (it doesn't make it "easy" though) . I carried all my gear and had to buy and drop extra supplies on the first climb, since no shops are opened at night on that road.

Thanks to Karen and the boys for letting me skive off at the last minute! 

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Bryce 🚴 Bénat

Everesting KOM Taiwan

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