Tour de Taiwan

Last year, I attempted to bike 1000km (around 600 miles) around the island of Taiwan. I’d visited Taiwan before in 2020 (right before the pandemic) and randomly came across this idea that people do. There’s pretty good cycling infrastructure around the country and, recently, it has become quite the cycling paradise attracting tourists from all around the world to bike through the gorgeous mountains in or around the perimeter of the Sun Moon Lake.

Unfortunately, I did not finish the 1000 km as I had planned. Unbeknownst to me, I had proximal hamstring tendinopathy, an injury in the hamstring tendon that can take up to a year to fully heal. At the time of writing this, it has still not healed, and my journey going through, not one but, two injuries has been the source of tangible growth and maturity this year. I could write a whole separate post about that. But back to the focus of this one. I had ignored the signs of pain and stiffness and tried to push past them. My body was giving up quite readily and after just a day of riding about 65 miles in the rain with 20lbs worth of stuff attached to my bike, I was spent.

My friend and I quickly figured out we’d have to adjust the plans and index on our shared goal of having fun and eating our way through Taiwan. Being a David Goggins fan, it was quite difficult for me to give up so early in our pursuit. To come to peace with reality, however, I had to remind myself that moments of failure and hitting barriers are often our greatest lessons. And in hindsight, I wouldn’t change a thing. The injury rehabbing process has been quite difficult both mentally and physically. But besides the injury, I wouldn’t change a thing about how my Tour de Taiwan attempt actually went.

For starters, the number of serendipitous things that transpired because we happened to be at the right place at the right time is absolutely nuts. One of the days of riding through the prettiest parts of the perimeter route, we ended up riding alongside another group that had adults and kids riding bikes together. We somehow managed to stop at the same 7/11 convenience stores to take breaks. And during one of those breaks, one of the participants came up and randomly offered bananas and snacks to us. We were pretty confused, but started chatting and found out they were doing the exact same route.

It helped that my friend spoke Chinese. And we got along with them pretty well. They were a group of 7 autistic children and their parents who were riding around Taiwan as part of International Disability Day! It was inspiring to see the parents talk about their training and the support crew taking such good care in making sure everyone was hydrated, fed and safe on the route. They had a total of 3 vehicles: 2 sedans and one big van with all the luggage and snacks. They told us to join them and cheered us on during the route, shared their food and crewed us along with the kids they were guiding. It was hands down the most fun day of our tour because of these serendipitous interactions (and it was nice to feel cared for).

We tried Taiwan’s most famous lunch spot at Wutao Chishang Lunchbox Museum (map). Soon after lunch, we ran into a huge dust storm. We still had about 20 miles left to go, which could be done given we still had plenty of hours of sunshine left in the day. But my friend was getting really worried about visibility and skin issues due to the dust. We found out that the cycling group planned on riding 5 more miles in the dust storm to teach their kids to persevere despite challenges, but then would quickly pack all the bikes in the van and drive to their stop for the night. We ended up peeling off after deciding to ride a couple miles to a convenient train station (based on the schedules) and take the train back to our hotel.

Taiwan has truly been a cycling paradise: the weather was amazing, food to die for, and people so welcoming and kind. One major thing I learned from not having reached my goal last year is that desire is still as strong as ever. I’ll be back in Taiwan, and next time, well-trained and physically more prepared to finish the goal. It’s okay when things don’t work out, that’s the blessing of life: we never know what lessons we learn about the world or ourselves, and who we run into when our carefully carved out plans fall apart. Goals like these that give us motivation and meaning are all the more worth fighting for, twice, thrice, four times or more!