On April 20, 2015 Greg LeMond came to see Tony at A Bicycle Odyssey as part of the ongoing forty year celebration of Tony’s shop being in business and also to celebrate their long-term friendship. This video is a series of memories and observations shared while visiting.

It’s so nice to be on the bike again and I am almost as excited to get back to the States and ride as I am to do anything else once I’m there. The roads here were pretty good; there was little traffic and after a while I turned off the “bigger” road and followed a gravel road for about 4 km.

I saw so much random stuff today on a short bike ride that I’m still trying to grasp it. Where to begin? As far as on the bike, I cycled over a live snake, I almost crashed into a herd of cattle or water buffalo (not sure what they were), saw a man put a goat in something resembling a burlap sack, flip it on its side and then drive off with it straddling a scooter, and raced a kid (probably 7 years old) on an electric bicycle for the better part of a kilometer – he was fast!

Once I got to the hiking start for the waterfalls, I parked the bike and hiked up to the falls. It took me the better part of an hour to reach the top. The entire way I was swatting awake mosquitoes and random bugs. All was going smooth, until I looked down and had a spider the size of a deck of cards on my shirt, where I proceeded to flip out in the middle of the jungle almost rolling down the side of the mountain, haha (I laugh now but at the time I was screaming like a little girl). The falls weren’t that impressive, but it was nice to be in the shade for a while before heading back out on the bike and hitting up the hills again.

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150km starting in Puli, the geographical center of Taiwan, over Hehuanshan followed by an epic 65 km descent through Taroko National Park. The route was simple: follow the provincial hwy 14 until the split and then continue along the alternate up to the top of Hehuan. Afterwards, connect with the 8 east towards Hualien.

Eight hours in total on the bike; it was insane, but awesome. Amazing roads and sights, basically everything you could possibly want for a good ride.

The climb, which basically started more or less the second I left the hotel in Puli, took well over 5 hours, and seriously kicked my butt. I’d be willing to say that about three hours in I thought I was doing amazing, and then I realized how much further I had to go, an extra 10 km that I wasn’t expecting, about 50km of climbing, brutal. Elevation I think played a role, and flashbacks to Nepal replayed in my mind. Crawl along for a few minutes, stop to breathe….

After finally reaching the summit, I snapped some photos and then began the descent into Taroko. Time was everything, so off I went.  There were two short climbs immediately after a 12km drop from Hehuan, the second of which was testing my mental limits. I made it over and was finally rewarded with the seemingly endless downhill.

The descent was filled with crazy turns, canopied roads, dangerously pitch black tunnels (which I basically rolled into walls to get through – not fun and really scary), a monkey gang which started to amass and forced an end to my photo shoot, beautiful scenery, construction, random gravel patches in the road (not ideal when coming around a corner doing 55km/hr) and absolutely stunning scenery.

Couldn’t ask for more. I’m beat, but it was amazing. I’m so happy I didn’t leave the island without doing this ride, I never would have forgiven myself. Enjoy the photos!

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