In Motion Asia: Outdoor Adventures in Taiwan and Asia

Oct 2009 - Taiwan Racing Update

Taiwan Racing update & other news courtesy of Craig at www.taiwanracing.com

For those who raced in the Taidong Triathlons over the weekend I hope you are recovering well after a great race. It was nice to have some cooperative weather suitable for racing in. It was great to see so many new faces giving triathlon a go for the first time. I hope you are hooked and we will see you at the next race.

Below is some information on upcoming races, race reports, photos, race results, the national team and some links to Ironman Kona which takes place this weekend.

UpComing Races - Triathlon

Childrens Events go to www.ctta.org.tw

November 28th - Kaohsiung Love River Triathlon KAOHSIUNG

* Love River, Kaohsiung
* Distance - 1500m Swim / 40km Cycle / 10km Run
* Start Time - 7am
* Entries Close 10th October
* Entry Fee - NT$2500 (or when quota of 600 participants fills up)
* Race Map - http://www.ironman.url.tw/2009浪漫愛河國際鐵人三項競賽路線圖.pdf
* Race Entry Form Individual - http://www.ironman.url.tw/2009%20浪漫愛河國際鐵人三項競賽報名表.pdf
* Race Entry Form Relay - http://www.ironman.url.tw/2009%20浪漫愛河國際鐵人三人接力賽競賽報名表.pdf
* Website www.ironman.url.tw

December 20th - Dong Gang Da-pen Bay Triathlon PINGTUNG

* Venue Da-Pen Bay, Dong Gang, Pingtung
* Distance - 1500m Swim / 40km Cycle / 10km Run
* Start Time - 8am
* Entries Close 31st October
* Entry Fee NT$2200
* Entry Form http://www.taipeimarathon.org.tw/全國賽/2009年東港大鵬灣國道全國鐵人三項競賽報名表doc%20_1_.pdf
* Website: www.tsta.org.tw

October 10th - Hawaii Ironman World Championships HAWAII www.ironman.com
October 10th - Asian Aquathlon Champs (Palembang) INDONESIA www.triathlon.org
October 11th - Palembang ITU Asia Cup INDONESIA www.triathlon.org
October 17th - Hong Kong ITU Premier Asia Cup HONG KONG www.triathlon.org
November 8th - Lombok Triathlon INDONESIA http://www.lomboktriathlon.com/
December 6th - Laguna Phuket Triathlon THAILAND http://www.lagunaphukettriathlon.com/

Upcoming Races - Cycling

October 18th - TTT and ITT Cycle Race ChungHua, Taichung County

October 31st/November 1st - Giant Cup Road and MTB races

* Venue: Dajia, Taichung County
* National Club Champs Cycle Race 7 - Criterium and Hill Race
* National Club Champs MTB Race 3 - Downhill, XC
* Website: Taiwan National Cyclist Federation www.cyclist.org.tw
* Entries - http://www.cyclist.org.tw/index.php?fn=news&fn1=info&no=A&no1=160&no5=C

Criterium
44km - E20, E30, E40, M15, M20, M25, M30
33km - M35, M40, M45
22km - M50, M55, W20, W30

Hill Climb: 2.5km

Downhill: 1.2km

XC:
12km - E20, E30, E40
8km - M15, M20, M25, M30, M35
6km - M40, M45, M50, M55
4km - W20, W30

November 14th National Club Cycle Series Race - Northcoast and Yangmingshan Taipei www.cyclist.org.tw

November 6-9th Tour de Okinawa JAPAN http://www.cyclist.org.tw/index.php?fn=news&fn1=info&no=A&no1=169&no5=C
November 20-22nd Tour De Bintan INDONESIA http://www.tourdebintan.com/

Upcoming Races - Run

Nov 7 - 10th Taroko Gorge Marathon RUN - presented by K-SWISS

* Venue: Taroko Gorge, Hualien
* Distances: Marathon, Half Marathon, 5k
* Entries: Details provided soon
* Website: Taipei Marathon
* Website: K-Swiss Taiwan

Upcoming Races - Other

October 17th - Chiayi DUATHLON

* Venue: Chiayi
* Run 8km / Bike 65km / Run 8km
* Race Start: 7am
* Entries: September 20th or 600pax
* Cost: NT$1,500

Photos

CTTA (Chinese Taipei Triathlon Association ) photos http://www.wretch.cc/album/ctta993e11

If anyone knows of website links to photos from races around Taiwan please send me the links so we can share them with the TaiwanRacing email distribution list.

Race Reports

I will be placing race reports up on the www.taiwanracing.com website with photos in the next few weeks.

Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) National Triathlon Team

The Chinese Taipei National team are coming to the end of another racing year. The athletes have had a busy summer with a training camp in Gansu China at altitude, Asia cup races in Singapore and China and also Asian Champs in Incheon Korea. You can see race reports at www.taiwanracing.com. In the last few weeks the athletes have been kept busy with local races including Yilan, Beautiful Taitung Triathlon and the Taidong 123 & 51.5km races.

Every two years the Chinese Taipei National Sports teams go through a buildup to either Asian Games or Olympic Games. At present the athletes are nearly have way through a build-up to the 2010 Asian Games which will be held in Guanzhou, CHINA from November 12-27th. Triathlon began the build-up with 16 athletes based at the National Training Center in Zuoying on February 1st 2009. The Yilan Triathlon in September was a selection event which will see 12 athletes continue for the next 6 months of build-up. In January there will be a further selection event which will see the team reduced to 8 from February 2010 and in September 2010 the team will be reduced to 6 before two athletes are finally selected to compete for Chinese Taipei at the 16th Asian Games.

So what is the team up to for the next few months? Shortly the team of 12 will reassemble at the training center where they will have daily access to the national triathlon coaches, support staff, sports medicine team, sport scientists and training facilities. The athletes are able to continue their studies with lecturers bought into the training center to teach each day. Four of the athletes will travel to Indonesia and Hong Kong with myself for events in the next two weeks, while most of the other athletes will begin a preparation phase of developing technique and endurance. Five athletes that i will be directly coaching will compete in the Giant Cup Cycle criterium race and the K-Swiss sponsored Taroko Half Marathon and 5km events. The Cycle race will help the athletes to improve their bike handling skills, gain more experience of criterium style cycling (where they have to react to attack and counter attacks while staying in a tight bunch), gain some important speed work and for those athletes who are sponsored by Giant a chance to support to their loyal sponsors. The running race provides the athletes with some high intensity racing, an opportunity to run fast with fresh legs (not a 1500m swim and 40km cycle beforehand) with their friends and for those sponsored by K-Swiss to support their sponsors.

The four athletes travelling with me to Palembang, Indonesia and Hong Kong, thanks to the support of K-Swiss, will have 3 races in 8 days. October 10th Asian Aquathlon Champs (1km swim / 2.5km run), October 11th Palembang ITU Asia Cup Triathlon (1.5km swim / 40km cycle / 10km run) and October 17th Disneyland ITU Premier Asia Cup Hong Kong (1.5km swim / 40km cycle / 10km run). Wu Kuan Jung, Wei Chen Chan, Hsieh Shen Yen and Wei Chih Hsiang will use these 3 races to gain valuable Asia Cup and ITU ranking points, more exposure to international draft-legal events, work on areas of weakness and to maximize their strengths. With 3 races against some of the best athletes around the world, they will be able to learn from each race and try to make improvements in the following race. Each race will gain in intensity with the Hong Kong race including 40 elite male athletes toeing the start line. They will get to race against athletes in the top 20 in the world including Dimitry Polyansky who finished 6th at the World Championship Final and is 9th in the world rankings. Both triathlon races also provide different courses with Palembang being a lake swim and totally flat on bike and run, and Hong Kong being a sea swim, cycle being hilly and the run mainly flat. This will allow the athletes to focus on different areas of improvement and race strategy. With the swim becoming very crucial at the world class level of ITU draft-legal racing (45 sec separated the top 60 men at World Champs), the athletes will get 3 races where they will be red-lining it on the swim to make sure they either get into the first bike group or the best bike group possible to give themselves a chance at gaining a top placing.

Kona is this weekend October 10th 2009

Saturday October 10th is shaping up to be another classic Hawaii Ironman event. The men's and women's pre-race talk is quite different. In the women's event, Chrissie Wellington is a clear cut favorite to repeat her last two years stunning wins. she smashed the women's worlds fastest Ironman time going 8hr30min this year and just keeps getting faster every race. Lindsay Corbin, Miranda Carfrae, Leanda Cave (K-Swiss), Heather Gollnick (K-Swiss), Belinda Granger (K-Swiss), Rebekah Keat and Samantha McGlone are my favorites to steal the show.

The men's race is more open with so many unknowns entering the battle for supremacy. Craig Alexander has had another fantastic year of racing including a 1.11 half marathon split in Muskoka 70.3 race a couple of weeks ago. Chris McCormick, on the new Specialized Shiv TT Bike, always brings his A game. Eneko Llanos is Mr. consistent and has been knocking on the door for a while. Andy Potts, Rasmus Henning and Terenzo Bozzone (Specialized, K-Swiss) are the real dark horses and probably the biggest threat is the number 1 ranked Ironman in 2009, K-Swiss athlete Luke McKenzie. he has won 3 Ironman events this year and finished second by less than a minute in his last race in Louisville. We look forward with anticipation to see how Asia's number 1 Ironman athlete Park Byung Hoon (K-Swiss) will go in his first Kona as a professional.

For all the action check out the links below:

• www.ironman.com
• Womens odds - http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/2009_IMH_Women_s_Odds__1051.html
• Mens odds - http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/2009_IMH_Men_s_Odds__1050.html
• http://www.competitor.com/
• www.xtri.com
• www.slowtwitch.com
• www.insidetriathlon.com
• www.active.com
• www.irontalk.com

Don't live on what you did yesterday, create something special today!

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