[Heavy Breathing]
[Adventurous Music]
- [Simon] I swear that's further.
It's like the longest half K ever.
(dramatic music)
- [] We first heard about the
Taiwan KOM Challenge in 2015.
It's a 100 kilometre long race almost entirely uphill.
At the time, in fact, we wondered in the GCN show
if it was actually the most epic climb in the world.
Two years on and two trips to Taiwan later,
agonisingly still having yet to ride a bike there,
we finally got the call.
The KOM Challenge had invited us to race.
We were on our way.
Matt and I flew out separately.
I was due to spend a fascinating few days
filming some factory tours for GCN down in Taichung.
Matt meanwhile was being a celebrity.
Having finally met up in Taipei,
we drove down the east coast to Hualien,
the start town of the race.
Taiwan is an island in the Pacific Ocean,
off the coast of China, and southwest of Japan.
23 million people live there,
and although it's only 400 kilometres long,
it boasts over 250 mountains higher
than three thousand metres.
One of which has our names on it.
The Hualien Pass.
- [Phil] Let's talk real quick.
What are we doing here?
What are you here for?
- I'm gonna ride the KOM as fast as I can.
- You're gonna ride, okay, as fast, try again.
- I'm gonna race it, I'm gonna race the KOM.
- Try one more time.
- I'm gonna race!
- No.
Maybe you could help him out.
- Um.
- You're here to win.
- That's what, Phil, that's what I was gonna say.
- Okay, you flew all the way here.
Did you come to race to get second?
No, one mission.
- Okay.
- The course, it goes uphill.
- It's a very uphill course.
- It's probably why they call it the KOM Challenge.
- Yeah.
- So, the first 20K is up, and the second 20K is up.
- Okay.
- The third 20K is up.
- Really?
- And the last 20K, you wanna guess?
- Is up?
- Its also up.
- Okay.
- So you're quite good at going uphill fast.
Can you give us some tips on how to go uphill fast
for a long time?
(sigh)
- I wish I could help you.
- Looks like the time has finally come.
We have one hour now 'til the Taiwan KOM Challenge.
Two years in the making, and I must admit,
it's the first time I felt like, in a long, long time,
I can do the race.
I actually have done a proper toilet in the morning.
The nervousness is there, but its really here,
I can't believe it.
- Yeah, I mean, to be fair, it does feel slightly surreal,
because we got up at, I got up at a quarter past four,
and then now its five o'clock and so I don't really feel
like I'm particularly present.
Breakfast though has just been had.
I had a nice Science In Sport Go Energy bar.
- And a gel.
We had a little packed lunch, didn't we?
- We did, yeah, which we were eating.
- We've already eaten.
And we're just stuck biding our time, resting our legs
ahead of what's to come.
Here we have about a minute to go,
a couple of minutes to go.
(crowd talking)
That was all the hitters on the front row.
That's the wind we are facing.
And this is the nervousness we have here.
Anyway, we'll catch you later.
- Matt, quick, cheers.
- Yeah, fist bump.
(upbeat music)
- As we start out next to the beach, the route is
mercifully flat for the first 20 kilometres.
A left turn inland, though, signals the start of
the climbing up through the incredible Taroko Gorge.
After about 50 kilometres the gradient starts to bite,
up to about six percent or so.
Seemingly, everyone we met though, had a stark warning.
Save something for the final 10 kilometres.
Gradients of up to 20 percent, dizzying altitude and with
70 kilometres of climbing already in the legs.
Something to look forward to then.
For now though, we had some racing to do.
- We are, where are we?
About 45K in.
The kind of internal dialogue I'm in is
am I going to hard and am I going to pay for this?
And the answer is always I don't know.
So I'm just hanging in there.
(upbeat music)
- Well I hung on for as long as I could
in the front group.
I could have stayed with them for a lot longer,
but I know if I did it I would pay later,
so I'm just riding at my own speed now.
Still a very long way to go,
but it's amazing,
but its absolutely relentless and only gets worse.
(upbeat music)
One is done.
45K in.
Must admit I'm enjoying the scenery.
I'm not enjoying the constant pain.
(upbeat music)
- Right, this, this is me trying to be sensible.
I've just let the group go.
I saw Bahrain-Merida down the front
and start to drive the tempo.
So, I thought if there was ever a cue to leave,
that is it, but now irritatingly we're actually on
quite a flat stretch of road,
and so they're all set in a group and I'm on my tod.
Oh well, it's pretty nice though, isn't it?
Have a look at that.
There's Caley Fretz from Velonews.
I can see his altitude gills working from here.
- Not bad, thought I'd wait for ya.
- Thanks, man, I appreciate that.
- I do what I can.
(upbeat music)
- Okay.
I just stopped for a toilet.
And we got attacked by some dogs.
Still a long way to go.
But its one of the most amazing rides I've done in my life.
I'm pretty pumped, honestly.
Actually, it's jaw-droppingly beautiful.
(upbeat music)
- We've just gone past a sign saying half way
in terms of altitude, but as Caley kindly pointed out,
we've done quite a significant margin over half way
in terms of kilometres ridden.
So it doesn't take a genius to work out things are
about to get pretty steep.
Thanks for that Caley.
- Your welcome.
(upbeat music)
- Aw, you got it as well.
You know its a hard race when you have to
put your foot down or your feet down.
I'm struggling now, like, in my head I know I still got
well over 1,000 metres of altitude.
I'm breathing pretty heavily.
It's not helping being sat next to Caley who's just about
reached his home altitude.
It's gonna bite, it's gonna really bite.
(upbeat music)
Okay.
This is it.
This is what everyone talks about.
10 kilometres, an average of 10 percent.
I just necked my last energy gel.
I'm gonna have to suffer this one out.
(intense music)
- This is absolutely brutal.
(heavy breathing)
A bit of a view.
There you go.
We've still got 900 metres to go and climbing.
(dramatic music)
- I tell you what, despite all this world of pain
I've just put myself in, I can't help but look around
and see how flippin' amazin' it is.
And also, how incredibly fortunate
I am to be ridin' this bike.
6.1 kilos certainly not holding me back.
There's only one thing holding me back,
if I'm being completely honest.
(dramatic music)
Now there's not much competition between the presenters
believe it or not, but there is a small part of me that
knows that Matt is not far behind and I know he's like
the terminator and he's gonna be pushing so hard.
I can see it in my mind, he's hunting me down.
That's a welcome sight, five K to go, you can actually
see the top now.
It still feels out of reach at the minute.
This is absolutely brutal.
Never anything like it.
(dramatic music)
I swear that's further.
It's like the longest half K ever.
(cheering)
(dramatic music)
I'm not entirely sure I ever worked harder
for a medal before
just for finishing, but that feels good.
This is the top of the Taiwan KOM Challenge
and that was an amazing experience.
A true challenge, despite trying to pace myself early on,
just the last 15K has just been insane.
So steep in parts were high we were like 3,000 metres plus.
So I still gotta get my breath back and soak it all up.
I actually chuffed a bit to go up.
So the dust is settling around us.
Matt, what did you make of that mate?
- You know what, I don't think words can convey it.
I think you need to come here to experience it for yourself.
But what I can say is that it was epic in every sense of the
word, including the effort that I put in.
I don't think I've ever gone quite as hard for so long in my
entire career, and just look at the scenery, it's,
actually what I'm talking about, the hairs are standing
up on the back of my neck, it's absolutely amazing.
A day to remember.
And weirdly, although I suffered like a dog,
I wanna come back, yeah.
- Oh God, from the first section through the Taroko Gorge
which is just the magnitude is just incredible isn't it?
And then you start riding through that rain forest
and twisting up, and then it goes a little bit dark
when you run out of oxygen and things get a bit steep,
but like you said, it's what cycling is all about.
Which is doing something where you wonder whether or not
you're actually capable of finishing.
And then you do, and then it just feels great, don't it?
- Yep.
- We got certificates and everything.
- We have, yeah and our medallions, as you can see,
that really was quite something.
So, you asked me if I wanna come back, you wanna come back?
- Oh yeah, I actually love Taiwan, mate, I'm definitely
gonna be coming back, yeah right, I suppose we just
leave it there mate.
All there is left to do is to say
make sure you subscribe to GCN.
To do so, just click on the globe.
- Now, for another one of our challenges,
me and Dan rode the Maratona in the Dolomites,
how about clicking just down here.
- Yeah, and if you wanna find out a little bit more
about our very special KOM bikes, then click just down there
where we talk you through them.