Veteran female cyclist Huang Hexun, with 15 years of racing experience, shone in yesterday’s mountain bike race. Starting from Jianjing and taking turns leading her teammates in a paceline, she powered all the way to the top of Tiezhen Mountain to claim the gold medal in the 30-and-under age group. Coupled with her wins in the road circuit race and cross-country race the previous day, she alone secured three gold medals, setting a new record. Xiao Meiyu took home two golds.
Yesterday’s Giant Cup cycling race began with the morning mountain stage, starting at Dajia Stadium and led off the line by the Electric-Temple Trio Gods, then winding through downtown Dajia before ascending Tiezhen Mountain. The mountain race once again saw dominance by Taiwan’s Forward Racing Team, with Feng Junkai and Xiao Meiyu taking the overall men’s and women’s titles respectively.
Feng Junkai, who won the road race the day before yesterday and added the mountain race gold medal yesterday, said: “I stuck close to Liu Shuming over the final kilometer and then made my move on the big turn just before the finish.” Last year, Feng had a crash in the cross-country race. This year, to ensure he can compete smoothly in the second half of the season, he gave up the cross-country event—otherwise, he could have matched Huang Hexun with three individual golds.
Due to a fatal crash involving a female rider during the June Yunlin road race, this year’s Giant Cup saw a 40% drop in female participants. Huang Hexun, a female rider from the Taichung Haohan Team who won three gold medals in the 30-and-under category, suggested that the women’s competition should feature an elite group to both ensure the safety of top riders and reduce pressure on amateur female participants.
Huang Hexun, who is gradually transitioning into coaching, finds that winning gold medals is no longer her greatest joy. At the Giant Cup, she noticed issues with the grouping system and hopes the organizers will create a separate elite women’s category instead of mixing all female riders together, so as to avoid a repeat of the Yunlin road race tragedy. She stated: “The psychological pressure of racing alongside everyone is intense; some riders are afraid.”
Yesterday afternoon’s downhill trail race was an intense and dangerous event, where riders navigated through the forests of Tiezhen Mountain and over obstacles. The elite category was won by Jiang Shengshan of the Azonic Dan Bike Team with a time of 59.35 seconds; the women’s champion was Zhou Peini of the ORBEA Basque Team, with a time of 1 minute and 20.57 seconds.