The Taiwan PChome Racing Team, established this year and the second professional cycling team in Taiwan, truly lived up to expectations at the Tour de Taiwan, putting on an impressive performance. Their star rider, Feng Chun-kai, secured fourth place in the first stage with a time of 3 hours, 12 seconds, and 1 millisecond — the best result for a Taiwanese rider in a single stage of the Tour de Taiwan in nearly two years. Feng expressed hope to build on this momentum and aim for even better results in the fifth and sixth stages, where he feels most confident.
In fact, to promote the new team’s name, Feng rode especially hard from the start. During over 50 attacks throughout the race, he managed to take the lead several times. Notably, at the first climb, 12 kilometers into the race, Feng successfully claimed first place. However, at the second climb, 50 kilometers in, he was too slow to catch up when Malaysia’s Murilo Fischer surged ahead, causing him to miss out on the first stage’s King of the Mountains title.
Another disappointment came just before the finish line during the sprint. Feng failed to notice a sudden attack by Hong Kong’s Zhang Jingwei, who overtook him right before the line, costing Feng the blue jersey for the Asian champion. Reflecting on this, Feng said, “It was really a pity today. I was just one move away from winning both the red and blue jerseys.”
Nonetheless, Feng was the top-performing domestic rider and gave himself an 80 out of 100. He explained, “Aside from the final stage, the Taipei City circuit race, which I hadn’t trained for, I’ve practiced extensively on all other courses — especially the Miaoli segment in the fifth stage and the New Taipei City segment in the sixth. These two stages were key to my strong showing.”
Over the past two months, Feng has been training with a daily distance of 150 kilometers. With support from his teammates as well as riders from the RTS-Monton Racing Team and Specialized Novatec, he has a good chance of winning a stage title. Yesterday’s performance was a small test, but it brought surprising results and served as excellent publicity for the Taiwan PChome Racing Team.