In the middle of his busiest time of the year, Lee Rodgers still managed to send in his Lowdown from the Taiwan KOM Challenge. But it’s not all plain sailing, a landslide is one of those problems even Lee just couldn’t plan for. We were almost home. Just 120 kilometers away from delivering 14 of the worlds leading cycling journalists, a triple Haute Route winner and a soon-to-be Pro Tour rider and Vuelta a Espaa KOM winner to the finish line, the final awards ceremony of the Taiwan KOM Challenge 2015 in Taipei. Taiwan Cyclist Federation officials, government ministers and a throng of cycling fans were waiting for us. And then, on the one and only road from the city that hosts the start of the race back to the capital, strung out perilously like a discarded black shoelace along the almost sheer cliffs, a road known locally as The Highway of Death, our convoy of vans ran into a huge landslide that blocked the entire road. Serenity now, Lee, serenity now.Despite blood pressure levels rising almost as high as the KOM mountain course, which goes from 0m to 3,275 (actually its 3,500m of total elevation) and a spike in adrenalin levels that would probably have seen me busted for doping had I been tested at that very moment, I did my best impression of the Mona Lisa and smiled what might have actually looked more like a twitchy grimace as I reassured everyone that all would be fine. ....
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