February is usually the month most people write off: short, cold, stuck between the holidays and spring. For me, it was 28 days of getting out the door every single day and logging 1,600 kilometers across Taiwan. Here’s how it went. If you want to listen to my stream of consciousness-like monologue, here is a 14-minute take; the subtitles were pulled with Whisper – there are a few mistakes I neglected to correct – but overall it works, or perhaps it is something to put one to sleep, lol…
A Little Background
I’m American, originally from North Carolina, but I’ve spent the last 27 years living in Asia, Japan for about 11 of those years, and Taiwan for much of the rest. A few years back, I came across Lynn Wen’s Strava write-ups. She’d just returned to Taiwan from New York and was putting out these detailed, enthusiastic posts in English about her cycling trips around Taiwan.
I reached out, we started chatting about various things, and before long, she asked: “Do you want to join the team?”
My answer was an immediate yes.
Who Was Major Taylor?
If you grew up in the American school system, especially in the South, you probably encountered Major Taylor during Black History Month. He was a world champion track cyclist in the late 1800s and early 1900s, one of the first Black athletes to achieve international sports fame, and he did it while facing down relentless racism at every turn. I first learned about him in middle school, probably around 7th grade. Like a lot of things you absorb as a kid, it stayed with me, just sort of filed away in the background.
Fast forward to age 46, sitting in Taiwan, and suddenly this piece of history I’d carried for decades had a direct connection to something I was actually doing on my bike every day. That felt meaningful.
The Team and the Challenge
The Major Taylor International Cycling Challenge runs through February — all 28 days of it. Teams around the world log their kilometers (mainly the US and us here in Taiwan), riding in tribute to his legacy. Our Taiwan team this year had 73 riders, which made for a lively group chat (my Chinese reading comprehension got a real workout).
I signed up, committing to 1,600 kilometers for the month. That works out to roughly 57 kilometers a day — not heroic by any stretch, but it does mean getting out the door every single day for a couple of hours, rain or shine. My usual monthly mileage sits around 1,200 kilometers, so I was adding about 400K on top of my normal routine.
No trainer, no indoor rides. Just Taiwan’s roads.
How the Month Actually Played Out
Week one started rough. Day one was rainy, and I got in a 30K evening ride in the dark in Nankan — not exactly an inspiring start. But once I found my rhythm, it clicked. My go-to loop became Wanshou Road near home: a gentle 3% grade, about 4.5 kilometers up and 4.5 down. Nothing scenic, nothing technical. Do it four or five times, add the ride home, and you’ve banked 50+ kilometers without overthinking it. After nearly 20 years living in the area, I know exactly which roads are worth riding and which ones to skip.
The weather in February cooperated more than I expected. A few cold days, but nothing that kept me off the bike.
Mid-month, I headed down to Taiwan’s East Coast for the Lunar New Year. Highway 11 was the main event, if you’ve never ridden the East Coast, it’s genuinely spectacular. I strung together four back-to-back 85K days out there, which felt great. I also ended up riding for a couple of hours with a Japanese guy named Zaki, a 30-something Shimano sales rep who was doing a fixed-gear (44×17) loop around the entire island. We chatted in Japanese and English the whole way, which was a nice throwback to my Kyushu days. Great energy, incredibly positive guy, good times.
By the final week, work had picked back up, and I knew the numbers were secured. I took it easy the last few days. No regrets.
The Numbers
- 1,630 km completed
- 73 hours in the saddle
- 16th place on the outdoor riding leaderboard
- Rode every day (essentially)
I was floating around 7th–10th for most of the month in the outdoor riding category, but many guys were going truly hard, man, a handful of riders were logging 200 to 300+ kilometers a day – on a trainer, epic stuff. Honestly, good for them. The whole point is that everyone finishes. Anyone who completes the challenge wins, in my book.
Why This Matters
Here’s the part that actually gets me.
I’m an American who grew up in North Carolina, attending a school that was about 85–90% black. I ran track, anchored the 4×400, and Black History Month was real and present throughout my education. Major Taylor was part of that. But then I spent decades abroad, and that background knowledge sort of went dormant — still there, but not active.
Now I’m a middle-aged expat in Taiwan joining a team of all Taiwanese riders, organized by a Taiwanese woman, all riding in honor of a 19th-century Black American cyclist that most of them probably never learned about in school. And it works. The team is genuinely enthusiastic, the cross-cultural organization between the Taiwan side and the US organizers is impressive, and the whole thing has this quiet power to it that’s hard to articulate.
The future I want to live in looks a lot like this event, not from a retrospective viewpoint, but from a current present-day-now reality.
What’s Next
I’m already at nearly 3,000 kilometers for the year, and I’m eyeing 14,000 by December. We’ll see how that holds up.
Will I do the Major Taylor Challenge again next year? Without question. Same goal, same mentality: get outside, ride every day, and be part of something bigger than your local loop.
If you’re a cyclist and haven’t heard of this challenge before, look it up. There’s a team out there for you.
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