2008 Tour de Taiwan Stage 1: A triple-crown honor for Kam-po Wong

2008 Tour de Taiwan, with 7 different divisions and 8 stages, started yesterday at Love River of Kaohsiung City as its first stage. Not only a site event named "Walking in the Love River for World Games 2009" (in Chinese: 愛河健走，世運加油) was held to support the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung City, but also a damn hot weather challenged for cyclists' physical strength.

In the starting of the 3rd lap, there was a sudden blow sound near the 50m flag. According to some witnesses, a cyclist from Health Net Pro Cycling Team was forced to quit this race because his tire blew suddenly due to a damn hot weather and the temperature of the race lane progressively rose up.

By the way of this race, not every cyclist could get rid off the chasing groups until some 5 cyclists suddenly get rid off them to become the leading group. Finally, Kam-po Wong reverse this condition in the final lap and won the champion of this stage. Indirectly, he also won the Asian and general leading champion in this stage.

In the After Race Media Interview, Wikinews Reporter Rico Shen questioned about his reversal in this stage and the future challenges for next 7 stages, Wong said:

Coincidentally, before the racing, a team member of Jet Fuel Coffee Cycling Team from Canada said to Wikinews:

Key Winners

Item Racer / Team Stage Champion Kam-po Wong(Hong Kong Pro Cycling Team) Asian Leader(Blue Jersey) Overall Leader(Yellow Jersey) Local (Taiwan) Leader(White Jersey) Po-hung Wu(Kinan CCD) King of Sprint(Green Jersey) John Murphy(Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis) Group Leader Merida Europe Team