Pingtung Liudui Hakka Cultural Station: The Flattest Day of the Tour de Taiwan Is Also the Most Thrilling

No Mountains, But 74 Riders Crossed the Line Together

Stage 4 of the Tour de Taiwan, at the Liudui Hakka Cultural Park in Pingtung. 131.2 kilometers, with only 286 meters of total elevation gain.

Seeing those numbers, you might think: “This stage must be boring, right?”

Dead wrong.

When Everyone Knows It’s a Bunch Sprint

This was like a 131-kilometer game of cat and mouse. Everyone knew it would end in a bunch sprint, but everyone wanted to try their luck at breaking away.

The result? All day long, no breakaway succeeded. 74 riders crossed the finish line with the exact same time of 2:44:49.

This situation isn’t rare in bike racing, but every time you see it, it’s still awe-inspiring: more than 70 people, riding for over two hours, ending with zero difference.

A Tour of the Liudui Hakka Region

The route cleverly linked together the Hakka cultural areas of Pingtung’s Liudui:

Gaoshu → Dajin → Taishan → Yancheng → Changzhi → Linluo → Zhutian → Chaozhou → Jiadong → Xinpi → Wanluan (pork knuckles!) → Neipu → Liudui Hakka Cultural Park (finish)

If the riders had time to stop for Wanluan pork knuckles, it would probably be the happiest day of their lives. Too bad they could only whiz past the hometown of pork knuckles at 47.76 km/h.

The Sprint Points Battle

Even though it was a flat stage, the fight for the three intermediate sprint points was still fierce:

Jeroen Meijers of the Philippine team Victoria Sports took the top spot at two sprint points on this day, showing excellent intermediate sprint ability.

The Green Jersey Battle Heats Up

After Stage 4, the gap between the top three in the sprint classification was suffocatingly tight:

Only 2 points apart! This meant that any sprint point on the final stage could decide the fate of the green jersey. (Spoiler: in the end, Hennequin took the green jersey with a comeback, thanks to his Stage 5 win.)

Suspense in Every Jersey

Not just the green jersey — heading into the final stage, almost every classification was still up in the air:

With every award still in doubt, Stage 5 became a true “super showdown.”

The Meaning of a Flat Stage

Many people think flat stages aren’t worth watching, but the Pingtung Liudui stage proved otherwise: the flattest routes often produce the fiercest sprints; the smallest climbs can hold the greatest drama.

Related Reading

• Tour de Taiwan Tactics Classroom: A Complete Breakdown of the Art of Attack and Defense in Bunch Sprints
• Kaohsiung Stage: A 146-km Tour of Southern Taiwan from Fo Guang Shan to the World Games Stadium
• Tour de Taiwan Data Corner: 635 Kilometers Told Through Numbers
• Taiwan Cycling Challenge: A Daily Record of Riding Around Taiwan in 9 Days