On Friday 34 year-old Australian road racer Ben Dyball won the 2023 Taiwan KOM Challenge pro-am hillclimb, set a new course record and defeated Team Jayco AIUla WordTour pros David Pena and Simon Yates.

Started in 2012 the race affords amateurs the opportunity to race alongside professionals on a grueling 105km route that climbs from sea level to a summit finish at 3275 meters. The punishing ascent has an average 3.5% gradient and a maximum of 15.7%, making it one of the toughest hillclimb races in the world.

After finishing in second place twice, Dyball (Victoire Hiroshima) attacked early in the race and reached the fog covered summit in 3:16:09, almost four minutes faster than multiple grand tour champion Vincenzo Nibali’s 2017 record of 3:19:54. More amazing is Dyball’s phenomenal winning time beat his previous best time by ten minutes!

Second place went to 23 year-old WorldTour climbing specialist David Peña (3:20:30) of Colombia, who finished over four minutes behind Dyball, with Japanese riders Kaneko Sohei (3:23:02) and Yuji Tanaka (3:24:09) next. Simon Yates (3:35:55) finished 11th.

Dybal credits his win to extensive experience on the route, “You have to adjust your strength and maintain your rhythm, especially the last 10 kilometers, which is the key to victory. I won because of my experience. After all, I have ridden it many times,” he said afterwards.

An out of breath Pena just just thought it was damn hard, “Today was really really hard – harder than I expected. I was thinking the last hour and a half to start pushing but it was maybe two and a half hours at a really high pace.”

In the women’s race, Shoko Dashiki (O-ence) of Japan took the queen of the mountain title with a final time of 4:05:26, 12 minutes ahead of Tsubasa Makisa (4:17:15) .

Over 900 cyclists participated in the 2023 Taiwan KOM Challenge hillclimb.

Photos/Media: Taiwan KOM Challenge