Stage 4: Tai Po - Tai Po, 144km
GPM:
Bride’s Pool Waterfall (cat.3) 1,2km @ 5,3%
Tai Po (大埔, originally written 大步 - there is some confusion as to whether the second character was originally meant with the third tone, meaning ‘port’, or the sixth, meaning ‘step’, as Cantonese has more distinct tones than standard Chinese, and the area’s trading history means it is unclear whether the name derived from Cantonese locals or from Hakka or other Yue groups trading along the South China Sea) is one of the oldest inhabited places in Hong Kong, with attested settlement since the Stone Age. The name refers to a whole area of eastern New Territories, but specifically refers to the Tai Po New Town, a planned town that essentially merged Tai Po Market and Tai Po Old Market with new settlements completing the prior gap between the two. The area is commonly used for ITTs in national cycling in Hong Kong, hosting the national championships in the format in 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 (the most recent winner being Chu Tsun Lai, a 23 year old prospect) as well as TT stages of the Tour of South China Sea in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. The national Road Race has also taken place in Tai Po in 2011 and 2018.
Kwong Fuk Road, Tai Po - the start/finish for our stage
With Castle Peak Road the main logistical hub for the western side of Hong Kong, Tai Po was a major stopping point on the Kowloon-Canton (i.e. Guangzhou) railway (and for this reason it now houses the Hong Kong Railway Museum), but long before this it was an established trading spot, with Tolo Harbour and the islands therein revealing archaeological sites showing a history of pearl farming going back thousands of years. This peaked during the Song Dynasty, but then started to decline, and by the early Qing Dynasty had almost entirely been replaced by a fishing economy. It largely fell under the influence of the Tang Clan (鄧族), one of the five great clans of the New Territories, and the largest and most famous - in the west this is often erroneously attributed as the origin for the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, but their name actually came from a fictitious oppositional group to the Shaolin monks in wuxia cinema, translated as “Wudang Sect” nowadays, but in old Wade-Giles transcription and with interpretation based on Cantonese use of characters rather than Mandarin, “sect” became replaced by “clan”. During British colonial times, the town acquired its railway station and grew into the fashion of a typical British style market town in terms of its amenities, with Tai Po Old Market (a neighbouring town) retaining more of its traditional character, being isolated from the railway but close to Tai Po Market with the two balancing off one another; the area remained in that fashion until the economic expansion of Hong Kong in the second half of the 20th Century made the establishment of New Towns in the New Territories a necessity, with the urban expansion connecting the two from the mid-1970s onwards, the term “Tai Po” has become ambiguous, being used variously to mean the old heart of Tai Po Market (Tai Po Old Market tends to exclusively be called by that name), the Tai Po New Town developments, the urban agglomeration as a whole, or the entire region of eastern New Territories in which the area lies.
Tai Po from the air. Tai Po old market is in the top right, Tai Po Market, the main core of the town and where our start/finish is is on the left centre, the original Tai Po New Town development is the high-rises between the two, then there are the later expansions along the Lam Tsuen estuary toward the bottom and the industrial estate at the very bottom
This stage consists of four laps of a 36km circuit which starts and finishes on Kwong Fuk Road, the main thoroughfare of Tai Po Market. It’s a mostly flat stage with some undulating sections, and is the most suited stage for the sprinters of the week, as much like stage 1 there is only the one climb on the circuit, but not only is the circuit much longer meaning far fewer times to ascend that climb, but also the climb is both easier and far further from the finish. As such this will be a convenient recovery day after two GC-relevant days for many of the riders, although there are some uncategorised digs up and down here and there on the circuit as well. Nevertheless, none of these are the type that should create any trouble for pro riders of any level. I mean, I haven’t even categorised the one larger ascent on three of the four laps because it’s not really meriting giving that many mountains points out, so much like stage 1 I have only categorised a quarter of the ascents, meaning only the one cat.3 climb for the day.
Our first port of call on the circuit is Tai Po Waterfront Park, which includes its icon the Tai Po Lookout Tower, a 32m tower with spiral ramp inaugurated in 1997, featuring information about the history of the region, its fight against the British following the acquisition of the New Territories and its resistance against Japanese invasion, as well as being a popular cycling spot, with the coast road from Tai Po to Tai Mei Tuk (大美督, literally meaning “The World’s End” owing to its outpost location) being a favourite of the people of Hong Kong, cycling out to Ting Kok and on to Tai Mei Tuk which houses a watersports centre, off-road cycling trails and stunning vistas, and is popular for barbecues and outdoor recreation as well as accessing the Plover Cove reservoir. Naturally, although we don’t use the Tai Po-Tai Mei Tuk Cycleway we will follow this road to give some public view to the scenery, and then the road takes a short uncategorised uphill dig (700m at 5,3%) to the Chun Fung pavilion, before we head around the shores of the reservoir.
We then circle the Pat Sing Leng massif (八仙嶺, meaning “Ridge of Eight Immortals” as it has eight peaks, each of which named for a different Immortal), which entails taking the western edge of the Plover Cove reservoir and then climbing up to the waterfalls from which the small river known as Bride’s Pool spring; this is our one categorised ascent of the day and the toughest climb on the circuit - at 1200m at 5,3% it really isn’t going to be breaking too many backs, but it’s something. It crests 13km into the circuit, so the final climb is 23km from the line - ample opportunity for the bunch to pull things back, you’d think, but you never know with small team sizes, late season races, or mixed ability pélotons.
Bride’s Pool waterfall in Plover Cove Country Park. The name comes from a legend where a bride carried in a sedan fell into the pool when being carried through stormy weather and drowned
This area is one of the more scenic in Hong Kong, being protested as part of the country park since 1978 and preventing development, owing to the large number of rare species inhabiting the area and also as it served as a natural boundary during the days of the colony. Descending back down to Starling Inlet, turning right here would take us to Sha Tau Kok, the easternmost border crossing with the People’s Republic until the handover and now the easternmost transit point between the SAR and the mainland. Instead we turn left and take a gradual - 1,3km at 3% - uphill to Wo Hang, to return to the inland plateau of the New Territories, and a less scenic but also less technical second half of the circuit well suited to the sprint trains, as we head directly toward Fanling 8km from the end of the circuit. Fanling (粉嶺) is largely a commuter town lying between Sheung Shui and Tai Po, but it does have a well-preserved old walled village, from the time this area was susceptible to pirate attacks.
Fanling and Tai Po are connected by the Fanling Highway, a section of Route 9 which is basically an expressway which was completed in the 1980s and link Castle Peak Road to the eastern side of the SAR, effectively forming a ring road around the New Territories. We don’t take the expressway, but we do follow the adjacent Pak Wo Road, the old road which runs parallel to the new road between Tai To Yan Shan and Cloudy Hill. We actually took this stretch, between Fanling and Lam Tsuen, in the opposite direction in stage 3, as part of the loop between the first couple of climbs and the final ascent, but at Lam Tsuen we break left for the Tai Po road. This means a 90º left followed shortly by a 90º right at 3,2km from the line, then a slightly left curving road which is otherwise very straight and safe until a couple of kinks at 1700m from home. At 1500m from the line there is a 90º left onto the Tai Po-Tai Wo Road, a large and broad boulevard which will be pretty safe and then curves 90º right for around 200m. After Tai Po Old Market Playground Park, we take our penultimate corner at 500m from home and then a final left at 300m from home on to Kwong Fuk Road. All of these roads are four-lane routes so these corners are wide and should be able to be handled very safely especially considering:
the péloton will likely be relatively small - around 120 riders I would suspect give or take a few DNFs;
the péloton will have already seen the finish three times on previous laps.
This one should be a sprint, there are possibilities for other outcomes but the sprint is of course the expected outcome, giving a bit of respite to the riders between the MTF on stage 3 and the closing weekend of the race.


GPM:
Bride’s Pool Waterfall (cat.3) 1,2km @ 5,3%
Tai Po (大埔, originally written 大步 - there is some confusion as to whether the second character was originally meant with the third tone, meaning ‘port’, or the sixth, meaning ‘step’, as Cantonese has more distinct tones than standard Chinese, and the area’s trading history means it is unclear whether the name derived from Cantonese locals or from Hakka or other Yue groups trading along the South China Sea) is one of the oldest inhabited places in Hong Kong, with attested settlement since the Stone Age. The name refers to a whole area of eastern New Territories, but specifically refers to the Tai Po New Town, a planned town that essentially merged Tai Po Market and Tai Po Old Market with new settlements completing the prior gap between the two. The area is commonly used for ITTs in national cycling in Hong Kong, hosting the national championships in the format in 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 (the most recent winner being Chu Tsun Lai, a 23 year old prospect) as well as TT stages of the Tour of South China Sea in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. The national Road Race has also taken place in Tai Po in 2011 and 2018.

Kwong Fuk Road, Tai Po - the start/finish for our stage
With Castle Peak Road the main logistical hub for the western side of Hong Kong, Tai Po was a major stopping point on the Kowloon-Canton (i.e. Guangzhou) railway (and for this reason it now houses the Hong Kong Railway Museum), but long before this it was an established trading spot, with Tolo Harbour and the islands therein revealing archaeological sites showing a history of pearl farming going back thousands of years. This peaked during the Song Dynasty, but then started to decline, and by the early Qing Dynasty had almost entirely been replaced by a fishing economy. It largely fell under the influence of the Tang Clan (鄧族), one of the five great clans of the New Territories, and the largest and most famous - in the west this is often erroneously attributed as the origin for the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, but their name actually came from a fictitious oppositional group to the Shaolin monks in wuxia cinema, translated as “Wudang Sect” nowadays, but in old Wade-Giles transcription and with interpretation based on Cantonese use of characters rather than Mandarin, “sect” became replaced by “clan”. During British colonial times, the town acquired its railway station and grew into the fashion of a typical British style market town in terms of its amenities, with Tai Po Old Market (a neighbouring town) retaining more of its traditional character, being isolated from the railway but close to Tai Po Market with the two balancing off one another; the area remained in that fashion until the economic expansion of Hong Kong in the second half of the 20th Century made the establishment of New Towns in the New Territories a necessity, with the urban expansion connecting the two from the mid-1970s onwards, the term “Tai Po” has become ambiguous, being used variously to mean the old heart of Tai Po Market (Tai Po Old Market tends to exclusively be called by that name), the Tai Po New Town developments, the urban agglomeration as a whole, or the entire region of eastern New Territories in which the area lies.

Tai Po from the air. Tai Po old market is in the top right, Tai Po Market, the main core of the town and where our start/finish is is on the left centre, the original Tai Po New Town development is the high-rises between the two, then there are the later expansions along the Lam Tsuen estuary toward the bottom and the industrial estate at the very bottom
This stage consists of four laps of a 36km circuit which starts and finishes on Kwong Fuk Road, the main thoroughfare of Tai Po Market. It’s a mostly flat stage with some undulating sections, and is the most suited stage for the sprinters of the week, as much like stage 1 there is only the one climb on the circuit, but not only is the circuit much longer meaning far fewer times to ascend that climb, but also the climb is both easier and far further from the finish. As such this will be a convenient recovery day after two GC-relevant days for many of the riders, although there are some uncategorised digs up and down here and there on the circuit as well. Nevertheless, none of these are the type that should create any trouble for pro riders of any level. I mean, I haven’t even categorised the one larger ascent on three of the four laps because it’s not really meriting giving that many mountains points out, so much like stage 1 I have only categorised a quarter of the ascents, meaning only the one cat.3 climb for the day.
Our first port of call on the circuit is Tai Po Waterfront Park, which includes its icon the Tai Po Lookout Tower, a 32m tower with spiral ramp inaugurated in 1997, featuring information about the history of the region, its fight against the British following the acquisition of the New Territories and its resistance against Japanese invasion, as well as being a popular cycling spot, with the coast road from Tai Po to Tai Mei Tuk (大美督, literally meaning “The World’s End” owing to its outpost location) being a favourite of the people of Hong Kong, cycling out to Ting Kok and on to Tai Mei Tuk which houses a watersports centre, off-road cycling trails and stunning vistas, and is popular for barbecues and outdoor recreation as well as accessing the Plover Cove reservoir. Naturally, although we don’t use the Tai Po-Tai Mei Tuk Cycleway we will follow this road to give some public view to the scenery, and then the road takes a short uncategorised uphill dig (700m at 5,3%) to the Chun Fung pavilion, before we head around the shores of the reservoir.

We then circle the Pat Sing Leng massif (八仙嶺, meaning “Ridge of Eight Immortals” as it has eight peaks, each of which named for a different Immortal), which entails taking the western edge of the Plover Cove reservoir and then climbing up to the waterfalls from which the small river known as Bride’s Pool spring; this is our one categorised ascent of the day and the toughest climb on the circuit - at 1200m at 5,3% it really isn’t going to be breaking too many backs, but it’s something. It crests 13km into the circuit, so the final climb is 23km from the line - ample opportunity for the bunch to pull things back, you’d think, but you never know with small team sizes, late season races, or mixed ability pélotons.

Bride’s Pool waterfall in Plover Cove Country Park. The name comes from a legend where a bride carried in a sedan fell into the pool when being carried through stormy weather and drowned
This area is one of the more scenic in Hong Kong, being protested as part of the country park since 1978 and preventing development, owing to the large number of rare species inhabiting the area and also as it served as a natural boundary during the days of the colony. Descending back down to Starling Inlet, turning right here would take us to Sha Tau Kok, the easternmost border crossing with the People’s Republic until the handover and now the easternmost transit point between the SAR and the mainland. Instead we turn left and take a gradual - 1,3km at 3% - uphill to Wo Hang, to return to the inland plateau of the New Territories, and a less scenic but also less technical second half of the circuit well suited to the sprint trains, as we head directly toward Fanling 8km from the end of the circuit. Fanling (粉嶺) is largely a commuter town lying between Sheung Shui and Tai Po, but it does have a well-preserved old walled village, from the time this area was susceptible to pirate attacks.
Fanling and Tai Po are connected by the Fanling Highway, a section of Route 9 which is basically an expressway which was completed in the 1980s and link Castle Peak Road to the eastern side of the SAR, effectively forming a ring road around the New Territories. We don’t take the expressway, but we do follow the adjacent Pak Wo Road, the old road which runs parallel to the new road between Tai To Yan Shan and Cloudy Hill. We actually took this stretch, between Fanling and Lam Tsuen, in the opposite direction in stage 3, as part of the loop between the first couple of climbs and the final ascent, but at Lam Tsuen we break left for the Tai Po road. This means a 90º left followed shortly by a 90º right at 3,2km from the line, then a slightly left curving road which is otherwise very straight and safe until a couple of kinks at 1700m from home. At 1500m from the line there is a 90º left onto the Tai Po-Tai Wo Road, a large and broad boulevard which will be pretty safe and then curves 90º right for around 200m. After Tai Po Old Market Playground Park, we take our penultimate corner at 500m from home and then a final left at 300m from home on to Kwong Fuk Road. All of these roads are four-lane routes so these corners are wide and should be able to be handled very safely especially considering:
the péloton will likely be relatively small - around 120 riders I would suspect give or take a few DNFs;
the péloton will have already seen the finish three times on previous laps.
This one should be a sprint, there are possibilities for other outcomes but the sprint is of course the expected outcome, giving a bit of respite to the riders between the MTF on stage 3 and the closing weekend of the race.