Paul Crake steps up to the challenge

Stair-climb champion turned professional cyclist Paul Crake reverted back to his previous ways last Sunday, winning the inaugural stair-climb race up the world's tallest skyscraper in Taipei.

In a field of 75 international competitors, 28 year-old Crake, who rides for Austrian-registered team Corratec-Graz-Cyl, recorded the fastest time in the men's group division up the 508 metre-tall Taipei 101 building, climbing 91 floors (2,046 steps) in 10 minutes and 29 seconds and earning 200,000 Taiwanese dollars (US$5,965) for his efforts.

Crake is also a five-time winner of New York's Empire State Building stair-climb race (1999-2003). The man who beat him this year, Austrian Rudolf Reitherger, finished second at Sunday's event in Tapei, 1 minute and 17 seconds behind Crake. Another Austrian, 26 year-old Andrea Mayr, won the women's race in a time of 12 minutes and 38 seconds, 56 seconds ahead of second-placed Melissa Moon from New Zealand.