Bike Rally Man

After a nice nap at the end point, we regained some energy. But compare how fresh Aud looks, while I look like I should sleep for the next 1000 years.

BUT I SURVIVED!!! 128km of S'pore roads. And I made it home, sans cardiac arrest. Whee! Audrey survived too, in, fact, she wasn't as visibly tired as me. LOL.

Now let me recount the journey as best as I can possible can. Better drink your coffee first :)

The day started at 0430a.m. I got ready, both excited, yet reluctant to face the daunting hot roads that were to come in a few hours time. Audrey's father was super nice to pick me up from my house to send us over to Vishnu's house, where we had parked our bikes the day before.

And Vishnu and his parents were nice enough to allow thier house to be a temp carpark to 2 bikes. :)

Then we headed over to a petrol station on the way to east coast to pump our tyres to a roadie's pressure of 55 psi.

When we reached east coast, we registered and met up with Audrey's classmates. Super nice ppl. Very on also. That's why vishnu needs to start cycling. Lol.

Anyways, I had the lowest IQ there, cos all of her classmates, including her, are CN Yang scholars from all over SEA, if I'm not wrong. Smart, witty, enthusiastic and outdoorsy scholars. Very contradictory to my perception of international scholars. But little did I know I was about to meet another person who would correct my perception on brainy people.

Before we started off, we had to attach the number tags to our bikes, so I went to get a pair of scissors to cut the excess tags off, because our bike are pretty, and I dun want their beauty to be ruined by stupid dangling tags.

Then all of a sudden, I heard, "Zul, Zul!!". I turned around. There's no one else I know here. "Zul, zul!' and I saw this man beckoning me to come over. I looked at him, puzzled.

You know who he was? He's http://www.blogger.com/profile/15602079103603710402. He left a comment on my blog previously on one of the posts. He an NUS lecturer on Biological something. Me and my bad memory. But he saw me frmm like 20m away, and he remembered who I was! After talking to him, he remembered my blog entries, my many falls and my experiences. We met him again during the journey, and when he met Audrey, he even remembered stuff from her blog, like how she enjoyed her new bike cos her old one was super heavy.

Holy, Crap! He's like superman. I ask you readers a simple question now. Will you be able to recognise a person you've never met, from 20m away and he's not facing you? Would you be able to remember details from this stranger's blog, details from a month ago? Would you be able to remember who he was friends with? He must be like Super-super-genetically enhanced smart. LOL. Plus he's super friendly, and he organises MTB classes for novices, where they practise stuff at Ubin. They teach jumps, something which I can't do cos I don't have the guts. Haha. But, I'll definitely go, cos if everyone else is a novice MTBer, then at least it won't be so embarrassing when I go splat at the quarry. Haha.

We also met many more interesting people, like the Cannondale shop owner, the one who carried Aud's and my bike up to his shop, so that we could park it nicely while we took a look at his wares. He's the Cannondale shop owner, and he treated us so nicely that day. Not like LandT cycles. Made Muhd and I wait while the 'regulars' cut queue.

I also met this other NUS lecturer. His bike was a Santa Cruz Blur. Full suspension. Isyraf's dream bike. Haha. He's been touring all over the world, India, Europe and other places on his bike. Cool guy, also super friendly.

Met the Scott guy who showed me how to do the balancing beam at Tamp MTB park and a whole host of other people.

OKOK!!!

Now for the Bike rally itself. We got into position, and the air horn blew. Wah, I expected a sprint and scramble. But it was kind of anti climatic. So funny. Cos the group moved off so slowly. Finally, after 20m, the roadies started zipping off into the lead, never to be seen again. Haha.

The first checkpoint was Labrador Park. 20-30km+. ( I had an odometer, but I took more note of total distance and speed to pace myself, rather than point to point distance) Wah, I was still fresh. Confident that this would be a cynch. Haha.

When we arrived there, the fast roadies had already rested and formed their group again and went off. But we just arrived, so we had our share of free flow Gatorade and Gardenia Buns. So Audrey and I waited for 40 mins for the 2nd group to form. But!!! It was an 'own time, own target, move on' kinda thing. So we had lost our lead against the ppl lagging behind. Even some of Aud's classmates had gone off without us knowing. So we set off, with road marshalls to guide us at the turns and stuff.

Look how fresh I am. And look at the view. I didn't know this kind of places still existed on the mainland.
My phone couldn't capture the rainbow in the background. But the view rocks.

Other people at the Labrador 1st checkpoint.

On the way to NTU SRC, which was the 2nd checkpoint, we overtook so many people, including her classmates who left earlier. LOL. From then on, our motto was, "Slowly, but surely, we'll overtake people."

At the 2nd checkpoint, we had more food and Gatorade. Then we set off for Kranji, the 3rd checkpoint. At Kranji, we decided to swop bikes.

Then Audrey asked me, "My saddlebag with my phone and stuff is on my bike. Is it ok?"
To which I replied, "Its ok. We won't get separated as long as we cycle together."

Wah leow. BIG mistake. The drama that ensued was worthy of its own movie.

So we swopped bikes and headed to Yishun stadium. We were near the Mandai area, where there are long muscle killing gradual climbs but nice long gradual slopes also. But, it started to pour heavily. Yet, we decided there was no point stopping, cos its better to rest at the Yishun checkpoint.

Then the drama started. Rain was beating down on my face. The wind was killer. I tilted my head down to use my helmet's visor as a shield. The rain dissolved the sweat on my face, and it went into my eyes. I couldn't see. My eyes were painful from the sweat and rain water that entered, and my specs were fogging up, and I was speeding down the long downhill, with one eye closed, and the other squinting. The noise from the rain and the speeding cars beside me was too great. I had to see, so i slowed down to wipe my eyes.

THEN, I turned around, to make sure she was ok. But she was gone! I looked ahead and there was no one there. AH!!! I waited a little, still no sign of her. I started to panic.

I backtracked up one hill. Still no sign. Panic built up.

I backtracked up another hill. Still no sign. I backtracked up another hill. Still no sign of her.

Argh!! I was super scared. Then I saw a road marshall and asked him to lodge a description with the next and previous checkpoint for any sign of her.

Then, one of her friends saw me, and cycled towards me. He was constantly behind us so I was hoping he had seen her. But no, he hadn't. So he made a few calls to the other classmates. No one picked up. So since she wasn't behind us, I decided to go to the next checkpoint. I gave the road marshall my hp no. and sped off to the next checkpoint at Yishun stadium.

And there she was, nice and dry, safe. Haha. Wah, I was super relieved and as relieved as I was, I was super tired also.

So you know what happened? When the sweat stung my eyes, and I slowed down, she sped down the hill. And I didn't realise she had overtaken me. So she was waiting for me up ahead, while I waited for her BEHIND her. Lol. And both of us backtracked, looking for one another. So she thought I was missing, and vice-versa.

As much as it was a nerve-wracking experience, in retrospect, its quite funny, don't you think?

So we set off once again to Serangoon Sec school, the fifth checkpoint. And I think the heat of the day and the distance was getting to us, but more so to me. When we reached the school, I gulped down Gatorade like no tmw. I had a splitting headache to boot. In the end, we rested at some study area, and she gave me time to sleep my headache off. I slept like a log for 15 mins. But I woke up refreshed, but the headache still lingered. But it was ok, cos there was only 36km left.

Then we left Serangoon. Once we reached Sengkang, I felt a little fresher. And once we reached Pasir Ris, I was back in business. I was proabaly dehydrated, but the Gatorade i drank earlier got working, albeit a little slowly.

Then came the biggest test of all. The long straight slightly uphill road from Downtown East to the Shell station near my house. It was a test, cos I love to speed down that slightly inclined hill. I've attained 53.3kmh down that stretch of road, not because its steep, but because its a very long SLIGHT incline. But I never go home using that route. Cos i hate the lack of shade and i hate long climbs, I prefer short and steep, so I can get it over and done with.

What's worse, is that we were both going to past by our houses. Haha. The temptation was great, but the smell of victory was only 20km away!

Finally, past the shell station came the very nice long downhill raod to changi village. On the park connector, my top speed would be 48kmh cos i will have to stop at the traffic light and there'll always be another slow cyclist or pedestrian clogging up the connector. Since I was on road this time, and the traffic light was green, woohoo. Solid. From the Shell and down the hill my speed touched 61kmh. Wah. SHIOK! I felt like I was riding a white Super Four motorbike. Haha. I know you're smiling Isyraf.

Anyway, once we reached the Changi checkpoint, we decided not to rest and chiong to the end point since we knew the route so well. This time we decided that since we were on the road the whole day, we should try doing Changi Coast rd on the road itself and not on the connector. And we were faster on the road. There were no other cyclists, no branches and no turns. The road was straight all the way for 9km. Woohoo.

When we finally reached east coast, we decided to make it a photo finish. We overtook a few other riders and one safety official on his super fast foldable bike. And we went through the finishing line feeling very happy and accomplished. :)

After that, we were given a finishers' shirt. I never had a finshers' shirt before. So cool. We bought green tea that was on offer, and collected our goody bags.

After that we laid our things down and did what champions do after a race. SLEEP! lol.

We slept in the middle of the open field, near the hawker centre at the beach, along with other tired riders.

Best sleep ever la. Until I was awoken by the stupid DJ and the horrible live band.

It was already 4.40p.m so we decided to stay for the lucky draw which was to start at 7p.m. So we ate dinner at the hawker centre with one of her classmates, Mi Cheng, if I'm not wrong.

Anyways, she commented earlier in the day that I didn't eat much during the journey. But I think she now knows why. I can't eat and then cycle. I eat bread and stuff to have enough free sugar in my blood. The rest of the energy is drawn from my own 'reserves'. LOL. But when everything has ended, and dinner comes, my my. I replenish all that has been used up with a vengeance. Chicken rice, BBQ chicken wings, satay and sugar cane. LOl. Truly, I more than made up for the energy lost during the race.

Alas, we didn't win anything during the lucky draw. And we cycled back home.

But all in all, its was a fantastic day. I became a roadie for a day. And now I think roadies are quite ok. They're nice ppl. Even though, I find that doing distance cycling all the time is boring, but so is trail all the time. So its best to alternate between the two disciplines of cycling.

BUT! Since road bikes can only do road, and MTBikes can do both road and trail, I guess MTBers win. Haha.

MTBers : 500 pts
Roadies: -100 pts

LOL. Thanks for reading, if you read the whole thing, that is. Well good day, I'm ending here cos my fingers are numb.