FRIM MINI JAMBOREE - Team RFC!!

The Route

The Elevation

Sunday 6th June 2010 - Team RFC (Captain Allan Chiew, Chief Trainer Adam Ng, Smoke Em' Ian Lim, ORBEA Jerry and myself) joined the FRIM Mini Jamboree 2010. I hitched a ride from Ian and we were there at the meeting point just outside of FRIM a few minutes before the rest came. It was around 7:45am. According to Cap'n Allan, the race was at 10am and we can collect the goodie bags at 9am. Plenty of time still. We offloaded our bikes and gears and headed for a Chinese Coffee shop nearby for breakfast.

Adam's Blur not yet wake up face

Jerry admiring Allan's sucking

At the shop there was a table of elderly aunties and uncles in running attire. One of them asked Allan, "You all can go in arr? They closed FRIM for some race! They won't let us in! We have been sitting here since 6am!" Allan coolly replied, "We are joining the race!". They went on complaining that FRIM should have put up a sign telling people that today the park was to be closed till 2pm. Anyway we ordered our food and ate heartily.

After having our fill, we cycled in only to be blocked by the security at the main entrance. He said, the park is closed for a Race. "But we are entering the race!!" said Allan all puzzled!! I had a bad feeling already. The guard let us in and as we cycled towards the starting area, suddenly there were riders coming out of the trail on the left and went into another trail on the right and they looked tired... we started to PANIC even more now and cycled faster to the starting point.

Upon reaching, we were greeted by curious looking marshalls. Apparantly the race started at 8am sharp and we were already 50mins late!! Allan continued to argue with the official there as the rest of us put on our racing number on the bike and we were off in a hurry at 9:15am. 1 hour and 15 minutes late. The start of the trail was more cross country and then we hit the 1st climb on tar road and entered the DREAM TRAIL. It was then that we came up to the 1st other racers. In our hearts we were happy cos we are NO LONGER LAST!! By this time also Ian was no where to be seen behind already. He was still sick after all.

The DREAM TRAIL was awesome. Single lane tracks with some downhill and uphill adventures. I crashed at one crossing over the pipes and hit my inner thigh on the top tube!! FUCKING PAINFULL!! After a short rest, I continued on with other racers. Allan, Jerry and Adam were far ahead already. Pushing and riding along the trail, finally I came to a clearing and onto a tar road again. Then suddenly the marshall in front pointed to a super steep climb up the tar road!! I pushed 50% of the way with other cyclist who at the time was dreaming about a nice cold beer!! At the peak was the next check point and the gang was waiting for me there. After collecting the sticker we were off!!

We were now on ROVER TRAIL and suddenly came upon a super steep off road climb. There was cement slabs making a funny slippery stairs up and there was a rope railing on the right side. We had to support the bike on the left hand and with the right hand, hoist ourselves up!! The gang made it up there 1st while I took a long breather below. After about 5 minutes, I climbed!! It was so bloody difficult cos the bike was so heavy and it was slippery!! Finally managed to get up there after 2 stops halfway. And a while later, Ian poped up out of nowhere.. LOL!!

I made it up the stupid climb!!
FUCK U Stupid Climb!!

Next up was PACAT TRAIL!! This is the entrance to PACAT TRAIL as you can see from the picture below. It looked damn impossible to ride down cos it was steep and the ground was all super soft mud!! We decided to take a rest 1st before taking the leap of faith.

Pacat Trail Entrance - Mak Cik throwing bike

Pacat Trail

By this time more people arrived and we had a chit chat on how to tackle the trail. Then came this old timer with a big belly. He told us about the trail and how to conquer it and stuff and then suddenly he looked at me... "EH NI MACAM KENAL JE" - BLOODY HELL!! It was Moon from Team Paintball CMX!! LOL!! What a small world to meet another paintballer in a jungle... after that he went 1st. He made it look easy and then one by one we went. I pushed and rode halfway a long the trail...

Strategy Meeting before tackling Pacat Trail

Pacat Trail - MUDD TRAIL!!

It was like the longest ride ever!! The mud was so thick and soft and slippery. Sometimes the bike would slide in front while my feet was stuck in the mud. Sometimes I would slide down but the bike is still behind. There was no FUCKING WAY.. that anyone could actually ride down this trail. It was more like Ice Skating than cycling this trail. The bikes were covered in mud. The mud build up on the forks and crank and brakes were mad!!

What happens to all bikes in Pacat Trail

Offroad tire now super mudd slick tire

Bike cleaning and rest before Steroid Hill!!

Finally I saw sunlight. I was out of the nightmare. It was a nice downhill ride as you can see from the below picture. The rest of the RFCs had already reached the bottom. As I rode down the slope, it was bumpy as hell and then suddenly "PAAAAARRRRKKKK!!". The sound was loud and sharp. Other riders asked me whats up and I looked at my saddle and saw that the seatpost had cracked!! WTF!! I lowered the seatpost further to avoid it being cracked all the way but it was too low to do any climbs!! FUCK!!

The Downhill that broke my SeatPost

With the broken seat post there was no way I could continue on to the next trail which was the hardest of all... the infamous STEROID HILL!! With a seat so low, climbing up this hill would have killed both my knees so I decided not to ride it. I waited for the rest at the bottom. It was like 30mins or so before I saw anybody. Jerry was the 1st to come out and he sped thru. Finally much much later, came Adam and Allan... Ian apparently had cramped on the way up so we decided to continue ourselves.

We were now back on ROVER TRAIL and the small climbs were torturing for me. Had to stand most of the way which was a killer on the stamina. At last tar road!! The marshall shouted, "masuk sini selepas itu masuk kiri... tak jauh lagi... 20m saja"... I was so happy to hear that and I cycled happily thru the forrest trail alone and then joined the AROMATICA TRAIL.. this was more than 20m already. More like 1km it seemed. AROMATICA TRAIL was a nice single track trail. It was an awesome ride and FINALLY I WAS OUT and on the tar road heading back to the starting point.

Can you ride down here?

Crazy climb

Awesome View from top of Rover Trail

At the finishing line, Jerry, Adam and Allan were already relaxing there. They had collected the goodie bag, lunch and T-shirt from the organizer. We lepaked with the Tat Seng group and ate lunch. A while later Ian finally made it. We sat on the car park floor and ate our lunches while a lucky draw was on going. Then I heard my number being called "173" "173" I just jumped up and picked up my bike and road it to the officials tent and claimed my prize. It was a 3 tier cooking utensil.. AWESOME!! just what I needed for the house.

Still in One Piece


Me, My Bike, My Hydration Bag and My Lucky Draw Prize



Cloud 9 aka Vasakthi Ride PowerBar

Packing up and time to head home

After resting somemore, it was time to pack up and head on home. It was a fun and exciting ride. If we had started on time, we could have made it to the top 100 or even top 50 and gotten a medal for it. Instead all we had was bruises, cuts, mud, sweat, blood, a happy heart and a big smile on our tired weary faces. It was a good ride and will definately be back for more!!

TEAM RFC!!

L to R : LiquidUlar, Jerry, Allan (sitting), Adam and Ian