MEX - LCCT - MEX : 110km

5am - RIIIIINGGGG - Snooze - 5:15am - RIIIIINNNGGGG - Snooze - 5:30am - RIIIINGGGGGG - damnit!! Have to wake up!! Took a quick shower, gobbled down the buns I bought the day before and was out the door. Meeting the guys at Ajimal Mamak 6:30am. Ride off time 6:45am. Today were doing a 110km ride from MEX to LCCT and back.

RFC riders today : Adam, Yong, Jun An, Helmi, Ari, Lionel, Freddy and Friend, and myself.

As we entered MEX highway, it started to rain. It was not heavy but just nice. After about 5mins, all our shoes were now soaking in water. The feeling was damn sloshy!! Drafting behind Adam and Helmi, Yong and I were being sprayed by the water fountain spouting up from their back wheel. On the downhill part, I nearly hit into Adam cos when I jammed the brakes.. there was nothing.. not even a feel of slowing down.. and so I overtook him just in time and sprayed water back at him for a change.. LOL
As we reached our 1st pit stop at the MEX toll. We waited for Lionel and Ari to catch up. We took shelter at the toll booth as it was not open but was later shooed away by one of the MEX seciruty personel. We then continued to ride on.

The 2 MTB bikes - Freddy and Friend were basically leading the whole way with Helmi, Jun An and myself following closely. Adam and Yong waited for Ari and Lionel to give them directions. Not long as we were passing the F1 pit, Adam overtook and off they went. We finally came to a stop at the roundabout just before LCCT. We were in good time. Total riding time up to that point was 2hr15mins.
We then decided to rest at the Rest Stop just outside of TuneHotels-LCCT. Me and Jun An decided to wash our bikes a bit as it as covered in dried sand. It was onwards to LCCT from there. As we passed by the main drop and pick up area, we attracted many curious looks from all the people there. Our breakfast was to be at this Asian Restaurant. At 1st when we parked our bikes just outside the shop, we were stopped by the LCCT security and after a bit of debating we were then allowed to park it there. As we ordered our food, Ari and Lionel finally arrived. Curiously, Yong was not with them. I asked Lionel and he said Yong had a flat and was trying to mend the puncture.. SHIT!! Adam and I gobbled down our food and sped off to find Yong.
After about 3kms, we found him. He had punctured both his spare tube as well and I lend him mine and also my trusty bike pump. After pumping up, suddenly Freddy and Friend appeared and then we decided to continue back. We stopped at a Petronas Station just opposite and refueled while Yong had his breakfast. I had another Sandwhich as well. Helmi, Jun An, Lionel and Ari continued on 1st and then only we followed.

After quite a while, I was left behind already. The 2 MTBs were mad. They were doing like 30++ all the way with Yong and Adam following closely. Finally a the B15 highway I managed to catch up with Lionel and overtook him. Then I came upon a sight I was not used to. Helmi!! He was struggling as he just had a cramp. We then later came upon another unfamiliar sight.. Yong. He was waiting for us as he was unsure of the road to take and so the 3 of us pushed on towards MEX highway which we then came upon Jun An - who had waited for me to pass me my arm warmer which I left in LCCT.

And then like a bat of out of hell, my energy came and I pushed all the way back to Ajimal. Adam was already changed and waiting in his van. The 2 MTBs had already gone home. After ordering our drinks (the famous Ajimal 3 Layer Tea), Yong came followed by Jun An and then Helmi. After about an hour, finally Lionel and Ari came. Ari had taken a wrong road and had a puncture and was helped out by Lionel.
All in all it was a good ride.. I was pleased with myself and went back home to sleep!!

Pictures Cortersy of Yong VH

Orbea vs Battaglin

Tuesday Night Ride
Like every Tuesday night, there would be cycling. The only difference this time was : Ian had just bought a new bike - Full Carbon Frame Battaglin with Shimano Ultegra GroupSet just 2 days ago. It was time to put his bike to the test.

It was decided that we were to have a mini race between me and him. The race would be split into 2 stages. Stage 1 : MEX highway. Stage 2 : Kesas Highway.

At 8:15pm we were there waiting at Ajimal Mamak. Yong and Kah Lyn couldn't make it for Stage 1 and Paul was late. We started riding about 8:35pm. As we moved out from Sri Petaling towards Carrefour junction and then making our way to the MEX highway turnoff.. Ian sped up the climb.. I followed closely but not pushing so much.. As we reached the top, Ian cursed - "Shit no more gear to change".. I just laughed.. "I told you size 25 gear damn shiok to climb!!" and I rolled off on my size 28 gear..

Not long after that, Adam and Paul took the lead and Ian overtook me. There was also a MTB cyclist who was also damn fast who overtook me as well. I maintained a normal pace and just at the climb towards the rest stop area, once again Ian was struggling to climb it and I overtook him.. soon I was chasing after Adam. Paul was no where to be seen already. After the U-Turn, I pumped a PowerGel and started to chase after Adam.

Everytime I got close to him on a climb, just as I was about to reach him, it was downhill for him already. By the time I reached the peak and started my descent, he was already damn far away... this continued on till we reached the Sri Petaling LRT where Yong and Kah Lyn were already waiting there.

Stage 1 Winner - Terence "LiquidUlar" Lim

Ian came in quite a bit late as he took a detour down to the Carrefour junction. Now it was on to Stage 2. After pushing myself on the MEX, I was damn tired already. On the Kesas I was drafting behind all the rest as usual. The pelaton leader changed every 1 minute or so. When it was Paul's turn to give up the lead, he tried to slot in the middle of the pelaton which nearly caused an accident as the rest had to brake all of a sudden.

It was then that Adam took the lead again and everyone sped off... I followed them and overtook Ian also.. I was just behind the pelaton at each turn. After U-turning at the Summit junction, I could see Ian on the opposite side of the road just about to climb. I concentrated on catching up with the pelaton but as the minutes passed by, my legs started to feel stiff and on the verge of cramping... FUCK!!

I continued cycling at a more relaxed and steady pace to keep the muscle from being too tensed or too relaxed and I knew that either one would cost me to cramp up. As I surveyed the area for a place to fall down, there was none except for the tunnels area and God knows I will not be caught dead resting there!!

Finally Ian caught up with me and I drafted behind him all the way. He was also tired and cramping. Finally the last 100m to the finish point, I wanted to try and push myself to overtake him but my body told me NO!! And so..

Stage 2 Winner - Ian "Smoke Em" Lim

We then headed back to Ajimal for Yum Cha and catch the World Cup as well.

A Very Exhausting Week

Thursday - 3am
Alarm went off. Got up wearily and took a quick shower and headed to Cyberjaya Office. There was going to be a migration at 4am and a system refresh as well, So I had to be on-site considering that it was my system enhancement. Everything went well until the Production Testing portion. Apparently the EDC terminal I took was the wrong one and therefore the only way to test the Credit Card swipping was at a petrol station. Went to the nearby Petronas and tried but then the OCBC-Titanium card was 'specially' shaped thus the pump station did not accept the card and the cashier counter was not open.

Thus had to drive around finding a Shell station and finally found one along the highway. Did the test there and the attendant in the station must have been freaking out and thinking who the hell is this guy at the pump station, on the phone, swipping the card so many times, not pumping a single fuel at bloody 5am!! LOL... anyway - TEST SUCCESSFUL!! Headed home.

Friday
Was on leave today just for kicks cos wifey was also on leave to go make passport. I cleaned the house, did my own time trial on the MEX highway in the morning. Later in the afternoon decided to go one more round on the MEX and on the way back was nearly knocked over by a bloody JOHOR number plate car overtaking in the emergency lane.. BASTARD!!

Later at night, had to go back to Cyberjaya to perform some investigation on the enhancement I migrated the day before.. sucks!!

Saturday - 6:4am
Woke up with a shock. Looked at the clock and cursed!! I was supposed to be at Helmi's place at 7am. FUCK!! Always happens to me on Golfing days. Took a super quick shower and headed off. Met up with Helmi at the Rawang R&R and then headed off to Bukit Beruntung Golf Club. Bloody far away. It was 60km from Puchong!! Anyway reached there at 8am and he had invited along Gan from HR and Joe from Maybank. I was FUCKED!! They were seasoned golfers and I was a week whacker... super STRESS!!

On the 1st tee off mound, suddenly they were talking about "how is the game going to be" "Team or individual" and I knew they were talking about betting... My face went totally blanked and panicked!! Thank God Helmi saw my expression and decided to the rest that it was going to be a "friendly" game today. Golf was HOT that day.. literally SUN BLAZING HOT!! I was so not in the mood and played pretty badly... didn't lose balls to Water Hazzards instead, lost it in the rough and fairway like some small hantu was eating up my balls before I got there!! On top of that, I had 3 "KERENGGA ATTACKS!!!" FUCK!!!!

Finally finished at 1:30pm and after lunch, rushed back to bathe and pick up the family to meet my parents at The Curve to celebrate Mother's Day. At the end of the day I was so freaking tired and passed out at 10pm

Sunday - 8am
Was supposed to do time trial with Team RFC at MEX highway and Kesas but didn't manage to wake up. As I looked outside it was SUPER INFERNO HOT!! Phew.. Luckily I didn't go. Or else I would have been roasted alive!!

One Heck of a tiring week and can't wait to look forward to some laid back week next.

Finally...30km/h Average!!

6pm - The usual Tuesday night ride was on. MEX highway and Kesas Loop. But due to my injury, I will be skipping the MEX highway ride as it would have put too much of a strain on my knee. Ian confirmed he was coming as well and before we left the office he said "If I don't smoke you tonight, I will change to a Road Bike"... CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!

9:30pm - Reached the Sri Petaling LRT just in time as the gang road off. Ian pushed from the start and was way ahead. I was last as usual, taking my time as I road into the bike lane and then *CRASH*... someone just ahead of me had crashed! It was Thomas... I stopped to ask the famous question "ARE YOU OK?"...

He had some cut and bruises on his right side but his bike was in worst condition. The shifters were out of alignment. The brakes were not working. The alignment between the handle bar and wheel was out. "I am going back... can't continue" he said. And after telling him how to go back to the mamak, he was off and then I realised as I looked at the road ahead.. "DAMN!! I am alone again!!"

I pushed myself as hard as I could. Just enough so as to not aggrivate the tendon but managed to maintain a 30++ average speed. The suck part about riding alone in Kesas Highway at night is having to go thru the tunnels alone!! Nearing the last toll along Kesas, I finally came up upon 3 MTBs from the Tat Seng group and overtook them and met with the others at the Bus Stop on the opposite side of the highway.

Now it was time for the ride back. I had barely 5mins to take my breath and we were off. Ian was leading in front. I drop 1 gear at a time and overtook Paul and then drafted behind Ian for a short while and then decided to go for it... Picked up to 45kmh and SMOOOKED him... hahaha... without looking back, I pushed on as far as I could but finally about after 500m, I tired out and then 1 by 1, Paul, Yong, Danny and Adam overtook me and started to leave me further and further behind.

Even so I pushed on... constantly looking at the cyclo meter... everytime it dropped below 30kmh, I would push and pull the pedal to bring it back up... and finally I reached the end of the ride. Immediately as I stopped, I took a look at the meter... AVG SPEED = 30kmh!! WOHOOOO!!!! MY TARGET HAS BEEN ACHIEVED!!!!

Looking back at the 1st time I road Kesas Highway, the avg speed was barely 20kmh, then it slowly picked up with each training.. 22, 24, 27 and now finally 30!!

Ian reached a few minutes later and I would not let him forget what he said to me early in the evening.. now lets hope he keeps to his word and gets his TREK MADONE 4.5

Later at the mamak, a stupid couple knocked Danny and Yong's bike causing it to fall slightly and had the nerve not to say sorry... but said that we should have parked the bike there... Bastards!! Thank god for them, it was crowded there at the mamak... if not...

60km Night Ride

MEX Highway

Kesas Highway

RFC - Night Ride 13 April 2010 - Session 1 Mex Putrajaya Highway & Session 2 (Kesas USJ Loop) was the email title that flashed on my monitor... tonight's ride is on!!

After work, rushed home just in time to pick up my son from the babysitter, fix milk, pack my stuff and rushed off to meet Adam and Yong at the Sri Petaling mamak. No time for dinner so all I had was 1/3 of a PowerBar.

We started off around 8:15pm... and headed off to MEX Highway. The start of the highway was a curving climb.. not too bad if you had already built up momentum. Thankfully the weather held and it was a nice ride... managed to somehow catch up Adam & Yong sometimes (when the purposely slow down :P). There were 2 parts along the highway where it was totally dark... not sure why... the 1st dark zone was a climb and the other one was during the descent. Thankfully there were cars passing along the highway so we could see whether there were any obstacles on the emergency lane. We managed to reach the Toll in 30mins or so... not bad... now.. it was the ride back...

Just after the toll, there is a turn-off to do a U-turn and it goes down hill and after the U-turn is a climb... Adam & Yong sped down the slope and U-turn so fast they were out of sight in moments... as for me.. well, I tried to go as fast as I can taking the U-turn when just at the mid point, my front tire hit a pebble and bounced!! HOLY SHIT!! I was nearly thrown off balance but managed to somehow control the bike but had already lost all momentum and the climb sucked!!

The way back (to me) felt a lot more difficult... and at this point my right knee was hurting already. I thought I couldn't finish cos the pain was unbearable... I took a PowerGel and continued on... pulling upwards instead of pedalling downwards... this somehow lessen the stress on the knee... by this time Adam & Yong were already about 500m or more in front of me and after 10 more minutes, there were gone... and so I pushed myself as hard as I could and finally saw Bukit Jalil Stadium... I was back!!

I went all the way down to the Carrefour traffic lights (Adam & Yong - took a shortcut and headed straight to Sri Petaling LRT) and it was there at the traffic light that I had my 1st fall... Damnit!! Unclip left foot... tried to land on right foot... result : saw the ground come towards me and *CRASH*... nothing too serious just a few cuts and bruises... After pushing myself up with 1 hand, I pedalled on to the LRT and just as I was about to reach, I saw a bunch of cyclist had already started the ride to Kesas and seeing that Adam & Yong were not among them I went on to the LRT station.

Just as I arrived, Adam, Yong, Danny and Paul were ready to go also... so on we went... *huff* *puff*... it was a fast ride with average speeds of 30+. I was riding in behind Adam, and as I passed the 1st bump, I heard another *thud* behind me... I thought cannot be la... must be my imagination, and then i dropped gear and i heard the sounds of another gear dropping just behind me.. Thats when I looked at the ground and saw a shadow of a cyclist right behind me... HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK!! I pedalled super fast, just then the shadow overtook me and turned out to be a HUMAN cyclist... Thank God!!

This dude was fast and as he made his way up the group, the rest followed and I was left behind... With no more water, PowerGel and knee hurting it was a difficult to keep up but managed somehow to just come in behind them about 2minutes late. After a breather, we continued on... this time I was too tired to push anymore... and so went at a slower pace but at least I manged to increase my Avg Speed and didn't have to let the guys wait that long...

A few more rounds like this and I think I might just be able to keep the pace with these guys!!

A Wet Saturday Morning

6am... woke up with a startle... the sounds of thunder were rolling overhead... it was long and loud and finally pitter patter sounded on the roof... it was hard to hear at first, thought it was my imagination but then it came!! Pouring down like thunder!! RAIN!!

#%A$^&*HD(WD)!((!@*^! - I was cursing to myself...

Texted Ian and told him the ride was off, a few seconds later he texted back :

"Yalah, I heard thunder.... Okie back to sleep"

And so heavy heartedly, I went back to sleep as well... Another beautiful Saturday morning ride ruined by Rain... zzZZZzzZZzZZzZzzzzzz