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.

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 Truly Downhill 7 days

I just noticed that the past 7 days from today has been 1 downhill ride... and I don't mean it in a cycling way...

Last Wednesday, MU lost to Bayern Munich 2-1 in the 1st leg of the Champions League Quaterfinals.

Saturday, MU lost to Chelsea in the English Premier League with just 6 games to go.

Tuesday, Team RFC confirmed that the ULU YAM ride this coming Sunday was to be postponed to the following week and there was no Kesas Night Ride

Wednesday, had an emergency program migration to do and ended being late to pick up my son.

Thursday, MU won against Bayern Munich 3-2. The aggregate was 4-4 but Bayern went thru on away goals rulling.

7 days of down down down down down..... hope this coming weekend will be better!!

A normal Kesas Night Ride or so I thought

Tuesday. I was back at MO. Had a nice lunch with the RFCs at 8th floor. Asked Yong and Adam whether they were riding tonight at Kesas with the Tat Seng group - Maybe was the answer. Well it was better than a flat out "No".

The remainder of the day went by uneventfully and it was time to go home. Dinner was to be at my In-Laws house in Subang after picking up Wifey and baby Ryan. Dinner was good... Curry Chicken... Nyum Nyum... After dinner, my blackberry sang to the tunes of "Coming Home - by Shiro Sagisu". It was from Yong and it read "RIDE IS ON TONITE". Awesome!!

Headed home to Puchong at about 8:30 and it was raining most of the way. "Damn!!" The ride might be cancelled. But luck was on my side as Yong said that his side was dry and so I happily scrambled to load my bike into the car and geared up and off I went to the meeting point - Sri Petaling Mamak. Was a bit late and Yong was already at the LRT meeting point so I unloaded my bike and road there.

There were a few other riders as well when I reached there and saw that Captain Danny Chang was there too. Adam didn't make it as he wanted to catch his beauty sleep to watch the QuarterFinal 1st Leg : Man Utd vs Bayern Munich. After a few minutes of idle chatter... we rode off.

Everything was fine up until we neared the Kinrara turn-off that it started raining... and it got heavier and heavier that we had to abandon the full loop and U-turn at the Kinrara Bridge. Thats when Yong and Danny sped off... I met them back at the OUG turn off and Danny said "Don't stop... Continue to Tri-Peaks!! You know the way". I was cursing the rain at that point cos I was not ready for a climb tonight.

The climb started at the traffic lights of Pearl Point shopping centre... here it was a gradual climb up and I dropped to the 2nd last gear on the cassette, and climbed... after about 100m, it was a downhill slope to the turn off to OUG... After the turn, we rode about 30m and then a sharp turn on the left to the big climb... I dropped everything to the lightest gear and pedal as hard as I could... Yong stood up and overtook me with ease followed by Danny sat down and made it look easy... My knees were screaming but I told myself that I would make it all the way and I did!! Made it to the 1st flat land but it was just a brief comfort as the road went up again and I pedal all the way... now was an even scarier part... going down hill and it was starting to rain... I jammed on the breaks and slowly descended... and once at the bottom is was another pair of rolling hills before going back unfortunately for me, both my calf crampped or rather was going to cramp, and I had to make a quick stop by the roadside and did some stretching before continuing on to the mamak for TTS (Teh Tarik Session)

Today was a fairly short ride of 15km only but the OUG Tri Peaks made it felt like 25km but I will definately be back for more punishing climbs!!