FRASER'S HILL CLIMB part 1

"BROKEN YOUTH by Nico Touches The Wall" was blaring out of my Blackberry alarm... it was 4am on a Saturday morning!! Time to get up.. As I got out of the room, so did Kah Lyn from accross the upstairs hall.. (yes.. I was staying over at Kah Lyn's house). Went downstairs and we ate the heated up pasta he made the night before.. I gobbled it down together with 2 more buns I bought from BreadStory.. then it was off to do Business No 2!!

We were out of the house by 5am. Bikes were already loaded into his Exora last night. We headed down Guthrie to the Rawang toll to wait for the other RFCs - who were meeting at the Restoran Jejantas Sg Buloh - to come. They were slightly late cos apparently, Allan was on the opposite side of the highway.. LOL!! By 5:40am they finally made it.. we all got down from our vehicles and chit chatted as we waited for Helmi (who was last!!). While inspecting each other's bikes, we noticed that Allan's (Howard's actually) Scott MTB had a puncture in the rear tire and to make things worst, he didn't have a spare tube!! Thankfully Ian had one and loaned it to him. Just as we wanted to help him change tube, Lampre Helmi came and we decided to make a move 1st.

Passing thru Rawang town, we made our way to Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB). We reached the town at about 6:30am. Everyone unloaded their bikes, checked tire pressures, ate PowerBars and relieved themselves at the nearby toilet. By 6:45am everyone was ready. Time for a group photo.

From Left : Lionel, Allan, LiquidUlar, Paul, Ian, KahLyn, Apple, Helmi, Danny, WengKhong, Khoo, Yong, K-Ari, Adam, Patrick

Photo was taken by Jo-Ann How, Ari's wife cum Support Car Driver cum Medic cum Photographer. Everyone was all smiles and spirits were high!! We were ready to tackle Fraser's Hill and after a short briefing by Captain Danny Contador on safety we were off at 7am. We had 2 hours to reach the Gap!!

The weather was awesome as we headed out past curious onlookers who were probably thinking "Siao Lang, got car dun wan drive"... the group was split into 2 as the ones with the white color jerseys sped out in front. The 2nd group consisting of the more season riders (except Ian and I)were in the 2nd group just 50m behind... about 15mins later, the road opened up to a huge highway (2 lanes on each side). This signalled the start of the climb. Right in front of us was the Dam. It was a spectacular sight. As we continued to climb, the 2nd group started to break away from Ian and I and eventually overtook the 1st group as was to be expected... those guys were crazy climbers!!

As we hit the top of the climb at the Dam, Ian suddenly slowed down and dropped back...

I continued on and caught up with Allan in front..

we took our time a bit and finally caught up with Ari (or better known now as Kuota-K'Ari) on his brand new White Kuota Kharma.

For a 1st timer on the roadbike he was doing very good. So we decided to draft in behind him until suddenly he said "This bike is awesome, I think I can push somemore" and suddenly he was off - WHITE RABBIT ON THE LOOSE!! It tooks us a few minutes before we caught up again and then I decided to make a go for it and left the 2 behind..

I was cycling by myself for quite a while. The temperature started to drop and the scenery was amazing.. and just as I turned a corner, I saw Apple!!

I tried to catch up to her but I think she saw me and tried to keep distance.. after about 15minutes, I finally managed to catch up and after a few chit chats, I took off again... I pushed as hard as I could as there was only 30 minutes left before 9am and then I saw something I was not used to seeing... Patrick Lau was just in front of me!! This was the 1st time in so long that I managed to catch up with him... Aparently he had cramped and did not have breakfast... No wonder la... I then took off again and just as my Cyclo-com showed 30km, I saw grafitty on the road.. "Welcome Riders" "You made it" "Congratulations" and I knew I had finally reached the Gap. It was 9:10am. Not bad... average speed was 17kmh... the rest were nowhere to be seen so they must have already started the main climb

Looking at the gate towards the clocktower, I took out a PowerGel and downed it!! Just then Patrick reached and asked "Are we going up?" "Yeah.. we are here anyway and we got time".. and so both of us cycled past the guard and up we went... (cont..)