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· Date : 11 MAY 2008 Honest eye witness account: Sunday’s ride saw twelve of us riding The first part was cycling up K6 A killer trail was it The ascends were challenging Check out the pictures of who they were. That all didn’t stop us long There were some incidents as well, unfortunately When we reached the canopy trail Ouch! Refreshment point was at 168 Then it was downhill, off-road on the Woodcutter trail During the downhill treat He stopped there because he and Kevin had cramps! We continued enjoying the singletracks As we exit through the Air Itam Dam road We were glad the ride was over ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| · Date : 11 MAY 2008 Honest eye witness account: It was hell of a ride yesterday. It was a ride that drew the linebetween boys and men. Actually there was nothing to shout about the ride, but the fact that 150km with an average speed of 29 point something was something that I haven't been doing for a long, long time. I've been so used to riding the 100km distance that it almost rang trouble for my legs. Why did the ride draw a line between boys and men? Actually there was this boy, a very young boy, who is only 13 years old. He has only joined the Kulim ride twice and I see a lot of potential in him. I don't I can ride the Kulim's pace when I was his age. The boy was fast, but being fast alone is not the answer to being a good roadie. One must learn to respect the older cyclist and learn to cooperate with other cyclists in moving the peloton. May be due to lack of experience or maybe being a freshie to the sport he was lacking of these traits. Why you need to respect the older riders? As the saying goes, "you get wiser as you grow older", that is why. Older riders are normally more tactical than the younger ones to be able to stay in the peloton. Of course some MTBers would conclude that road cycling is a dirty sport where the older riders would engage dirty tactics to stay ahead. I don't think that is the case. In MTBing, I think, the older riders who are more experience in technical areas would use their technical skills to their advantage against the younger ones. That would be my deduction that sports is not everything about physical strength but brain power also plays a very important role. This is evidence in many sports, the old ones would always control the arena. Paolo Bettini, Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi are among the oldest in the professional peleton but they are still winning races. Why, because they are not only old but wise and experienced. So how was the line drawn yesterday? It was a concerted effort actually starting with some bold move to wear the fast ones down before making the final move. How did it unfold? It started with the old cocks grumbling among themselves about the boy's attitude of trying to show off his worth by poking at the old cocks' back and made no effort to work in a runaway group. The old cocks are furious about this and remarked "If only the boy is our age, he would learn heis lesson the way Mr. 40 did" So a few old cocks made the earlier move by bringing the speed to high 30s. So the group broken into smaller groups. Of course the boy was in the group. The group consisting the boy step up the speed to the 40s and made the boy learn to work in a peloton. This has eventually see sign of tireness in the boy. As this unfolded the other 4 old cocks made the final move attack and maintain the speed at high 30s. It all happened naturally, maybe from all these years of riding together has built the mutual understanding beyond words. The boy was out of sight.I hope the boy would pick some good tips on racing from the chronological of events. MTBer reading this would say that roadies are "bully kecik" but that was not the case. It was a case where uncles teaching their nephew a more define way of road racing by demostrating that road cycling is a team tactical sport and not a sport that depends on individual strength. To sum up all the oldest rider in the group, from KOTRT took yesterday's ride by being the first 3 riders to reach the car park. Why is it so, the young ciku from KOTRT later found out thet that 51 years old rider from KOTRT actuall conserve some calories for the last kilometres' consumption. How did he do it? Learn to respect the older riders to find out the secret of the trade. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| · Date : 10 MAY 2008 Honest eye witness account: The night before, we attacked the seafood buffet at the Mandarin Oriental with Gusto. Sashmi, oysters, lobsters, crabs, prawns, prime rib, lamb, squid, smoked salmon. You name it, we ate it (“Burp!”). And so it was decreed that we needed to burn off some of the calories ingested first thing Saturday morning. While Chewy chose to trail run Bukit Gasing, Sany and I decided that a bit of Road Bike Action was in order. I was running a bit late, but made it to Sany’s Palace without too much delay. Sany mentioned that his stomach was a little queasy (he suspected the oysters), but he was game for a ride which kept him in close radius to the Palace Throne. Our Bukit Damansara training loop is one that has a number of short, steep climbs, a few false flats and numerous small gradient changes in between. Short but oh-so-sweet (and painful at times). Perfect for the occasion as we wouldn’t be more than 10 minutes ride from the Palace Throne at any one point. At 8.30am sharp, with the sun rising in the clear blue sky, the Prince and CR1 Limited rolled out through the Palace gates and began with the SC loop to warm up. Downhill to the SPRINT Highway to duel with the traffic and then looping back past the Sime Darby Convention Centre, admiring the new townhouses under construction. Warm-up phase complete, it was time to climb back up past the SC (“#1”). The Beringin loop was next, downhill at 50+kmh, then uphill again (“#2”), followed by the short but brutal Chempenai Parc climb (#3). Then speed downhill through twisty Lorong Dungun, with its broken tarmac and streams of water flowing across the road in places. A quick u-turn on Beringin and lo-and-behold, another climb (#4) where Sany put the pedal to the metal and dropped me. Somehow felt so tired all of a sudden and remembered the title of some British bike hash’s newsletter. “Cycling Weakly” it was called. Straight on at the school for another downhill 50+kmh downhill and another climb (#5) (reverse of the earlier 50+kmh downhill and thankfully shaded) back towards the SC traffic light. Somehow I found my second wind at the base of the climb and proceeded to crank upwards towards the light. As I was approaching the traffic light, I heard “Left, left” called out from behind. Ouch, straight was flat but left involved more climbing, but I took it in my stride, grinding away at 170bpm. Then around the Plaza and back to the roundabout, followed by yet another short steep climb (#6). Finally , it was time to head back to the Palace. But to reach the Palace gates, one last climb (#7) awaited. Emperor Hady greeted us with disdain, crying with all his might to express his displeasure about something-or-rather. Mission accomplished in one hour and a couple of minutes, leaving us with plenty of time to spare for other duties. Or a good nap… ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| · Date : 04 MAY 2008 Honest eye witness account: It is quite well known in the investment circle that May is usually not a good month, in the Western world at least, for the stockmarket. Those who foolishly jump in are likely to be rewarded with pain. So what does that have to do with the KOTRT and cycling. Well my friends, unless you have been hiding in a faraway corner of the universe you will know that May is when the Roadies get restless as the PCC IS ride approaches and the pain begins. Time to work those calf and thigh muscles which have been enjoying a long break, unless you are one of those who are Not training, but yet regularly seen along the various cycling routes near the coast and hills. This is when the belly fat which have been accumulating for six months or more is slowly whittled away by the endless hours of the joy of roadriding. For me, May 2006 is when I bought my first road bike in over 20 years and get initiated into this painful sport. Long after the initial joy of finally owning a bike with a Campagnolo Record groupset has faded, the pain remains. So there we were, 3 brave KOTRTERs Rin, Chen and myself among Kulim Lee’s road warriors on the first Sunday morning of May. A 120 km ride to Air Putih and back over rolling roads. “ Sampai bulan lima mesti nampak awak punya muka. Tiap tiap tahun macam ni” Comes the unmistakeable greeting from Kulim Lee himself. Yes, he is correct, 2 years back I joined this motley crew in their pursuit of “Pleasurable Pain” as its normally termed and I have been quite faithful. The 20 or so bikes were nervously milling around when Lee’s voice BOOMED OUT “ Jalan” at almost 8am. Even though the morning cool had not faded away, we knew what awaits us, miles and miles of endless hot tarmac. There was an interesting mix of bikes and colourful characters( no Pang wasn’t there), Of course all the old friends and friendly faces, especially my ever faithful Kopi Tiam guy, Lan. But no sign of Khalid, my favourite tow truck. True to their reputation, after a almost non-existent warm up, these Kulimers took off like a jackrabbit shot out from a gunbarrrel. High 30s is just cruising, its only when the speed hits the 40s that the guys consider the ride fast. And ride fast was what these guys love to do. So what else can we do except hold on. As always I found my favourite spot, 6 inches from Kulim Lees rear wheel. Aside from blocking out your total frontal vision, that’s not a bad place at all when the speed is in the 40s. As always we meet some hills and instead of slowing down almost everyone stood up and powered their way up. Hee hee, I have also been working on my stand up pedaling in the Gym, thanks to RPM classes, and showed these guys that, even though I cant beat them, I can at least join them in dancing up their hills. Wish Pang was here. So there we were, at about 9 in the morning, “cruising” uphill at 35kmph when I recognized a familiar hill and knew that the top is perhaps only 200m away and there I was about 10 bike lengths behind the leader when suddenly that irresistible urge to ATTACK came. Before I could even stop myself, my legs just started spinning furiously propelling me forward at an even greater speed. As I past the leaders, a whole lot of howling and hooting and four letter words rang out. Obviously they don’t appreciate an outsider coming in and leaving them behind. As I crested the hill with nobody in sight, I was rewarded with the sweetest view of a long sweeping downhill just for me to enjoy alone. Well that few moments was about how long the joy lasted. Soon we were all back together again and before we knew it, the Big Hill, Bukit Air Putih was up in front blocking our way. Food and drinks lay beyond, so its back to Pain. The stand up pedaling lasted for about half a minute before everyone settled down to a more comfortable grind at low cadence. Soon I was joined by our Chenpion and then the Mountainbiker, taking advantage of the low gearing on his bike. I decided I don’t belong in this pack and started putting power to the pedals. Lets see what the old diesel engine has got. As I pulled away, the sound of heaving and panting became louder and I realized that it was not me but a giant rider blocking my way, Kulim Lee. Mind you, you have to give credit to him for being able to climb so well with his big handicap, just behind the skinny guys. From the rear I can hear and feel the power he is putting down, hence all that heavy breathing. AS I drew level with him, I cant resist poking a bit of fun at him but Lee was not in the talking mood, from the look that he gave me. As we crested the top and came down he put all that weight and power to good use by hammering away at an incredible pace. It was like I was standing still, this giant rider just zoomed away and even as I hit 70kmph, he was already way in front and still pulling away. Wow! WE slowed down and regrouped after about 55km at the rest stop, the usual curry and rice places that is a must for every Kulim ride. During our feed we met the young rider from Taiping, whose name eludes me, and his father. This 13 year old aspiring racer is supported by his dad who is obviously very proud of him. We talked as usual about riding and racing for about 20 mins, more than enough to cool down and let the lactic acid build up in our legs. Needless to say the long hot ride back was torturous. Everyone had more or less given up and even though the pace was slow, it was still torture. For me it was especially tough, this being my first hard ride of the year, and the heat. Now I know why Chew couldn’t be persuaded into road riding. After downing one litre of soyabean drink at the Petronas station, I still felt like I was burning up. Again another long wait to regroup and T C with Lee and his riders at the station. Inspite of everything it felt good to be in the pack. Train in May
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