Le Tour De Langkawi infotainment
KOTRTpit view by chen

Before I get any further, I would like to tender my apology to Mohd Sany and other KOTRTers for not joining Sany’s welcome back ride on the 10th of February 2008. Sorry guys.

This is the time of the year again where most local roadies will have some kinda fever. No, no, no there is nothing got to do with epidemic. Correct,correct,correct it is the le tour de Langkawi (LTDL). Yes, correct,correct,correct the 13th edition. Ah…correct,correct,correct only TV1, Saluran Infotainment Anda carries it live on TV, NO OTHER TV STATION IN MALAYSIA BROADCASTS THE EVENT LIVE. That’s what happened, I tuned in to TV1 at 4.00pm sharp on that fateful 9th of February looking for some entertainment watching my favourite sporting event as well as to gain some info for my talk KOTRT session which would take place on the same night. So, what’s the big deal? The big deal is I watch through satellite TV. Satellite TV must pay to get the channel. I should have watched it through the antenna reception which comes free with the TV set because neither did I get the entertainment nor the information I needed from the wasted one hour in front of the TV set.

OK. I’m getting nowhere by just ranting away. Actually I was all set with the Chinese New Year cookies and what not, to catch the 13th edition of LTDL in the comfort of my home live at 4.05pm. It all started very well with the very nicely done 3D animation montage, then viewers were given a tour of the stage 1 finishing area. 10 minutes into the live coverage, it was still covering the booth set up by sponsors and government bodies. I’m getting irritated as there were still no sign of the race coverage. I was getting very restless as prior to the coverage, there was a news slot informing viewers that the breakaway bunch were already at Tikam Batu which is some twenty something kilometers away from the finishing line. That was 4.05pm. By my standard of riding it should be about 40 minutes away. The pros should be doing it in less than 30 minutes. The time was almost 4.30pm and the visual I got was still around the booth area at the finishing line. I wonder why it took so long for the pros to get to the finishing line as it was already 30 minutes since the last news break. Then the ground commentator handed over his reporting to the race commentator. I got excited and immediately forgot the agony of waiting. Guess what the race commentator was full of enthusiasm in sharing the history of LTDL with viewers in the absence of any race visual but the finishing arch.

Again I tried to calm myself down by pushing more cookies down my throat for the next 10 minutes listening to the ever exiting commentator musing away about the tour’s chronological age and how it has matured and prestige over the years. Then suddenly at about 4.40pm the commentator’s voice raised, there was visual of a cyclist from BOUYGUES TELEKOM trying deliberately to stay ahead of a bunch of about 5 riders at the 1km mark from the finishing line. The commentator went frenzy as the cyclist managed to stay ahead till the 100m mark. Finally the cyclist pulled his zipper, raised his hand and cross the line. Guess what the commentator didn’t get the cyclist name. HE DIDN’T KNOW WHO WON STAGE ONE, EVEN THOUGH HE COMMENTED UNTIL THE CYCLIST CROSSED THE LINE, so did the viewers.

Funny, huh. So I decided to off the TV laughing my heart out and wondering why the pros take about the same time as me to cover the same distance. The only reason I can think of, is that they cover more distance before Tikam Batu than I usually would, but again, they are escorted and I was not. No problem, I would find out at the starting line of stage 2. Now Sany, I hope you know why I missed your welcome back ride. Actually I just want to find out why I was as good as the pros in covering the distance from Tikam Batu to Kepala Batas. It was unavoidable, got to fulfill my inquisitive mind, heh. At least infotainment came after the TV was switched off. That’s why experts say that watching TV can cause behavioural problems. So that was the bad effect of watching TV huh.

The print media wasn’t kind at all too. I stopped by the mamak’s stall the next morning to buy newspaper, hoping to see LTDL grace the main page of the sport section; I took a glance at the last page of several newspapers of various publications. $#!+…. Am I in England or what? I thought we have achieved independence some 50 years ago or are we still being colonized? I thought any Brits would find it very at home if all the newspaper were displayed with the back page facing up that morning instead of the usual front page headlines. The most prestigious and biggest bicycle race in Asia is happening in our very own backyard, and yet the event is still not prestigious enough to grace the main page of sports in most of our newspaper publications. It was contrary to the colourful and prestigious race history painted by our sport commentator during the live coverage of stage 1. The news of the EPL splashed through the main pages as though the English Premier League was taking place in Bukit Jalil National Stadium. I have got nothing against football but if the team that grace most newspapers’ sport page was Aston Village instead of Aston Villa, I would very proud of our football scene.

That were the reasons I was at the starting line of stage 2 of the LTDL as early as 8.00am; to do justice to myself in the land that deprive me of information to the prestigious event related to the sport I love so much. Even our local TV stations, except for TV1 and TV2, don’t broadcast the event in the sports news segment. At least RTM is doing justice to the cycling communities even though there are teething problems to their live coverage; to date their live coverage has improved as compared to stage 1.

Well, the feeling at starting of stage 2 LTDL was tremendous; the Chinese New Year LTDL chi was good. There were cyclists registering for the side event, LTDL fun ride, as other crews setting up the place.

Also met with other kuda pencen from the early eighties, had a good chat with them. Among them is Mr Munir, the Secretary of Penang Cycling Association (PCA). Had a long conversation with him about cycling scene in Penang. He revealed the changes he has brought to PCA and the future looked bright for the cycling community in Penang. Hope to be able to write about what was revealed in the near future.

The atmosphere at the start of stage 2 was like invasion of aliens called LTDL. Everybody was busy with his own role to ensure the smooth sailing of the start of stage 2 LTDL. It was like the mechanical of an automatic watch seen through its transparent dial. The first to come into the busy scene was the cavalcade and neutral cars. The difference of these neutral cars from last year’s cars was that they were Petronas green instead of the normal Mavic yellow. The neutral bikes used were Bianchi with Campy Veloce groupset and Campy Vento G3 wheelset. Talking about groupset, I discovered a bike fitted with Shimano 105 groupset and yes, that was the bike used for the race.

I actually spied a few things; one of them was a team’s feeding bag. I found an energy gel that specified “male version”. I think the female version would be loaded with estrogen and that suddenly reminded me of my fellow cyclist who fancy these things. Never mind, not going to dwell into that.

I also discovered that the tyre pressure the pro riders were in the region of 140psi. One thing that surprised me was the Marco Polo team bikes. They are custom painted Trek with a dragon on the frame. Well, that blended well with the Chinese New Year Mood too.

Eager to find out about how stage 1 unfolded, I went around scouring for information; got a few insights to share. One of them is, a European cyclist had cirited during the first stage race and finished the race. $#!+. Pity those riding behind him. The kunyit might have released some good aroma.

The other was one of the team car overheated on the way to the starting line. The driver must have woke up late to rev the engine to that condition.

Another thing that was revealed was that stage 2 could have started with two third of the peloton not being able to start. Really? Why? The chasing group came in just about a minute from the cut off time at the finishing line of stage 1. Should they come in a few minutes later; there would be only a handful of riders riding the rest of the LTDL stages. I said to myself, that might be the effect of kunyit.

According to the announcer at the starting line, this was due to the unexpectedly strong head wind along the stage 1 route. That wind also clears the cloud as to why I was as good as the pros on the same stretch of road. Normally when I rode that stretch, there was always tail wind. I also found out the border of Tikam Batu was some 5km away from my definition of Tikam Batu. After all I’m not as fast as I might have presumed. That was a little bit disappointing…..but that is facts of live, everybody would like to be associated to the pros when he is on his bike; riding a bike that the pros are riding, using the groupset even the pros are not using in this edition of LTDL and worst of all act like a pro. GONG XI FA CHAI and have fun in the remaining stages of LTDL.

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