Ipoh Phi-Tan Ride "Hand-in-Hand"
by Adrian "Muscle" Ming

Firstly, Phi-tan is from the Hokkien word for century egg. All this while I thought it was call the Phi-tan ride because it was sponsored by the brand of the bracelets that some of us are wearing to help improve blood circulation.

We left for Ipoh on Sat afternoon, got there on time for lunch at the mamak/Chinese coffeeshop. It was ayam merah and limpa (spleen?). Our chief got a bit worried when he couldn't get through to the boss on the phone. "I hope he doesn't decide to close shop when we need to carbo load". Luckily it was open. The limpa was berlimpah-limpah!

We proceeded to collect our goody bags (not that goody) at a gym owned by Lea Elizabeth (triathlete / super woman) and we got a glimpse of her hot daughter. Pang, you missed it, but then again you might be sick of white women by now. During the briefing, the official announced that the ride was strictly for road bikes; that they'd stop anyone from starting on a hybrid or MTB. When they saw ST however, they decided to make an exception.

Dinner was at some nyonya restaurant at Green Town. Some place called Assam…. something. Food was ok but very fast. We had vege, chicken salad and fish curry with…cockroach. Yup! Rin found a COCKROACH in the curry! Ewwwwww! All the manager did was apologize and changed the dish. Later he gave us a picture frame. That's it for our service industry. No free meal, not even a discount, definitely not going back there!

We stayed at Sri M’sia, we had 5 people to a room. It wasn't very crowded but once in awhile, someone will cough into your face, get a call at 2:30am and wake everyone up except himself! Had to wake him up, he talked on the phone and fell right back into slumber land while the rest of us were left awake for most of the night. At 4:30am, Julian woke up and went hunting for roti canai. He got everyone roti telur. Thanks for breakfast Julian.

The starting point was at Lost world of Tambun. There were about 300+ riders.

The pace was already at 30kph+ at the beginning, sometimes even 40kph. Mad! Team MKH was taking the lead, with the Knights and Team CCI following. Rin was his usual traffic controller self which helped to keep idiots from being bigger idiots. I managed to keep up with them for the first 50km to the first pit stop. Then, before I knew it everyone was gone! There I was stuck with Faizal. We took turn pulling each other, along the way, we tried to get others to join in but they preferred to ride solo. It was quite a struggle and it kept on like that until we got to the 2nd pit stop. The rest of the "slower" Knights were waiting for me. Thanks for waiting guys.

Then, that was when the true essence of the spirit of the Knights prevailed. We REALLY rode “hand in hand”. We were the Orange Order. The 5 of us, Shamoon, Malik, Deen, ST and me; we took turns leading our mini peleton. It was simply beautiful to see us work together, like clockwork. If there was a moment during yesterday's ride that I'd shed a tear, it was then. Like a well-practiced orchestra, we "played" in perfect harmony and grace. We were disciplined in our speed, kept together as one single unit of perfection. Sweet…

After 100kms, we'd stop every 20km to rest our legs and get a quick drink. Beh was an excellent support driver. Thank you Beh!

Later we found out that Chen's bike had some problems and he had to hop into the support car. It seems the Bayonne couldn't keep up with the pace he put the bike in. One of the chain stays' lugs came off! Now I'm even more skeptical about carbon bikes. We hope it can be fixed, Chen-pion. Hang in there.

We also had a surprise team in the form of CCI led by their chief, Gary, who managed to finish the ride as well. Nice to see you back on the saddle again Gary.

We finished the ride holding hands. It took us nearly 7 hours but I didn't feel it because I was riding with the Knights….