29th April : IS12 Day 2
After a really blank dead log sleep.......i woke up. Feeling good. Feeling I can survive today. Before i can survive todays ride, go toilet and release excess baggage. You know what I mean. Well honestly I have not felt this good after a previous day's hard ride for a long time. I guess the muscles for cycling suddenly woke up again. Todays 130km ride starts at 7.30am so waking up at 6.15am was just right. Cousin woke up feeling rather OK-ish. Not down flat thankfully. By 6.30 we are all up packed and filled for the day's adventure.
Out the door, queuing up for the lift, going down to eat breakfast. A typical morning scene of Interstate is like this : Bikes all over the place. Some right side up, some upside down, some against a wall, some against a chair, flower pot, in a drain, some with a wheel still detached etc. Baggage everywhere, riders walking in their cleats on the hard floor (click clock clack), greetings of "Morning" , riders putting sunblock all over, and the normal rigmarole.
Todays breakfast was quiet appetizing. If i wasnt riding i would certainly eat more. But my bike has a BTM (Berat Tambahan Maksimum - Maximum Excess Load) so.........i had to cut down abit :- 2 bowls of cereal with milk and about 8 mini frankfurters. Fair enough right?
Taking out all the bikes from the bike storage can be a nightmare especially if your bike is way deep burried at the back of a whole row and line of other bikes........and you have to wait. Or risk wadding through thousands of dollars of precious equipment to fish your bike out. The storage room was rather small. BUT being one of the last to finish yesterday, me and my cousins bikes ended up further near the exit door (since all the inner space taken by 300+ riders before us)......so.........coming in at the rear end isnt such a bad thing after all. Haha. Quickly we whisked out bikes out, loaded full water bottles (now im using my spare after losing my original one yesterday - not even Lost and Found could find it back :'( ..... )
After loading bags into the truck, we wait for 7.30am flag off. I estimated to finish by about 2pm today since the route is much flatter and I might be taking my time as well to ride. 6++ hours for 130km isnt so bad. Just hoped the rolling hills wont be too hard to ride. I shall soon find out as the lead marshal car moved out of the hotel compound and the whole tide of riders followed behind it ever so orderly at 25kmh. Well i just exited the hotel compound and already i heard the sound of a bike fall. Dont know who it was that fell down, perhaps havent wake up yet?
Rolling out of the town of Kuala Pilah the roads are what i call modern village roads. Its nice roads with good amount of bike lane space but left and right are practically wooden houses or bushes and trees. Abit winding here and there. And not too long already a few small rolling hills begin to appear. And not even past the first 5km another rider falls down. Not 1, 3 of them fall. After seeing the whole field in front suddenly stop and seeing a gap in the middle of the whole bunch, it had to be a crash. The 3 riders looked okay. Just some tangled bikes and probably some heartache........
Riding up and down more small rolling hills until finally a pretty big one where suddenly everyone broke out from the big bunch and I cannot see the front main field anymore. Its bye bye for today. I will ride at my own pace. My cousin also was missing somewhere behind as i was climbing this big hill. Up and down up and down, until I got to one which went down quite long and fast until i caught one bunch of riders whose pace was about the same as mine. So i stuck with them........I should say, lets see how long I can stick with them until I finally fade off. The group loved to ride in the 30-34kmh range on the flats. A little too fast for my liking but I hung in there. When the rolling hills came.......guess what? Me and Willy looked like we were naturals on the hills. Haha. I still cant believe just how well Willy climbs. Whatever input I put into the pedals, Willy will output it to the wheels right away. I dont really feel any waste of effort. And i wasnt anywhere near panting for breath. And the legs felt like they were waltzing on the pedals. Amazing. Every rolling hill that came and went, me and Willy took it head on. Its really that good that sometimes I am climbing in a 39 x 21 , 39 x 19 or even still in 54 x 25. Its really that much of a difference using a well designed frame. I guess all those funny tube shapes helped.
The longer I rode with the group the smaller it got. I dont know if it was riders dropping off or riders going faster in front. I was suddenly stuck with 4 riders only and I kind of liked the way they were riding : 28kmh and freewheeling every now and then. So its quite relaxed following this pace. I get to rest abit in between pedaling and the whole group seems to just like to follow that way too. It was so good that I had not realized 50km had already passed by. This was like 10am roughly. All the twisty, up and down, open empty, green roads just went by like that. By KM69 a large number of riders stopped at a very timely intersection with shops to stop and eat, and sundry shops to buy drinks. It seemed so empty this place but I forgotten its a Sunday. But its only Day 2.
I decided to stop and rest for a while. Get a drink or two. While the huge group of riders just finished their morning breakfast. I was wondering as well should I eat. And I tried calling my cousin to find out where is he. He didnt pick up so I assumed he was busy riding (or busy sleeping in a support car?) So I continued resting for as long as i can wait for him (if he is still riding). Thats when the big group started leaving. And then i saw Bahri in that group as well. Shouted to him but didnt hear me. I thought of following him since I have done drinking and eating. Well I was slow to get on the road, and by the time I started riding, my phone rang. My cousin called. He said he was still riding and 5km behind me. So i thought I would wait for him but he told me to go on since he was with our other friends (Eddy Ruey and Alex) riding together. Since he has company I tried chasing down the big group. I soon realized one thing..........chasing down a big group is hard..........very hard. Maybe my legs not warmed up enough to do a hard long chase. The best I could manage was 35kmh and that was just for a while. Not more than 2km. The group was no where to be seen. So I rode alone slowly at 25 28kmh. Ive done halfway of today's journey so its not that important I stick with a group.
Riding along I followed this rider steadily at 31kmh after catching him. For some reason I felt hard keeping pace with him compared to keeping pace with riders this morning. Maybe my legs were starting to get tired. I was constantly falling behind, having to catch up, then falling behind again....and then catching up again. The road was rather quiet, a little windy in some places, hot, and still in rural area. We have entered Melaka at this point of time, Its more like the southern outskirts of Melaka before touching Muar border.
A few small groups of riders overtake me now and then (pretty usual sight in all my 5 years of Interstate riding). Havent seen a big group since the pitstop i made. At KM85 there was this medium sized climb....and after climbing it , the road went flat......and i saw 2 riders by the road side looking like changing tires. There were 2 support cars as well. I didnt realize who the rider was until he shouted out my name. Turned out it was Bahri.
I U-turned back and went to see how he was. Apparently he wasnt having a flat tire, but he had a fall. He crashed into a front rider who tried to avoid a deep dip in the road. Miss timed bunny hop and landed on the tarmac. Bahri went straight into him and over the bars flying. Fortunately he only lost 2 small patches of skin. But the kind support car lady driver knew her first aid well. Bandaging like Bahri had lost 2 acres of skin! Haha. Other than that Bahri was fine. Still alert and talking. Same cant be said about the bike though........
Bahri is using his new Trek Madone 5.2 with Shimano Ultegra Di2 (thats electronic shifting for you normal folks - no wire cables, all by electric servo motors, a battery and electronics). Now the problem was........his rear RD could not shift up or down with the gear lever. No matter how we tried only the front FD was shifting properly. The rear could not shift. Tried recalibrating the shifting via the calibration buttons. The RD would recalibrate shifting up and down nicely. But not responding to shifter input. The gear is now stuck in his big 28T rear cog. I dont think he would want to be spinning 150rpm all the way to Muar. Somehow we manage to recalibrate and lock the RD into 17T gear cog. Middle range gear. Will get a mechanic (either Lim BikePro or Colin GodzillaCycles) to look at it once in Muar.
Anyway now a matter of concern is how to get Bahri to the end with the gear being stuck in 17T and front between 39T and 53T. So I thought lets ride together since its already near 90km. Another 40km wont hurt much. We take it slow. Will reach well by 2pm. Its already 11am and the sun is shining hot. So we wasted no time and rode off, thanking the kind support car for the help.
Surprisingly........as soon as we got rolling, Bahri rolled like nothing happened to him despite being stuck in medium gear. He did high cadence and still went at 30+kmh. I respect this guy. Should give him a name for being so..............legendary............hmmm. Might just suit well. Bahri M Aris - The Legend.
He got so fast I could not keep up actually........i just told him to go on while I rode at my own pace. 22-25kmh is more like my mode to ride now. I was praying for a bit of rain to fall but the cloudless sky says its going to be like this for the rest of the day. Having passed the 100km mark, and still having some reserve left to carry me into Muar, I slowed my pace further to 20-22kmh. I have a long day tomoro so be wise to save the legs. The last 20km was quite tough due to the headwinds as we are near the seaside. I had to stop at a petrol station to take a good rest. A big group was there resting too, with Lim BikePro in it, they left sooner than me. I just grabbed a 100Plus, a bun and sat there by the sidewalk enjoying my pre-lunch. I have not eaten a whole meal the entire journey. Just bread n chocolate bars. Another fellow rider then came in riding his nice Ridley Noah bike (easily above RM15k ) and sat next to me. We chatted. He said his knee felt terrible and he is calling it a day. His wife driving support car would be over soon to pick him up.
I left shortly after the conversation trying to finish my last 20km. I went back out in the hot blazing sun with the headwind slowly pushing me back and preventing me from going faster than 25kmh. I reached a traffic lights intersection and there were police marshals manning the junction. Then a whole big convoy of superbikes and mid performance bikes roared ahead towards Muar town. I dont know what is the occasion or event, but having to wait for all these bikes to finish felt like eternity. Since im a small user of the road I just went on ahead.
After most of the day spent in rural and empty open roads, finally i see more shops and traffic lights, heavier traffic (it being Sunday), more people around. I caught up with 2 riders slowly cycling towards the finishing hotel and todays route through Muar town seemed a little bit confusing. Muar town has lots of one way roads and sticking to the correct lane was crucial. So why not go as a group which would be safer. Another small group behind caught up with us as well. Yay, bigger number of riders = slightly more command of traffic.
Crossing the Muar town bridge, finally i get a glimpse of nearly the entire town from the peak. I can see the finishing hotel which is just at the far end corner. Following the traffic in Muar can be a nightmare for cyclists. Weaving in and out of busy sunday traffic slowly but surely todays ride is done. A few more corners and I land in front of a big hotel with a shopping complex beneath. Quite an interesting concept. At 1.30pm i finished the 130km. A very decent performance today. And judging by the large number of uncollected baggage, theres still lots more riders on the road. Its been a long time since i finished somewhere in the middle. I quickly went to park my bike downstairs in the reserved car park bays.
Bahri was already sitting in the hotel lobby there enjoying and relaxing his feet. Its amazing he arrived 30minutes earlier than me stuck in that single rear gear position. I quickly told him , "Bahri M Aris, the M stands for legendary". It fits him well. Hahaha. He's still waiting for any available mechanic to help fix his "fixie by accident" bike.Speaking of accidents, i heard reports that alot of people crashed today. Including our very own cheif safety officer cum marshal cum sexy cyclist Don Chan. Apparently he rode into another rider that fell infront of him. Result is : The bike is OK. The jersey didnt survive. A clue : Think sexy hip-to-rear-end exposure. :P
With hotel rooms not ready yet, alot of riders were everywhere in and outside of the hotel, siting on the floor, by the sidewalk. Earlier riders changed shirts and went for a stroll around town. Wasnt until 2.30pm only the rooms were ready. And my cousin + co were just in time to arrive and collect room keys. I had the honor of collect for them. My cousin too finished todays ride not feeling too bad. As more riders start to come in we went up first to take a shower and relax the legs on the bed.
Funny that none of us had a proper meal for lunch, and our friend Eddy from SG with a small group of us decided to eat our lunch at 4pm at the nearby hawker stalls. Supposedly this is the place where the famous otak-otak char kuey teow is sold. But was a really long waiting period placing order to receiving food.....and minus the otak-otak which the chef forgotten. Business seems good even on a sunday afternoon. Then we walked around town a bit, and explored the shopping mall below our hotel. In the shopping mall i saw a watch shop and i was wondering if i can get a new watch strap. Mine was broken since 8 months ago and i hadnt had time to go to a watch shop to get it fixed. Now here I am, after cycling 250km in 2 days, buying a watch strap for RM19.90. When i could have done it in KL. Crazy me right? I guess only I do this sort of thing
The dinner was 6.30pm as usual. Nice hotel food. But we ate little, and after listening to briefings etc, me and my cousin + Eddy and Co went out for our 3rd round of food. We went to this fishing village where supposedly serves really good otak2 and seafood. Non stop eating since afternoon till now. Secret carbo loading for tomorrows long flat ride to Pulai Springs Resort.
We came back at about 9.30pm and bought some chocolate bars for tomorrows snack time food on the bike. This hotel was really comfortable and looks like a decent 4star hotel. Much better than yesterdays one. With one last long day of riding, 169km left to be exact, I hope to complete my 5th Interstate participation and a personal record of : Surviving all days ride, no crash during ride, no going up support car during ride, and no matter what, i try to finish the ride. The only record that I was unable to keep (sadly) is getting down the bike and pushing up a hill (which I have done on my 2nd and 4th Interstate). But anyway as a recreational rider, I am proud and thank God for what I have achieved.
So with night getting late, eyes need to shut and tomoro is one last push to the finish line.
Before I sleep...........my regular dose of this analgesic cream from Indonesia called "Balpirik". Its super hot and super effective. Gets the legs burning throughout the night. And yet I can still manage to sleep.
Another 6 sleep-like-a-log hours.
-End Day 2-
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