Todays ride was a very much anticipated ride. Despite my 3 hrs sleep last nite chatting with Briko abt bike stuff, i was feeling ok to ride.
The usual business..........wake up at 7.00 prepare stuff and all.........by 7.20 i was off to meet the guys at Hospital Orang Asli in Gombak..........our usual gathering spot.
Axy from Way2Ride said today will be going pass Genting Sempah and descend to Janda Baik, on the Pahang side.
Reach Hospital at abt 7.45am. still not many ppl. There were a few cyclist but not our W2R gang. So i pusing pusing a while while waiting. THen down at the car park saw some guys with W2R jersey so terus go there n say hi.
So i finally got to meet Tabira, Abang Alim and Abang Awe from W2R. Before this we only chatted in the forum. HAvent met in person. Then about 5 minits later Axy and the gang arrived. About 6 of them. So there were 9 of us la. First time meet Axy and the rest. Was nice.
Now down to bikes. First Axy used a Pinarello Paris Carbon frame with Campagnolo Record and Eurus wheels. Cun man........Then Abang Alim showed his new Proton T Sprint CVS frame with Shimano Ultegra SL and Dura Ace wheels. Fulamak........meleleh air liur........ Then others used Pinarello Galileo, Cannondale System Six and CAAD 5, Specialized Roubaix (Tabira's), Specialized Aqua Sapone (Awe) , ROck bike, Polygon (Yours truly =) )
But missing one person la..........Syaaban. Tengah tido tu kot........ BUt we moved at abt 8.20 after getting to knw each other, esp me. Seems im famous to them just coz i put up posts in the forum. "Orang paling peramah dalam forum.........." Thats wat Alim said.
SO after got rolling was taking it easy. Chat with the guys. Yak yak yak. Then i had this funny feeling someone was behind me.......no its not a ghost.........i turn around.....to my surprise..........Syaaban! Haha...........he overslept and got up at 7.40. So he rushed out and caught us at the first 1km. Not bad. Then the rest turn back also surprised to see him.
So there are 10 now. Just as i tot we were doing a slow ride up at steady 15kmh......suddenly duno why the pace went faster to 25..........caught me off guard. Ikut can ikut la but duno why it went up.......so all were in fast mode. After tat acceleration we slowed to 20kmh. Then i found me and Alim and another fren ahead of the rest. Since we were back slow so i shift to lighter gears. And i was shifting my gear to to biggest cog. Mana tau suddenly..........the chain fell off and went into my wheels.........it got stuck n jammed the wheels. I came to a sudden stop. Luckily i didnt fall. I got off, pull out the chain........luckily my spokes were not cut. Chains can do that. After checking i went back on the bike n continue...........fueled by sheer frustration i chased Alim who went infront alone. The rest were still behind. Then i tried shifting to the biggest cog again. cannot. Chain was jumping like fish out of water. So i cant use tat cog for the rest of the ride.
After chasing down Alim and leaving the rest behind, we had an uphill battle.......he lead i lead he lead i lead.........pedal at 19-20kmh. Steady, no drop pace. Even when there was a sudden incline, we mash the pedals hard and kept high pace. At this point my mouth was wide open gathering air. With heavy breathing in n out. The sound was interesting. Then i started to lead Alim for about 2-3km from the summit. My meter at this point showed 27km traveled. At first he was a good 200-300 meters behind. At some places i didnt see him even on a straight road. Almost near the end at the last km to the top he suddenly caught me. I was almost out at tat time. He got me so we were again together but i was just hanging in to get to the last final climb.
Suddenly another rider came up to us! He wasnt with us at the bottom. we did see him back at hospital, but he caught up so fast! He lagi geng man.........can catch us like this. Zzzzzzzz
Finally we reach the top and me n Alim took a rest waiting for the others. Again up at Sempah the cool breeze greets my face. Had short chat with the guy. Chinese very young. Nice fella. Didnt manage to get his name. So one by one the gang arrived. Fuh........kena respect Alim........climbing really good and he looked less beaten up compared to me. Maybe if i had a lighter carbon frame no problem. HEhe
Next stop we went down the other side to Janda Baik, Pahang. According to meter an extra 7km ride. So we went down and was my first time there. But the guys say got bukit naik turun naik turun. My heart also naik turun naik turun..........i was wondering if i can do it.
Oh well............just go lor. So went off again, then after some downhills, we turn right into a junction with a road going UP. UP i mean really up........we get out of the saddle, standing pushing the pedals, at our lowest gear, and we were going at turtle pace of 9-10...........really steep 50 meter climb. I just took it slow..........my legs already hurt from the Sempah climb. Then after thats over there were small little climbs along the way............naik turun naik turun. These were steep n short. After all the hoop la and huffing and puffing, we reach the roti canai stall they went to last week.
Fuh........was i glad to stop n eat. Carbo loading. Hehe. Cyclist love this term. So we sat down ordered food. My order? Roti canai + Roti Telur + Teh Ais. The guys went ooo over my order. "Itu lah dipanggil carbo loading.........." So we ate n chat had some fun, some took pics. Later will upload them.
Then the specialty - Durian n Mangoesteen. This shop served the guys last week the same thing. So this time they tried to get it again....
"Kak, durian ade lagi ke?"- Axy
"Siapa yang nak makan tu?"- Owner
(No one raises hands)
"Ni yang tak nak mengaku ni.......siapa tak angkat tu tau le sendiri"- Syaaban
"Manggis(mangosteen) boleh tak? (takes out a tray of 20++)" - owner
(Ape lagi? Orang bagi makan je ler........)
Then later silently........hehe..........the owner came with 3 durians...........fuhyo............so long didnt eat man........i was savoring the smell and the sight of it. Hehe. Ate two pieces. But mangosteen i hantam 3-4 biji. NIce lah...........cant tahan. Hehe. Some more posing with all the fruits n food taking pictures. Funny la these fellas. After eating all this one wonders what happens to all the gas n food inside. If u eat durian u will know. :) "Ni kalo nak lepas to kat depan ok la........yang lepas dari belankang tu jer yang masalah!"- Awe. Before we left a group of 3 mat salleh on Mountain Bikes went tru the same raod tat we will be going back. We did see them at the bottom. Just tat they started later. We all greeted them.
So carbo loading over.....time to jalan! BUt then the road went up again..........aiseh.....baru lepas makan durian nak naik pulak. Dah lah tambah berat dengan durian + manggis. No choice went ahead anyway. Coz this kampung road makes a loop so we will come out to the same main road to go back. Along the way saw the kampung scenery.......and some housted were way up on top the hill and the road was going almost 60-70degrees up! Fuh.....we all see also scared at it. I managed to ask Axy about the price of Pinarello Prince and Pinarello Paris frames. His answer? RM15k and RM11k. Zzzzzzzzzzz.
Paris
Prince
So after a while we go out to the main road and head to Sempah. Then we caught the 3 mat salleh again. Gave quick hi's to them. Then my bottle was almost out of water. BUt me n Syaaban saw a man and his daughter filling water from natural mountain water. WE both got some and its really nice n fresh water! The uncle was kind enuf to help us coz we were wearing hard cleated shoes. Almost impossible to run let alone walk in them properly. He asked "Are you Malaysian Team?'' Hehehehe..........we said no, just regular riders.
So went on journey back to sempah again. Then when we reached the rest area some went for a pee. I stopped for a while with my acid burning legs. Loads of lactic acid in there. Then Tabira ajak me go ahead first. Alim was already long gone in front. Geng la him. Always in front on the hills. Respect. So me n Tabira went to find Alim who waited at the same spot we waited earlier. But going back up to the place we had to go up that long STEEP road/hill tat was really killing. I stood almost all the way pounding the pedals but its really steep and long. It was the length + steepness tat killed. The worst hill of the whole ride. But u need to go tru there to turn in to Genting Highlands or go back to KL. AFter climbing with almost burning pain legs n huffing breathes we waited for the other guys on the other side. Again.........the 3 mat sallehs..........
As we waited for the others one by one we say other cyclist going back down also. Then came another brother cyclist who went to Bentong. Tats real respect coz he went alone.....and after a morning 1 hour run! Really tabik. Hes a stong rider coz i rode with him once. So.........now when all is ready : FUN TIME! DOWNHILLS!
Hehe, at this point i was really eager to get my downhill skills polished. But after going down, i was still a bit edgy and sketchy. For some reason today my descend wasnt so smooth as the last two times i went down. I was a bit scared to take the corners tightly and i keep running wide of line. Hmmm.............maybe i was overdoing it. Oh well..........just keep going down. But going down can be real hard on the back coz ur weight goes to the hands to support and ur shoulders take a lot of weight plus the bumpy road which pounds like a jack hammer. Nevertheless we were smooth as we went down.
Interesting note : Along one of the stretches down with 4 of us, i saw front far in front some thing moving.........shaking left to right.........something walking. I tot it was a dog. BUt then i realise it was a BIG HUGE BABOON! It was super big............big as a poodle but way more muscle. I was terrified at it. Walking on its own along the road. We zoom pass it and i had a good look at it.......fuh.........scary man.
Almost reaching to the bottom Tabira had a puncture. 5 more minits to reach the metting point dah kena pancit. After taking out tube and all we saw the part where the tyre kena pancit. A chunk of the tyre rubber was gone! Scraped of the tyre. Shows tat the tyres were realy worn n needs replacing. Then we came back talking abt the baboon we saw behind........ "Wei u nampak monyet tu ker tadi? Gila besar tu. Dari jauh aku nampak bontot dia tu.....kiri kanan kiri kanan dia jalan. Agak-agak kalo dia lompat attack kat kita macam mana ye? Fuh...........gerun aku tengok" - DArren. "Fuh, mesti terbabas punye"- Frend "Sampai tergolek-golek lagi tu......" - Darren
After tube change...........went down slowly to the others waiting. BUt i didnt stop to greet them (Probably shud have done it) But i follow the other brother home together coz hes staying in Wangsa Maju Sec.2 also. So we ride together. Along the way still we saw this big group of cyclist. All were mat salleh and there were wearing same team uniform. Wow..........didnt expect to see them. After i ask its the Marco Polo team. From italy i think. They were going up to sempah........at 12.30 noon.........zzzz. I guess they are preparing for Tour de Langkawi next month. Before this they were in the Tour of Malaysia (Jelajah Malaysia) which ended last week.
So after this followed tho brother home using highway and i was home by 12.55.
Really nice ride today with lots of fun in it. Shud thank Axy for getting the mangosteens and durians. Hehe.
Total distance : 80++km
Time : 4hours+
More ride stories next time!
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