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Day 3: Kuala Kangsar - Tasik Banding, 142km We were the laziest bunch of the lot, waking up at the fashionably late time of 6:00am while most of the riders had gone off at four. 6:30am : Still lazing around in our sleeping clothes when Andrew bursts into our room SWAT-style and demanded we suit up and ship out. We ignore him, and go back to sleep, so he and Edo go off on their own at 7:00am. 7:20am, we finally push off. I look around ... huh! Only 6 of us left (me, Kulim Lee, Colin, Melvin, Jia, Faisal). Even the LeTua guys + Jordan have left. We head down the road. Mr Megaphone Colin begins his daily routine ("Cho lor liao lah!!" - We're on the wrong road!, and other miscellanous comments). Adds to the entertainment. What a guy. I miss him already. We cross this lake with the road in the middle ... Tasik Raban. It was already about 8-something in the morning; yet there was a very thin mist enveloping the area. It felt surreal. A check on Melvin's altimeter showed that we were some 20~40 meters above sea level. We kept bumping into Jordan's support car, because they were only a few minutes in front of us. The support guys gave us time checks -- just like the pros. First it was five minutes, then two minutes, then lo, over the horizon, we see them. The Great Kulimlee Moogolee rides up to the front and says hi to his fellow cows (in dairy cow Assos jerseys).
Our two "Penang" riders leading the group. (Pic by Andrew
Lee)
We ride into Lenggong where a Merdeka parade was taking
place. I thought the mist at Raban was a time travel dimension where we
went back one day into 31st August. A check on my watch did confirm it
was the 1st of September. If so, these guys are late! 9:00am : A break
at Lenggong for makan at a Malay kopi tiam. At first everyone orders roti
canai, but after someone loaded his plate with rice and curry a beeline
formed immediately at the rice corner.
Off we go again. We
hit the nice highway to Grik and maintain a leisurely pace of 30km/h. Any
upgrades in speed got downgraded immediately by the bunch (mainly through
yelling). The road was wide and fabulous, although we got scared out of
our willies by drivers doing the stretch at PLUS highway speeds.
Melvin and I and a few of the Knights (of the Round Table) follow the group until Km 70, where, for varying reasons, we lost contact with the front group. We did, however, catch many of them along the rolling terrain which marked the next 50km to the finish.
Bujor (left) and Shahrom. Check out Bujor's flaming red Pegoretti Fina Estampa. Yum. Note the Malaysian flag on Shahrom's bike. You know how those horseback riders perform stunts by picking things up from the ground? Well, the Malaysian flag was lying on the road and Shahrom picked it up ... at 25km/h. I was duly impressed. Shahrom is on a Pegoretti Great Googolee Moogolee!! (that's really the name of the frame, with the two exclamation marks) (Pic by Jordan Chong) Grik. Everyone relaxes. Kulim Lee starts going off about abandoning the ride since his feet hurt (he was on Crank Brothers' Egg-Beater mountain bike pedal). Something about having the luxury to walk around in mountain bike shoes but really regretting it now. Nah, I'm pretty sure he's kidding. *Meanwhile* (cue Alfred Hitchcock music), some time before that .....
In Grik : Edo takes the opportunity to get his socks nice n' dirty ....
Edo mounting a breakaway from Andrew. Check out the signboard behind ... Sg Petani .. home! Except that it's about 100+ km away ... (Pic by Edo Vonk)
But Andrew catches up with Edo ... and leads him!!! (Pic by Edo Vonk) Noon. We push off. I am super tense. All those scary stories ("it's a mega 20km climb!!") by the organisers and some participants didn't help. I've never done a climb that long, and I do not know how I'll fare. The first 10 kilometers were a serious of false alarms. You do one long but gentle climb and you start thinking ... "this is it!", until the hill goes down again. Ahhh .. sooo ... it hasn't started yet. All those comments by Bujor and Shahrom ("Gentlemen, start your engines" .... "Enjoy the group while it's still together!") scared the willies out of me too.
One of the LeTua guys in action. Note the markings on the tar road, which means 3,212 feet above sea level. And this guy is still smiling. (Pic by Jordan Chong)
The battle is on! The long long (17km) climb to Tasik Banding. And this guy is still smiling (again!) (Pic by Jordan Chong) Still rolling .... still rolling ... then, bang, Shahrom and Bujor take off with one more of the LeTua guys. Jia and Faisal follow in hot pursuit. The rest of us gets dropped almost immediately. And that's the last we saw of them. Melvin, myself and another guy formed a threesome but it soon became a duo as the guy dropped out of sight. We grind up the long long climb .... and I actually did something I don't do -- I stopped looking at my cyclometer. Just pace yourself, dude, just pace yourself. The BLC (Big Long Climb) wasn't all up, though, ....
... as you can see from the graph, there were short but dramatic surges downhill before the direction goes up again. It was at these places that Melvin did his 53 x 11s and where I really had a hard time keeping up with him. (Graph by Melvin Choo) What seems like hours pass by. We come to some Mat Sallehs hanging around by the side of the road. One of them yells "It's the end of the climb!". Yeah, right, dude, like I'm going to believe you. Maybe I'm been fooled too many times by Kulim Lee, because the BLC really did end there. After that it was down. And down. And down YEEEHAAAAAA
It's over! It's over! Andrew cruises down the Banding bridge which connects Pulau Banding to the mainland. What a sight indeed. (Pic by Andrew Lee) <tap> <tap> The end. To a happy story.
The best things about Interstate The weather. How's getting a tan without the accompanying heat? There was no sun on the first day, the sun came out towards the end of Day 2, and there was gentle sunshine on Day 3. Perfect weather, and I say again, this is the weather riding dreams are made of. The training. Irregardless of whether you rode Interstate as a sembang ride or a "Kill Me Now!!" ride, the long distances and consecutive days will make you stronger. Now all you have to do is to maintain the momentum until the next Interstate, eg. do a century every weekend and a double century every other weekend (yeah, we macho).
The chicks. (sorry, no pics). Having your own driver and support vehicle to carry your stuff! Grateful thanks to Edwin who did an excellent job, besides getting some nifty pics.
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