by Matthew Schneller | pictures by Mel

(This is an article sent in by Matt Schneller, who after being bugged (repeatedly by Gil Sneed) decided to write his version of Interstate 2003. Day 1 is quite short, so the story picks up on Day 2 - Ed)

Day 1

Me and my mate (Peter da Bus Mcquade) rode with the BikePro team from Petaling Jaya. The ride was pretty uneventful and just a bit hectic at the end when nobody knew how to get to the hotel. That said I covered nearly 200kms on the first day, and left the BikePro group behind at a water break because I wanted it to be over already, not string it out by continuously stopping!

Day 2

After hearing that the PCC would start at the sane time of 6:00am, I changed my plans to ride with the PCC rather than Boon's group. I was also told that the roads out of Melaka would be closed after 6:30am and I didn't want our support vehicles stuck way behind (whether this was true or not, I never found out). The morning was a nice start, it was cool, a bit damp on the roads, and the pace getting out of Melaka was just nice. The group rode well together, and there was only 1 turn that was missed by the front riders and we were on our way out of Melaka heading towards Muar.

Only 2 weekends before the IS 2003 I had a mountain bike accident at Bukit Kiara and fractured/sprained my left wrist. I wasn't even supposed to be riding, yet the call of the IS was too much. I wasn't sure how my wrist would hold up for the rides, and my fitness was suffering as well.

Still on the second day I was feeling fresh, and I had da Bus with me as well as Oliver. As we left Melaka the route was very rolling, already without much effort the peloton had split up and weeded out the weaker from the stronger riders. My intention was to up the tempo after about 60kms to see how the group would respond. I also calculated this would put us just on the other side of Muar for the tempo increase. da Bus however had different plans. After about 35-40kms, where the hills were still rolling, Pete decided to put down the hammer. All of a sudden he seemed to see a photographer on the side of the road, and decided he wanted to be at the front for this photo op. He shot off like a rocket while I wasn't paying much attention. At the top of the climb he was in front, and I noticed in the group that nobody else was paying much attention either. I was still waiting for the 60km mark. I rode to the front to tell Pete to settle down, and he just said aw **** it (as Aussies tend to do) and he took off. I could do little more than smile and I quickly jumped on for the ride. I realised that in the hills we had a good chance to tear apart the group, so I told Pete to keep the pressure on even when descending, not to slow down or decelerate.

Matt up da hill

Sure enough after a few rollers I looked back as we took another descent just to see the group of 60+ riders which was once riding double and packed in a bunch, strung out into a single line with riders struggling over the top only to have their eyes and mouths pop wide open when they saw the gap opening on the descent when da Bus kept the hammer on without relaxing. At this point the pace was very fast, and da Bus continued to pull. Somehow we lost track of Oliver and we just put our heads down and cycled. After a slight confusion at a junction, we realized we had a good break with a few riders, with the another group reorganizing themselves not far behind ready to bridge the gap to our front group.

Ralf joined us on his mountain bike at the front. It was amazing that he could pull us at 40+kph on his mountain bike with slicks! I told him not to burn himself out and kept an eye on the pack behind us. Everytime they got within striking distance, I would jump the paceline and take the front and pull the group along at 45+kph to keep the gap. The 2nd group never caught us. Sometime along this stretch Ralf got a flat, and the group was down to its final size of 7 riders. (We picked up a lovely lady at some point along the way!)

By this point we had reached Muar, the signage was a bit iffy and we missed the first turn. I rode back to see the marshall's sitting in their CAR!!!! and not giving us directions (not happy about that). They pointed me the right way, and we headed out of Muar. Apparently due to traffic and the tempo change, I think we all out-rode our support vehicles, just on the other side of Muar, Mel (da Bus's support all around support lady) caught up to us, and gave us much needed refills of water and 100 Plus. In fact da Bus pulled over quite quickly without warning me and we just stopped in our tracks. The rest of the riders took the opportunity to keep going. We were refilled within 2 minutes and back on the pace. After a few km's we caught the group again and continued the ride.

I was still feeling fresh, and the road was so flat I was getting bored. I am convinced we had a tailwind much of the way because the pace was very easy to hold and pulls were long and sustained. I whispered to da Bus, let's go! I wanted to pick up again, I attacked and put my head down. By the time I looked back, I had a 500 meter gap on the group. Nobody tried to chase, not even da Bus? Now I am in limbo, do I slow and wait or just keep going. I tried slowing a bit, but the gap continued to grow. So I kept pushing on. Finally one rider (Tom from Ipoh?) broke away and worked very hard to catch me. We cycled together for awhile then he told me that his wife was back with the group, and he would not be alive after the ride if he stayed away from her. We decided to wait for the group. After regrouping I found out that da Bus was suffering big time. His effort in the hills was catching up to his legs. We just took it slow to Batu Pahat. By now I felt that the group had worked very well together, and deserved to finish in a bunch. We relaxed and coasted into town. I coasted so far that when we arrived at the hotel, I saw the front door open, so I cycled right into the lobby. There were four of us enjoying the relaxing airco of the hotel lobby (1 of the riders was on a zebra-painted Specialized).

A few minutes later the hotel manager came to ask us to remove our bikes from the lobby and told us where to store them (I wonder what else he wished to say?!) Funny enough I rode around the corner to the service lift and dropped off my bike. They had valet tickets and mine had number 1!

By the time we stowed our bikes and returned to the lobby, da Bus was just rolling in, and Alex and Pauline were arriving after running off (shouldn't the marshalls man the route?) apparently we made it into town before all the route signs were up!

Day 3

90kms today? I know it is going to be a quick ride! No time to relax and fast and furious. Again the PCC did the wise thing and started at 7am. Why to ride with Boon's group, 7am is a decent time to start. So there we go. I knew we weren't taking the same exact route back to Melaka, but I did expect some hills on the other side of Muar. I thought it would be best to break the group up early on the flats before Muar, and then conserve energy for the hills and the final attacks. Oliver and da Bus were with me again today, and I started at the back of the peloton trying to find a few more recruits to join me for push today. e.g. Ralf, Mazlim, Batty. As I was riding through the ranks, I decided that at 15 minutes it was time go to. I caught up to da Bus and said I was going, and there I went. I put my head down and never looked back. I took off at 45+kph and sustained my push for as long as I could. When I looked back the group with us was already small. Factor in some dodgy intersections with stoplights, and a few stop/start accelerations and we chopped the group down to size within a matter of minutes. For the first hour (after 15 min) the tempo was held at 40+kph. After an hour I decided to let the group relax and slow down. We took a more realistic pace of 35-38kph. da Bus looked in better form today, and Oliver managed to find his fitness and was still with us. The rest of the group turned out to be the usual suspects from day 2 and another Ipoh rider (Kong?) had joined us.

As we rolled into Muar, I didn't realize it was Muar! At a roundabout which we had taken the day before, there were arrows pointing clearly 12'oclock. I was in front and went straight, most followed, but da Bus and 1 other didn't. I called back to them to follow, Pete came reluctantly, but the other rider continued on. We actually circled back and waited for a few minutes, but the other rider apparently knew a short cut we did not know. So we carried on and cycled through Muar past a parade, through downtown, and over a bridge. Just on the other side of the bridge, we saw some riders stopped at a gas station, apparently they had started much earlier than us!

Again we had outridden our support vehicles and now the 7 of us were pushing on. Water was low and yet again Mel came to save the day. After the exchange of a few water bottles on the move we were ready to push on again. The tempo was maintained around 32-34kph out of Muar and I was getting ready for the hills. As we got closer to Umbai I realized that we were on the coastal road. I asked the group, do you know the route? Are there any hills today? I had been on this road before! There were not going to be any hills this day.

As we approached the outskirts of Melaka the tempo was raised slightly and we finally came to 1 or 2 short climbs. da Bus was again at the front during the longest climb and as he had been pulling for awhile he peeled of the front to only realize that Kong, Oliver, and myself were not relaxing at the top and pushing the tempo. At this point we lost 2 (1 was on a zebra painted specialized) other riders.

By now we were getting into the city traffic and again the day felt great! The group had more or less worked well together. I think a few did a bit more work than the rest, but all in all the rotation and pulls were fair and fun. As we turned towards the last stretch we gave our legs one last kick up to 40+kph before the last right hand turn into the home stretch with the hotel on the left. Ride finished!

Pete, Oliver, Kong (Ipoh), Myself, and one other kiasu rider that did no workin the paceline and attacked in the last 750 meters for no reason and missed the turn into the hotel so we still finished ahead of him. All finished together.

It actually turned out to be a bit over 100kms and we finished well under 3 hours. Great effort by the group, another fantastic day of cycling in Malaysia, and successful IS 2003!

Having a ball: Batty, Matty and Marty

I can't wait for next year!

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