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The 2004 Pesta Penang road race
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I felt good at the end of this year's race. It was the first race that I finished with spare fuel in the tank. I even did a sprint to the finish line as if the World title was at stake (duh ... but actually it was a precaution since there were riders just behind me). But having said that, the reality was I wasn't strong enough to break away from my group, which I was told, was the third group on the road, and bridge up to the group in front of us. Not strong enough.
Ok, rewind, rewind .... As usual I was a bundle of nerves and was fidgeting around on race morning. I even forgot to pay for my breakfast and was "arrested" by the hawker.
It was a shame that there was a mountain bike race over on the mainland at the same time, so many of the "regulars" as well as the "regular observers" were having fun on the MTB trail.
However, I did have The Machine with me, and it was also good to welcome the Two Crazy Triathletes - Danny and David - to the road racing scene. We managed to recruit Finian-Babey and JimmyBabey to provide support - which was greatly appreciated. At Gurney Drive - the start line - it was, as usual, meet-up-with-outstation-riding-pals time. Zamani who's instantly recognisable on his CF1, our Style Man Doc Adrian, Chan, Ben, Ervin ... hope I haven't missed anyone ... oh, the Big Cheese of GP RaceSpeda, Big Easy. None of us actually expected the race to start on time (this comes from experience you see) and we were still busy clowning around when the starting gun went off. Ervin: "What, no speech ah?"
For the last few years the speed and intensity of the Pesta race have depended on whether the race is being used as selection criterion for the national riders to earn a place in the Tour de Langkawi-bound team. This year, it was. Suffice to say, when we hit 50km/h going into the third kilometre (and barely out of Tanjung Tokong road), I knew this was going to be a really, really "good" time for us all. Yikes and hang on tight ..... The Gore Factor: Surprisingly low (which is good). There weren't any crashes on "Crash Boulevard", the Batu Feringghi coastal road, and none that I saw on the Fruit Farm descend (another favourite spot for those who like to end their races in the comfort of the ambulance). I was later told that there had was indeed a crash in the leading group, but it all sounds minor compared to what I've been seeing for the past 2 years. I wonder if Ervin still recalls sliding across the road last year - maybe he just wanted a good excuse to finally dump the shorts he was wearing. Anyway, where we were? Ach, the Teluk Bahang Dam. This year it was taken quite slowly (a 600 metre long 6% climb at an average of 23km/h) but as always "The Split" happened there. That was also the last I saw of The Machine, Ervin and Danny. I rode the Fruit Farm at tempo, picking up some riders who had exploded trying to follow the first and second groups. There were about 10 of us and I started the descend first although I was last by the time we reached bottom (see next paragraph). At least something new happened to me this year - getting dropped on the descents. Not once but twice - on the Fruit Farm descent and the Teluk Kumbar descent. It is actually quite subtle and you don't realise it at first since you have the last rider in your sights and you're thinking that, hey, there's still "plenty of downhill" to catch up. But slowly the distance grows ... and before you know it they've disappeared behind the next corner - and then the next - and then you don't see them anymore. When I felt it I took a lot of risks trying to catch up - too many risks with hindsight - I overshot quite a few corners and had there been a vehicle on the other side of the road I would have copped it. There was still a sizeable gap at the bottom of both hills and I burned too many matches chasing back to the group. At the flat portion between the Fruit Farm and Teluk Kumbar hills, we had the fortune (some may call it misfortune) of having Wan Mohamed Najmee with us. "Jimi" is a rider bound for a season's campaign in Belgium next year. National level stuff. He had suffered a puncture earlier on and when he caught up with us he tried to organise a chase, making all sorts of gestures - mainly a circling action with his left hand to indicate that we should ride single file and take turns at the front. However, my group consisted primarily of juniors/kids (I always end up with the juniors!!) and none of them seemed to understand what Jimi was trying to say. We would ride nicely for a while and then there'd be all these silly attacks from certain riders who didn't know any better, going up to 45km/h before blowing up a hundred metres later. Needless to say, it was all very disruptive. After about 6km of yo-yo-ing speeds Jimi got fed up with us and went off on his own. Such was his class that none of us could even follow. I'll have to thank him, though, because we did that flat Betong portion at an average of 40km/h. After that was the Teluk Kumbar hill where I got an extra precious water bottle from Jimmy, the airport hill, the Equatorial hill and of course, Tun Sardon. I'll have to say this year's race is a climber's dream for it incorporates every single notable climb on Penang island (except for Air Itam Dam, of course, but that's really out of the way). It's also a nightmare if you're overweight, un-fit, or negligently packed a 21t cassette as your lowest gear. There were actually portions of the Relau/Tun Sardon climb that was graded as high as 13%.
The losers: Riders who cheat. Well, what else can I say without sounding like a broken record? If I saw people taking shortcuts and drafting vans in RaceSpeda Putrajaya, I saw people hanging on to cars and vans and whatever else that's moving on the Tun Sardon climb. Heck, a support van even asked me to hold on, duh! (translated quote: "You can hold on to the door or the flag, it doesn't matter lah!" ...) And now I know why a car has four doors - so that it can pull up four riders - one for each door (no kidding). They only let go after a race marshall came by. Perhaps it was fitting that they were overtaken by the honest riders before the finish line. Race stats for the data
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