Ride With CM (Campaign For A Lane)

Date: 25.10.2009
Distance : 80km
Route: G-club Ride With CM Campaign (http://www.pbb.com.my/node/100)
Riders: Ang, Mei Ling, Woei Tong, Woei Chyang, Freddy, Ch'ng, Weng Kheong, Kar Cheong
Noteworthy: (1) WoeiTong made a personal record round island tour time on his birthday, (2) WoeiChyang first 80km ride. (3) Freddy first 80km ride

Our group joining this ride with intention qualified for finisher jersey, for those that following our pre-rides, it should know that most of us finished between ~4.5 hours of total ride time. So when we meet up this morning around 6am at ParkView car park, most of us do showed the eagerness to finish under 5 hours, but at the same time the worries of not able to get the finisher jersey is there as well. Just that no body spell it out.

I woke up at 5:30am, intend to take breakfast in the car since I carpooling with Freddy and Ch'ng. I'm nervous for today ride, since this is first time I'm using a full-suser for long distance riding, a lot of peoples have negative comments on using full-suser on tar road long distance riding. But I intended to give it a try, see whether the added suspension able to "cure" or "delay" my back pain problem after prolong riding.

The event start off on time at 7am, but me and WoeiChyang have separated from the rest of the group. So I have no idea how the rest doing for the whole ride. I told WoeiChyang we should stay around 25 km/hr speed on flat, it turn out I can't maintain at that speed at all on Coastal Highway, I maintain around ~30km/hr instead, certain stretch even go up to 40km/hr!

Today I pedaled like I'm on steroid, beating my average flat road speed, beating my previous climb speed on Bukit Genting and TitiKerawang. Bukit Genting I'm climbing with 13km/hr vs 9km/hr previously. Climbing TitiKerawang with ~17km/hr vs previously ~13km/hr. And most importantly, beating my brother on the climb. I reached TitiKerawang peak just 5 mins under 9am.

WoeiChyang and me start to slow down when reach Teluk Bahang Dam, since we know we're going to finish the ride under 5hrs no matters what. But WoeiChyang start to slow down quite a bit when go through Batu Ferringi, myself also kind of hitting the wall, there is one part I just couldn't pedal anymore, so we decide to take a 10mins break in front of small stall to replenish our isotonic drinks.

That 10mins break do save me and WoeiChyang, I able to maintained around 25km/hr until I hit the finish line, while WoeiChyang able to do averagely ~22km/hr until finish line.

Kudos to our group, all of us able to qualified for Finisher Jersey. Ride time ranging from 3.5hrs to 4.5 hrs. First cyclist (not our group memberlah) finished the ride in 2 hour 19 mins. And look like I didn't made a wrong purchase decision on a full sus bike, today I didn't encounter any back pain until I need to stop to stretch the body, that why I made own personal record time on round island tour.

Thanks to G-club to have a well organized cycling event.