Sunday Ride

Paolo and Deck - thanks to Mader for the photos

Bal showing how many laps he did - Thanks to NoLights Louie and Mader
for the photos





Mark sharing his lunch with us - Thanks to NoLights Louie and Mader
for the pics







Me :-) On the other side of the island, doing what I do best -
thanks to Louie for the iPhone pic. very nice for Instagram



PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers are spoiled for mechanics.

They brought along 3. Mike the (ex-TEF) Mechanic, Ah Long

and John from Hup Leong



Racers from PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers



Today's the 4hour Enduro at Ketam MTB trail in

Pulau Ubin ! When I woke up at 7am, I know my riding

buddies who will be racing today are already there

doing their last minute preparations. So I did my pre-ride

rituals and then went out @7:30AM to meet NoLights Louie

in Bedok Reservoir.

By 8:30AM we were having breakfast at Changi Village and

by around 9:30AM we very excitedly went to Ketam and looked

for the place where the race started... I'm not sure if

NoLights Louie shared my disappointment but that was what

I felt. The feed zone was located near B01 (Pine Ridge) and it

was very exposed to the sun ! I pity all the people there.

They look like they were being fried. There were just few tents

that were brought by the bigger MTB teams. So if you don't belong

to a team, you fry. If you went there as a spectator, you fry.

The smaller teams went under the shade of some bigger trees.

Some pitched small tents which I know from experience

would be like small ovens.

Since we can't find our buddies and I can't find where they left

their stuff, NoLights Louie and I decided to go around the island

and explore all those little trails that we see in our regular

group rides. We got lost once. Good thing it's very simple to just

double back to where we came from. We shot a few pics so that each

of us have amunition for our Instagram show-and-tell... and by 11:30

we were back to the racing grounds.

We managed to catch SR Deck just as he exited from Easy Ridge.

He was doing his 6th lap then which was eventually not counted

because he didn't cross the line by 12noon even when the race

started @8:15AM (instead of 8AM). So we can call the race the

3hour 45minute Enduro. Anyway, the rule was applied to everyone

equally so no real complaints there.

We also saw, AirTime Mark and Bal heading home (@11:30 ?!) because

I think Mark was smart enough to realise that even if he does his last

lap, it won't be counted and Bal was looking pale because he only had

one 700ml bottle of water for the whole race LOL.

After a while, we saw the whole PadyakPinoy/MTB Brothers group under

one of the trees along Pine Ridge and I learned KK got 13th place and

Lito got 14th place in the Solo Category. I also saw Bobot who told

me last week that he is not racing hehehehe.

We crowded around the drinks lorry and finally bumped into Paolo.

Paolo's first race was in Malaysia and of course, he can't help but

compare the race he attended there and the race he just completed.

He told us he was wondering what he paid 50$ for. In Malaysia

he paid half of that and he got lots of freebies not to mention

drinks, bananas, watermelons at each checkpoint. He was even smiling

at the memory of the girls who were chanting 'jia you! jia you!'

while they were doing some killer climbs :-) Here, he got .... nothing...

The worst part is, we can go to Ketam anytime we want and do our

own 4hour Enduro and it won't cost 50$ !!! hehehehehe so one less racer

for the 12hour race :-)

Anyway, here are the results of the race.