#222 : Sunday Ride

I finally reached BT while there's still fog

While having my BB replaced yesterday at Hup Leong,

Mechanic John told me to join a group ride that will

be heading from Casuarina to Bukit Timah. Hmmm...

since I, nowadays, am more interested in spinning

on tame fireroads, my response was none committal.

So I left the house at 7:20 this morning and by around

8am, I met the trio of KK, Boom and Mer going to BT.

I also met FreeRider Eric blow Gangsa DH going up to

that trail leading to Casuarina saying that he'll be

meeting the rest of the peloton as they come into the

trail. I waved bye-bye and started spinning happily

in T15 ... ahhhhhhh ... peace and quiet and easy

trails. Bliss. I did four laps of T15 and on my 4th

lap ... I saw the peloton coming out of the T15 PCN?!

So, what gives??? I told them FreeRider Eric went into

the trail hoping to meet them! It turned out there

was a newbie with them and said newbie was really

scared of going into the trail! So they went to Mandai

Ave and entered T15 via the PCN !?! ... and the newbie

looked very familiar... it turned out she's my office

mate! She said she has been bugging Brother Louie for

any offroad rides but he said there were no such rides.

Hehehehe sneaky eh.

Apparently, Rochelle (the newbie) has been cycling on

PCNs all by herself until CrestPursuit Owen gave her

a phone number that somehow led to the MTB Brothers.

We continued riding and met the trio of Boom, KK and Mer

again on their way home. The MTB Brothers said they're

going to have lunch at Bukit Panjang and I told them

I will be going my way once we reach the Bukit Panjang

exit. Mike the (ex) Mechanic was leading the way and

he led us to this very short DH section which I can

tell leads to Bukit Panjang exit BUT I don't recognise

that section at all. Due to that, I descended very slowly

and at the bottom there was this mudhole which will

swallow half your wheel ... I sensed disaster coming and

so I just stopped near the mudhole hehehehe.

Mike showed Rochelle the newbie how to descend and

after the presentation it was her turn to go down.

She descended very, very quickly (I noticed she is quite

good in the DH sections) but of course when she got to

the mudhole, she didn't lift her front wheel and so

she endo'ed! She wasn't hurt but she was covered with mud

from head to toe hehehehe. Welcome to Mountain Biking :-)

By the way, while chitchatting with the peloton, I learned

Boom took part in the Tour de Timor last September!

Envious! 6 days, 600 over kilometers! I think the current

issue of SPIN has a writeup on this most Epic of all rides.