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My teammates were all wearing the Tropang Putikan jersey
while Deck (behind in red) & I (in white) decided not to wear
it because we were not in shape - picture taken from Gou Gou Li's
FB account |
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NoLights Louie receiving the 7th place award
for Women's Category barefoot because her shoes
were still wet from the river crossing -
Pic from Kay Nakashima's FB account |
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| Me! On a climb - pic from Kay Nakashima's FB account |
This is the first race of the year for me and what
a race it was! The trail was fun fun FUN! The Wacycles
crew put the 'single' in the singletrack!
Start to CP1
Our group came to the race site around 7AM. We shared
the bus with the Husay group. Jason of Husay group has
done a sweet deal for us. He managed to get a bus from
Malaysia to cross over to Sg, stop at Tampines MRT, Ang
Mo Kio MRT and Sembawang MRT to pick us all up and then
ferry us to and back from the race! It was a very welcome
change. Imagine, no need to pedal under the hot sun while
going head to head with fast motorcycles.
So after assembling our bikes and making sure that we
all have our own race necessities (e.g. gels, water bottles,
multi tools, etc.), we all lined up under the blue inflatable
'Giant' arch. The cyclists will be released in waves. Those
who registered and said that they can finish the race within
2 hours will be released first. Followed by those who said
they can finish within 3 hours, so on so forth.
We were released at 8AM. IronMan Randy was in the front of
the pack and he said that he was able to keep up with the
fast guys for exactly 10 seconds (hehehehe). After 10 seconds
those guys dropped him like a bad habit.
I decided to be realistic and just let everyone go. Deck
slowly gapped me. NoLights Louie overtook me and came up
behind Deck. In a few moments they got lost in the horizon.
Me on the other hand got overtaken by a lady in a section that
was going downhill. I remembered her vividly because when she
hit some sand on the road, she started swerving and almost
lost control of her bike. I cycled faaarrr faaarrr away from
her to the left because I don't want to run over her when
she falls. Good thing she didn't fall. After that, I overtook
her and didn't see her anymore. But I was wondering how come
there are roads in Malaysia with deep sand?
Ok, we're still in the road section going to the trail head.
This road section was very long and then it started to point
up. I was just doing my mindless pedalling technique then
lo and behold I saw NoLights Louie trying to gap Deck ...
I was reeling them in though. I caught up with them on the
crest of the climb and said 'Hi'.
The road pointed down and now we are finally going into the
trail. The trail designer has this 'funny' sense of humor as
the first thing he made us do is climb this ridiculously steep
hill. I climbed 2/3rds of the way and then pushed a 1/3rd of
the way since I was thnking EVEN if I climb that, then what?
My heartrate would be taching up to 150% and then what do I do?
Deck was pushing too and when he got up, he climbed on his
bike and that was the last I saw of him because what followed
next was a rooty downhill.
I climbed on my bike with lots of hesitation because the DH
section was rooty and there were lots of people following just
one 'rideable' line. The guy in front of me endoed ! He got up quickly
and said 'I'm ok! I'm ok!' BUT I had to avoid him and I went
to the left side where all the walkers were... and so I walked.
While walking, I saw NoLights Louie come down along the rideable
line to my right ... the trail is still pointing down but there
were lesser people now. I hopped on my bike and was able to overtake
Louie on the way down ... and that was the last I saw of her.
Anyway, the trail now is as what you would expect of Malaysia
Jamboree trails. They are all fireroad (jeep trails?) BUT for
some reason, these fireroads are a bit on the narrow side.
It was all fireroad all the way to CP1.
CP1 to CP2
One word = Singletrack !
Can you imagine that? I don't have the exact length but almost
all of the trails from CP1 to CP2 is SINGLETRACK! That is what? 10km?
It was the best part of this jamboree! The singletrack was sooo
narrow that I find twigs on my brake levers. I thought I was
already lost because I couldn't believe that a singletrack could
go onnnnn and onnnnn and onnnn. Imagine a trail that is narrower
than what we have in Sg ... the best I can come up with is make
Scorpion Trail narrower, then throw in some roots BUT NOT as gnarly as
ButterFly Trail then when you can imagine this, now imagine that
this trail goes for 10km! Heaven!
Anyway, it was after one of the climbs here when I first started
to feel the cramps coming. I stopped one of the riders behind me
and asked for a Yoko-yoko.
CP2 to CP3
This section of the jamboree is just like Singapore's Woodcutter
Trail :-( Sigh ... While biking in this section, I wanted to cry
tears of joy. It reminds me sooo much of Woodcutter Trail
which I last visited in April last year. Sniff sniff.
I was in this mood while going up a section of the trail and
following one of the riders wearing '46' orange/yellow jersey.
When he got to the crest of the climb, he shouted something
back at me. I on the other hand did not hear what he said ...but
I prepared myself before I reached the crest. There must be something
there that made him shout. True enough, you can't see it from below
(duh), once you get to the top, the first thing that will greet you
is a gap!!! I quickly pulled my handlebar up! Safe!
My savior was still looking back and he wasn't pedalling fast.
He pointed to something behind me and shouted something again.
It turned out there was another rider behind me ... who did not
hear what the guy in '46' jersey was shouting ... and so the
rider behind me endoed. The guy wearing '46' jersey shook his head,
sighed, and then we both sprinted.
Next thing I remember is that I was thinking to myself that this
guy in '46' jersey is not gapping me. I think I can take him hehehe.
I waited for a place to pass and then there was this very very big
mudpool which took up the width of the trail we were on. I saw that
he is going for the left edge of the mud pool. I thought why avoid
mud? This is MTB. That is just mud. If I go straight into the mud
pool then I can overtake him. ... and so I went straight. Sigh.
Now I know why he didn't go straight. My front wheel got sucked
in the mud up to my fork stanchion! You read it right. Up to the
fork stanchion. Good thing I didn't fly ahead of my bike. I got off
my bike and had a difficult time pulling my bike out of the mud.
Heck, I had a difficult time pulling my foot out of the mud without
leaving my shoes in there. So bye bye '46' jersey.
CP3 to Desert Hut
I'll explain the Desert Hut thing later. The thing is, experience
tells me that once you reach the last CheckPoint, it should be
smooth sailing from there.
But the trail designer must really have a weird sense of humor
because he meade us do looonnnggg climbs, river crossings and there
were still singletrack in this portion of the jamboree!
It was while on the crest of one these singletrack climbs that
I went and stopped Silas from MTB Brothers and asked him for a
Yoko-yoko. He said he has some kind of spray instead. I used the
spray ... I think it was some kind of Ice spray. I thought that
should take care of my cramps up to the finish line. I told Silas
to go ahead while I wait for the spray to take effect.
It was around this time that my hands started feeling numb and
so I put the compression setting of my fork to totally open.
Later on I stopped again to adjust my fork's rebound to a
faster setting.
By this point, I was just trudging along ... and then I saw the
Desert Hut. There shouldn't be any checkpoints by now. But the
guys from Wacycles must have known that after all those climbs
and whatnot from CP3, letting us cycle through the 'Desert' was
inhumane. So there was this hut where the Wacycles crew were passing
along bottles of water just so we can survive the last 1 km.
Finish Line
I was already near the finish line when one kid decided to overtake
me ... he was pushing a 44-11 gearing. I was thinking to myself
what is this kid doing? That gear is too heavy. See, he is not
making progress. He is still very near me ... and then I think
the kid's Turbo kicked in and he left me before I can say 'huh?'.
All the races last year, I was still hammering until up to the
finish line but this race I was just like a cycling zombie
ambling along.
I crossed the finish line and I was a bit lost. I was expecting
a medal to be handed to me ... but instead the finish line crew
just put a pink sticker on my race tag? That was it? Then I thought
'What medal? Didn't I tell myself that I shouldn't be expecting one
since I didn't practice much!' ... Ok, so I cycled slowly towards
my friends. Another friend of mine TKL joined us and it was from
him that I learned that there were to be NO finisher MEDALS for
this race! Awwwwwww !!!!!
Conclusion
1. I said it before and I'll say it again the Wacycles Jamboree
trail was FUN FUN FUN !!!
2. No matter how convoluted the singletrack was, I never got
lost. The trail was very well marked.
3. The Desert hut was a nice addition to Checkpoints 1,2 and 3
4. There were places in the trail where there were lots of
loose pebbles. The bad part is that these places were almost
all downhill. I think lots of accidents happened on race day.
In my group alone, there were 2 who came back with skinned knees.
5. No medals?! Why? I know that part of the reason is that
because of the timed run, everybody's timing must first be
taken before the positions can be determined. But there should
at least be finisher medals, right?
6. Since there were no medals, there were supposed to be
certificates showing our timing. I think we can kiss this
goodbye as well. How are we going to collect the certificates
when we're in Singapore?
7. We had to clean our bikes before we could load them up
to our bus back to Singapore .... but there were no cleaning
points available. We cleaned our bikes in the big pond at the
race site.
So 3 good points and 4 bad points ... I really wanted to 'like'
this race. I'll say it again, the trail was very nice and the
organizing was top notch. In fact, I can do away with the medals.
It's not like I was number 11 (only top 10 were given medals).
However, point #4 above is really bad. Whenever I see those
loose pebbles, I imagine what's going to happen if I go down.
