Gunung Jerai 14km "scenic" climb, 17 December 2000
I was not sure whether I should torture myself to dead in ST's Tiger Hill's climb, or Ong's much more fun Gunung Jerai 14km tarmac climb. Consider that I have not been riding with Ong for quite some time, I decided to give ST's Tiger Hill a miss. Ok lah, I got chicken out lah. The Tiger Hill is not my cup of tea. Maybe next time!
I was early when I arrived at the Sungai Dua Toll Plaza. I was told that there were going to be a lot of riders joining the ride, but I did not anticipate there was such a big crowd! I saw them coming 5 minutes after my arrival. There were thirty of them. The biggest crowd I have seen so far from the Ong's ride! Without wasting any time. We all proceeded to the foothill of Gunung Jerai, Gurun, which was about 45 minutes highway driving distance away.
Since there was such a big group of riders with different capability, some were quick, some were slow, some were just got involved. Ong decided to split the group into subgroups that each would be a group of compatible riders. I always considered myself as slow rider. So, I joined the slow group, which would start the ride first. To my surprise, Leong decided to do the same! Yeah, the one who joined us for the Pos Mensun ride in CH early this year?
As I mentioned in my previous journal about the ride, it was a boring climb. I started the climb with a faster pace than previously. Maybe I was pushed by Leong's accompany. I was going faster and faster. The continuous chatting with Leong also made me forgot that I was about to go overboard, which I had to pay dearly after I reached the mid hill!
My knees started to give way after all the hard climbs I made at kilometer 7. I still had 8 more to go, and my knees were killing me. It was very painful! I decided to slow down and signal Leong to go first. The became very unbearable after I reached kilometer 9. Shifting to lighter gear did not elevate the pain. I had to stop and took a break. But the stop also gave me an opportunity to enjoy the view that I did not take chance to enjoy before! After a few shots, Cool papa, his son Daniel and Viper Ong rode pass me. And then few more rode pass. It seems like I had dropped from the 4th rider to the 11th placing again. But this time it was not a race, so I did not take much care about the drop of the placing!
It took me one hour and fifteen minutes to finish the climb, which was about the same as last time. I think if it wasn't because of the knee pain, I think I could get it done under one hour! Anyway, Ong was generous enough by providing Chai Koay for all the effort we put to "conquer" the climb!
Last rider reached the peak 3 hours later. It was raining hard when we were about to descent. Since the time was running late(Any ride that goes pass twelve noon and yet halfway of the ride will be considered as late), we decided to descent even though the rain just stopped and the road was wet!
The downhill was uneventful. I was extra careful to go down. Besides the wet and slippery road, the thinner IRC Mythos also made me to be extra careful. Don't know why, ever since I change to IRC Mythos 1.95, I have lost all the confidence to go fast. The DH ride in Batu Kawan becomes no fun already. Maybe I should search hard for Velociraptor! Anyway, it must very disappointing for Daniel, his friend Mike and Leong. They anticipated competition from me. I instead went much slower than before! The cornering and the stability at the straight line became very eerie to tackle with these Mythos tires. I virtually lost all of the confidence to brake hard at before entering the corner and sprint fast after exiting the corner. Some more there was this new kid(no helmet! I wonder why Ong allows him to join the ride!), whom I thought should be the first time to do such a high speed chase, always go into my line, blocking my way. It was very dangerous. Often time I had to make last minute change of line before either I was hit by the incoming vehicle or bumped into him. I hope he would not do it again next time. As expected, he was the most unwelcome one to join the chat after the descent among four of us. The kids were deliberately ignoring him during the discussion. I could see his face that he would like to join the chat but because of his reckless handling, he was sidelined!
The kids, especially Leong asked what had happened to me. I used to give him a good fight on descent. But this time I was slow. I don't want to blame it on the tires but it seems like the fatter tires should be the one I should use!
We had our lunch at one of the Chinese coffee at Gurun. Was the food impressive? No comment!
Stay tuned!