The ultimate 50km XC ride, Junjung-Serdang, 20 February 2000

It all started when Viper Ong called me up on Tuesday. I was told by Ong that he was going to organize a ride in Junjung, and he was planning to complete the whole this time compared to last time that we only did the cement pavement part. When he called me up, I was sick on bed after that god forsaken Pasembu that I ate after the last Sunday ride. I thought maybe I should skip this ride until I felt okay. Also, Azmi will be in KL joining Cycleflex for their usual weekend ride and ST the cOOOl kNIGHt would be in KL on job assignment as well. Called up Fatt afterwards and he was like,"I'll join if I could get up on time"! Man, maybe we had too many rides during the CNY. Maybe we should re-consider the schedule we are having. Is 7.30am too early? I don't know. I hope some of our "regular" riders will be as enthusiast as those in Cycleflex and Silent Thunderers, who are willing to get up at 5.30am in the morning and drive all the way up to Gopeng to meet us. Cycleflex and Silent Thunderers, you have my respect!

Fifteen riders showed up for the ride this morning. We all met at the Shell Gas Station of Kulim. Let me tell you one thing, of all the 15 riders, 12 of them are hardcore riders that frequent Bukit Mertajam hill! This was going to be a tough ride, this was going to be a tough ride!! Another surprise! Instead of driving into the Junjung Forest Reserve, the leader of the ride, Mr. Eng decided that we should ride to the trailhead. 13km on tarmac before hitting the trailhead? This 13km ain't easy 13km. Gotta be kidding man! But hell, head already at the chopping board. I just couldn't say, "Hey I'm going home. You guys have fun!". If I do that, KOTRT's reputation would be at stake, and they would not join us next time! Since I was always the slowest rider in the KOTRT and I did not want to be left behind, I decided to follow the front pack which consisted of Eng, Mike Ooi and Alan, who were tengkahs of the tengkahs. Speed was crisp. I hardly kept up with them . I was in vain trying to catch up by playing around with different gear combination. Even though thru my ultimate effort, I still left behind by the group! Maybe I have not found my natural cadence yet but anyway, at least I was in the front pack right?

We finally reached the trailhead half at hour later. While waiting for the rest to catch up with us, I took the opportunity to regenerate myself. To my horror, I forgot to buy ORS a day before! A bad sign telling me this was going to be a tough ride? I don't know! I later found out that one of the kamikaze kids had his leg thigh cramp after trying to catch up the fast speed of the second pack as well! Poor thing, he stopped cycling for almost two months already when he decided to join his school's soccer team. Now, he was suffering from not getting used back to his full sus Lerun Cyber Pro! Seeing that we already had weaker rider in the group, I decided to be a sweeper. Mike Ooi was volunteered to be a sweeper as well. He concerned that since I was new to the trail, it would be nice for someone who knew the trail to be a sweeper. We reached a compromise. We all knew that it was not easy to be a sweeper. Just imagine you are all set to go and suddenly you are chosen to be a babysitter for weaker rider! Although in this case we all volunteered but I knew that somewhere on the way one of us would give up!

I was right! Mike Ooi was no where to be seen after a mere 100 meters! Apparently he was very keen to be in the front pack. I started as the last rider and I was already overtaking couple of riders including Viper Ong after one km of climbing! Not that I was in a good shape. It was because of the trail condition. The trail was half cement half dirt, which made the ride miserable if the rider were not used to this kind of trail. The Ong's group most of the time do rides on tarmac and cement trails. They seldom do climb on dirt road. My training in Batu Kawan proved to be helping. The climb on dirt was not a problem for me! We all reach the first junction after a mere 20 minutes. Mike the kamikaze kid was no where to be seen and Mike Ooi was already on his way to the second pit stop. I decided to wait for him and asked the rest to continue. Mike the Kamikaze kid showed after all rode up on the second climb and he already showed sign of retreat. I was tempted to leave him to catch up the rest but after I thought what happened to me during with this MTB group(I was left alone to climb on that Jeep track in Penang Hill!), I had second thought and waited for him to have enough rest before continue our journey. He was like totally given up riding and wanted to push. I tried to talk him into peddling since pushing was much energy taxing than peddling. I must admit I had failed the mission. Mike decided to push for the rest of the climb. I had no choice but to follow suit.

We met the rest after about 10 minutes of pushing. We first met Alan and then the rest. Alan was not sure if I were okay. Maybe the name Turbo Snail always implies weak rider? Hmm...We did not waste any time to rest since the time was already 9.30am. The down hill wasn't as fun as I thought since the rider in front was a very careful rider! Imagine I was all set to charge the down hill and the front rider just grab his both brake level no matter how. Gosh, it was like eons before we hit the foothill!!! And I couldn't overtake him before of the narrow single track!!!! It was very tempting for me to bump his rear tire as a sign to tell him to go faster!! Man, the slowest downhill I had ever had!!! After we finally reached the foothill and had ample rest, Mike Ooi suggested to climb back up. Reason: there would be a long 30 km ride under hot scotching sun. Climb back will be a better option since the trail was most covered by shade! To his surprise, the majority decided to ride the long road back instead of putting another effort to climb back! Maybe the long downhill scared many riders off?

The 23km ride back to Kulim was proved to be tiring! Again, I made a mistake by going first! Juan was with me and he decided to go faster. Engaging 42-11 and 42-13 were not a kid play on slight up slope road! I only managed to catch at the first half of the way and later when Viper Ong and his partner, Alan caught up with us, I decided to give up the chase. Another mistake again! Ong, Alan and Juan already showed sign of tiredness. I should keep up with them to form a team of four and continue. Instead, I let the distance between increase and when I decided to catch up with them, it was all too late already! I was too tired to increase my peddling speed. All I can was to maintain the distance until we all met at the junction!

It was a tiring but a good ride. The majority of this ride are on tarmac, which is more of like a road riding. The uphill climb, to be frank, wasn't bad at all. If I were not volunteered to be a sweeper, I would have no problem to tackle the climb at all! Thanks to Viper Ong and Eng for the good ride. It sure worth another visit. And Mike, the ride under scotching was actually not bad! The sun was just right. Not too hot. Enough to give you a good BBQ burn!

Makan was done in Sentosa Corner, Kulim Road, BM. This place is very famous of it's Pasembu, Java Noodle and Chee Cheung Fun with curry wild boar. Too bad I had a very bad experience with Pasembu a week before, or else I would sure finish two big plates of it!

Stay tuned!