Possibly as Painful as Childbirth - BROGA Classic

I think my wife said, "The pain in child birth is so great that u dont ever want to give birth anymore". But of no fault of hers, she got pregnant again by yours truly and had to endure that pain another three times.

Much like my bicycle ride to BROGA with PCC. I still remember the question by PK and DonChan last week, "Mac, should we follow the P2K boys and MKH to BROGA?". I had to repond "Yeah, it is a good prelude to Interstate...". But alas, the ride to BROGA is typically a ride to endure pain and the pain is excruciating - must be like child birth, and much like child birth, no matter how much pain, we seem to be looking for more pain to enjoy.

Well, yesterday PCC was joined full force by more then 30+ riders (some who has graduated from the Thursday Nite ride) on a trip to BROGA. I tried to pace the peloton out of Tekala at about 26-28km/hr, so that the late riders can catch up and also set a reasonable pace for things to come. But no, after Semenyih, some riders in the peloton lost patience and started shooting out at 32-35km/hr. By Lenggeng, some were already out of breath, while I had a quiet Kopi O Ais and nasi lemak at a shop around the corner.

Ariff, Laif and me decide to push of early, but alas, our intention didn't go unnoticed, a heard of P2K boys swarmed us before the ride up the first hill before Pantai. We were still doing OK until comes Bukit Tangga. After being passed by Sayuti and Bikepro Lim as if we were standing still, my perservarence went thru the window. Receiving a call from someone halfway up the hill also doesnt help.

Made it down Bukit Tangga and sped thru to Kuala Klawang. Caught up with Joanne and one MKH guy and we worked together a paceline of between 30-32 into Klawang. We reached Klawang Petronas at 10:45 am and took our deserving stop there. We then pushed off towards TiTi and Peres at about 11:15am, the peloton was kind enough to wait for me to rehydrate myself.

While going into Titi, we managed to catchup with the MKH peloton and made it together as a group towards Peres. Peres climb sorted out the man(old man..that is) from the boys. Old man like me tend to drop like flies and on hill climbs just about 1 km before the summit, I didn't have anymore energy. Only the "hand of god" by Vong, William and one P2K motorcyclist help me up to the summit. I had cramped out big time and while making myself back to Tekala, at the foothill of Peres, i was struggling up the hill balancing between pain of cramps and the ability to drive up the hill. Luck was with me and I was joined by Ariff who gave me water to cool down my thighs.

That helped me back from the dead and we worked as a team to get back to our parking area at Tekala. I owe a lot of people this time round, for the push, the water and the buddy spirit. Its the spirit of team work that I am so happy to see out of this ride.

I take a bow.....

PS reminder: Never do a 10km run before a long ride to BROGA the day before

Tiring weekend - Flat and Hill

Thought of light pedaling went right through the windows after 1 km into the Bangi Bagan Lalang ride. Culprit, Adzim and Andrea!!! I knew that phrase flat as pancake is an invite to disaster. These guys was pushing 35km/hr average with meters touching 38-42 km/hr is considered normal. Ah well, we soldier on for the next 96km to and from Bagan Lalang.

Not having enough mileage, was tempted out of bed again by Don Chan's message to ride the Sempah Bentong ride starting at 9 am. It rained heavily that morning and the thots of snuggling in warm blanket did cross my mind 5-6 times. Went off at 7:45 from home and reached Sempah at 8:40 am. Unpacked and was streaming downhill again at breakneck speed until lost a bit of steam near entrance of Bentong town. Came back was torturous, though the draft that wong CC and Lisa oon provided was ok untill the last 15km. Help out fellow rider with puncture and was late back into sempah at nearly 1:00 pm

Total distance this weekend of about 166km. Damn, i use to cover 160km in a day, now it is so damn difficult to cycle 160 km in two day. Better buck up before interstate.