Century Ride 2008

KRI (Kelab Roadrunners Ipoh) annually organizes the Century Ride. This is my first time that I am attending it together with some of the PCC members. Upon arrival at Casurina Ipoh to collect our goodie bags, we were enlighten with the "ride/race" briefing ala PCC Interstate. The tulips accompanied within the goodie bags also reminds me of the Interstate.

Upon collecting some of the goodies and stuff, we then went out to recce the start point of the ride which happen to be closer to Chemor town (ie 10km from Ipoh). Back we went for rest and pre ride bike check and some carbo loading at Tesco extra Ipoh.

Early morning of Sunday, we pushed of towards the start point and were there much like PCC normal 160km ride. Except rather then the usual 60 odd riders, we were amassed with 400+ officially riders and "unofficial" riders. PCC was well represented with familiar faces such as Adzim, Andrea, Azhar, Chris Milton, Daniel Lim, Lim Yew Meng, Lisa, PK and family (already one small peloton), Terry and William. Other familiar faces were Abu, Fadzil, Jaja, Ihashal, Azmar, Shazly, Stupe, Laif and Wendy (she is so much prettier in real life).
I would say that atmosphere was like a Competitive Carnival kind of atmosphere and the makeshift car park was packed. We checked in and was flagged of at about 7:10 am. The route and Terrain was (as typically described by PCC) described as rolling hills was actually flat downhill for 40km and then short undulating walls of climbs. For those who did not do the full route, it can be described as a mix of two of Puncak Alam Dragon Back, Temple Section before Ijok, Batu Arang and Sungai Tengi all in one ride. It was quite a fast ride for those who manage to cling on to the Peloton but was a lonely ride for me back to the starting point as I suffered severe cramps.

Unfortunately, I have not been heeding the advice that I usually give most people, drink every 15 minutes on long rides – well, I deserved the cramps that hit me immediately after the second water station. I would like to record my thanks to Azmar though for stopping by and dropping a few salt tablets to help me recover. Those bus stops along the Kuala Kangsar Sungai Siput road look very tempting though, for me to stop and have a nap. The weather was, however quite beautiful though, (wonder how KRI manages to managed that as well) so I pulled myself back to start line after 7 hours.

Overall, i would like to congratulate KRI for the enjoyable ride. The Marshalling was excellent, the water stop was very good and that last water stop with the sponge bath really helped me.