Monday, February 16, 2009

Broga Revisit - Batu 18 (Anti Clockwise)

Just to accompany some of my frens who has decided to do a recovery ride to Broga, we decided to start this 138km ride from batu 18 at 7:30 am. I also decided to document the ride by taking the relevant statistcis and ride profile. We have reached quite a distance in training/conditioning for some of us to look at the Broga Classic route as a recovery loop for Ironman training ;-)

The whole loop is approximately 138km and there are generally 3 major climbs. Bukit Lenggeng, Bukit Tangga and Peres. Coming in from Batu 18, the first climb is kilometer 58 just after Lenggeng town, next is kilometer 65 ie about 15km before Klawang and final climb upto Peres is at kilometer 100.
Coming out of Batu 18, the terrain can be considered quite flatwit a very slight incline upto the foot of Peres at kilometer 11. The ascnet here is only about 100m by kilometer 12. We will be greeted with a scenic route near the Semenyih Dam between kilometer 16 until kilometer 20 where we will expereience a 70km/hr descent into Tekala rest area. For the next 15km or so, it is generally flat into Semenyih town. We will be greeted with slight rolling hills from Semenyih into Broga and subsequently into Lenggeng.
We stopped over at Lenggeng to have our meal before attacking the Lenggeng hill which is made of two small ascent. This two ascent is averaging 90m per climb. This is approximately a 9% climb (90m climb in 1000m) . As we go down the second hill into Pantai, u can easily achieve 75km/hr coming down this hill into the Pantai junction. Taking left will lead us to Bukit Tangga and Klawang.
Bukit Tangga is a long ardous climb. The statistics suggest a 6% climb ie 280 m ascent in 4800m distance, that is if you are climbing from the Pantai side.

After tackling Bukit tangga, our journey back seems straight forward seeing that it is only about 54 km back from Klawang to Batu 18. Unfortunately, we have to tackle about 15km of rolling climb. We will be climbing a distance of 340 m in a distance of 15km. Although it suggest only a 3% climb, unfortunately the statistics belies the climb in itself. The gradient maybe average 3% but most of the time, u will be faced with about 5% climb over a duration of about 10km. And this is normally done under a hot sun of about 1:00 pm or about 3:00pm, depends how fast you reach this point. We will reach the peak after a distance of 34km from Klawang (or about 118km on the odometer). Going home is a breeze once the peak of Peres is reached.

LtDL - Post Mortem

Interesting first for the Letua Team....

Lim Yew Ming got his wish to participate in the le Tour De Langkawi as a rider ;-). He got his wish.

L2A has set its target this year to get at least a stage win. It has got green jersey in the past, but Stage win has eluded any Malaysian team from the begining on the Tour. This year, L2A not only managed to get its target of getting a Stage win but also to get the Polka Dot and Blue jersey.

Its a shame that riders that L2A has nurtured like Anuar Manan, Haidar, Nur Ridzuan cannot share this glory, but best wishes to them as they have left for greener pastures in MNCF and the Malaysian team.

Cyclist is a team sport, not only you need the soldiers that is capable with talent of a leftenan and a Captain, but you need to have the Colonels and the Generals to marshall the team forward and be selective in its battle, sometimes you cannot win all battles.

Getting 2nd best Asian Team and 9th best overall team is no small feat for a team that has been in competition only 3 years. Racing with skimpy budget and borrowed equipment from patrons can sometimes be very challenging. Best wishes to L2A and choosing the right fit for the LtDL this year and my congratulations to Joe Nayan and the boys.