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Cheers, Gabby

Monday, June 02, 2008

{*ntu bike rally 2008*}

alright, now that i have the energy to, i will give an account of the bike rally this year. as most would know, the full journey was to be around 128 km, but i managed to clock 153+ km due to my being lost (more on that later) and the trip to ecp.

jeff and i met at ard 0555 and made our way to ecp. it was meant to be a slow, warm-up ride there but due to time constraints (registration was slated to close at 0630) we did around 33-42 km/h. soon after reaching ecp, we were met with a downpour that drenched our bikes, clothes, socks and to a certain extent, morale. minutes after registering, we were off! sticking to our grand plan, we started from wayyy back and slowly made our way to the front.

the ride to the checkpoint before coastal was mostly uneventful, save for 3 events - 2 in which i was almost knocked down thanks to 2 HORRIBLE SINGAPOREAN drivers and 1 in which the marshaler stationed outside the serangoon sec school did not direct me towards the school which resulted in me doing an additional 10 km, almost hitting hougang. as u would know, the stretch from serangoon sec to the caltex petrol station where i stopped was filled with HUGE uphills and of course downhills, a leg more strenuous than mandai.

the coastal stretch was concluded using the newly-built park connector to my surprise. i had already consumed my 2nd pack of energy gel and was prepare to negotiate the coastal stretch on the road. nonetheless, this last stretch proved to be really tiring. i briefly lost the 2nd safety cyclist (the lead cyclist was nowhere to be seen at that point of time) with jeff hot on his heels. fortunately i managed to stay around 30-33 km/h despite the stiff headwinds and caught up with the lead and safety cyclists. thereafter, it was just a mad rush to the finishing point. RELIEF! jeff came in shortly thereafter. great job buddy!

in my humble opinion, several improvements could be made: scrape the idea of giving out sandwiches which are WAY too dry, station more marshalers along the long stretch following the west coast highway before ntu and yes a larger variety of food would be good.

kudos to the organisers of ntu nevertheless, 200+ people would be a logistic nightmare, but they did good.

a quick shoutout to patience and company (alvin couldnt make it), the guy in the black pearl izumi attire who was racing alongside me at neo tiew at speeds in excess of 40 km/h at certain points and to the lead and safety cyclists who finished before i did - u guys did a good job of clearing the path at ecp and pulling : )

2008 ntu bike rally - a job well done.

Gabby | 11:54 PM

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