Another broken sunday!

Never felt so bad  having my Sunday a major drag with pocket to burn later.  Ride in the middle of the jungle miles away from civilization and 'bam!' i got permanently broken drive terrains my mountain bike in the middle of no where. Let see...that was USD$210 shitty Shimano XTR parts gone down the pit this month, rear derailuer, frame drop-out hinges and chains going goodbye.  With almost storm coming in on windy evening i cut the chain short to fit the whole gear into single speed setup so i could continue pedal and a whizz my way miles to the pit stop and drove back home in agony.  Why agony because i expect to spend my budget for computer hardware for my 3D work...mmmmm NVIDIA..... Should have followed my instinct not to ride my MTB yesterday.  On the bright side though i still have my road bike to keep my legs alive this week....i really hate lycra tights.

12 year later, finally i got all my favorite lid!

It maybe an obsolete product from GIRO but it still looks cool and lights years a head of other helmet design, infact my car design inspired from these lids which is why i collect them envy for their design, cooling engineering, aerodynamic and durability. 14 years ago i just a college dude when these lids almost reached 4 figure way beyond my deepest pocket. Slowly year by year i collect each helmet one by one until the final puzzle was found on ebay. The last piece was Giro Switch Blade, a piece of "Courage for my Head" (opss...Its BELL's moto). Today i ride mountain and road bike with these. Strap it on it feels like nothing on your head, just felt so cold and chills on my scalps, now thats what i called Ventilations.

Down goes my medal

After years of mountain bike racing i never felt soo bad getting 9th position. After placing my medal on my cupboard i can see my benchmark in performance drop very bad from top 1,2,3,4 to 5 since 1993-2005 top position and sudden drop to 9th almost closer to lousy rank. 2009 must be very bad for me. Anyways it was last minute training before race. It really caution me to keep my level of stamina back up again soon.

Let race, mud, rain and crashes, mtb to the extreme.

Its saturday, i woke up as early as 4,.30am to prepare myself for today mountain bike race. Surprise to see on my windows the rain drops like cats and dogs, I'm sure the race track already flooded and muddy. I skip bath fear i may degrade my muscles due to cold tempreature and just brushed my teeth and head for heavy breakfast with some cereal, bundles of banana, eggs and hot milo. 1 hour before departure i tune my bike and remove unnecesary items on my bike such as pump, spares, bolts, holder, bottle cage as last resort to lighten the bike. Then i packed my gear, put on my car and the drove to the race venue at the peak of highest hill beside the public park along the airport road.

Upon reaching there everyone clinging together under the roof as rains still pour down madly, Gushy flow of water started to flood the soil and roads. I can feel the ground going to soft to walk around. Me and my buddies made a quick 1 lap ride to test overall condition on the track along 3.5km length per-loop. The condition was very poor, slippery, muddy, soft, and some critical part are heavily flooded almost reaching our knees.

Back at the race pit i've reunited with dozen of old buddies whom we used to be in the same national mountain biking teams since the early 90's who flew from Kuching and Bintulu city for the race. Other power rival come from Brunei country who also come to compete. 5 minutes before starting time at 7.45am we gather ourself down the hill where the staring lines for Open category flag off. Open category have around more than 30 riders to fight for top 10 position, i have to arrange a quick strategy how to keep up with them.

The air horn from the track mashall sound off and at split second we sprint all the way to the top and along with huge angry crowds of racer trying to get the front lead as we squeezed ourself into the wet muddy and slippery bushes and jungle. For the first 3 laps the brakes works ok as we going up and down, plunge into high speed downhills, over the big rocks, smashing into pool of flood drain, down the steep muddy downhills, zig zaging into muddy and narrow jungle trails, down the hills again, back to the main tar road towards the starting line for another continuous loop. Howevery my first lap going to the last steep downhills wasn't perform well as i skidded and hit into my friend's read bike who happen to recover from crashes, i crashed over the bar after hitting his rear tire and me flying into the side of deep trenches. The soils along the downhill quickly eroded due to rain and constant scrapped from other racers tires which is why its no longer suitable to ride through. I quickly got up, grab my bike and continue to push towards the next trails where i'm on the safe zone and then start to pedal again to catch up with other. Behind me people started to push their bike down the hill as it now a danger zone after witness several crashes at the same spot. A friend of mine from Bintulu break the record for the best freak crash fly over the bar landed directly down the most deepest hole downhill. My first 5 lap was easy to catch up with other and manage to overtake a few rides especially going up the "lung popping" up hill rides and narrow slippery muddy trails in the bushes where people tends to slow down to catch a breath and put their guards down from behind. I try to keep my stamina long by using the high ratio torque gear to keep my leg easy without killing my stamina thus easier to overtake competitor going up the hills. Thankfully this technique i learn ver much from my 2nd R/C hobbies which emphasize the technique conserving energy through the use of high torque gearing.



After overtaking handfull of riders i felt i'm now i'm at very safe distance from other rider behind me but not yet confident to secure top ten yet as i haven't met my potential rival infront of me. However along the way few top riders especially local ones withdrawn earlier as they couldn't handle the racing stress. Slowly as i pedal again on the next lap i manage to catch up handfull of powerful rival who seems to look very tiring and depressing when climbing up the hill, their zig zagging way to climb up the hill indicates they already out of energy and here my changes to overtake them and leave no gap to chase until they have no psychological motivation to chase me anymore. As i enter back into the jungle the race marshall indicates i have few laps to go and mentioned the minus -2 laps due to unsuitable condition to run longer laps.

The rain drop getting more heavy each seconds, my field of view getting obstructed with watery sap around my eyes. Both front and rear brake not functioning with totally no means to brake and i have 2 last lap to go as i shouted at the race marshall at the check point for my lap count which confirm i have 2 more last lap to go. The race become more intense as everyone started to push last minutes struggle for last lap. My Camelback have few litter of quick digestable sugary water to consume for my muscle recovery and energy which i suck up last minutes to keep the energy bounced up. The mouthpiece to suck up the water all covered with heavy mud but still i have to much it to squit some water along with mud into mu intestine. ewww!!. My pedalling speed doubles and to stop at every dangerous corners and downhill i have to use my shoes to rub against the rear tire for braking effect, my other method is either ram through the bushes,sticky mud or "U" swing to do last minutes braking without loosing speed, distance and time. The heavy rains already turn overall track into pool of muds which is impossible to pedal under certain circumstances, I have to push and run to escape from the mud and manage to by pass another handfull of rider who are down on sticky trails. Some i saw lying lifelessly beside the trails.

After climbing up the hill again the race marshall who logged our lap at tent shouted "004! Last lap!". I say "WHAT!?"..Again handfull of official shouted: "004!!, last lap! last lap!!". Oh yes!!! last lap! my heart are pounding like mad. I shift my gear like crazy finding the optimal pedalling pedal to push the bike at top speed as i zig zag along the trails for the last time. I sprint and pushes my muscle to the limit feared someone might catch up behind me. As i exit into the open streets before the 2nd entrance into the jungle via wooden ramp i manage to take a glimpse up the hill where i went down minutes ago, few riders aspecially my rival stared to chase me which estimated 40 seconds behind me. So i went into the secondary jungle, ride, push through the mud, down the hills, speeding into the open plains, then down again passing the pond, overtaking few more slower riders and then back to the tar road leading up to the finishing line. Suddently saw few rider started to slow down up the hill, i decided to push my pedalling to the max under the heavy rain, i can feel my lung ballooning like crazy try to gasp some air, almost caught up behind him, he went toward the finish line about few yards, people are shouting, i can feel the tension, i looked behind me are few trying too. At the end i manage to step into the finishing line like stepping into world of freedom, heaven!.. Pain! but glad its all over. The war is over. My throat dried up, i quickly sat beside the road try to keep my heartbeat low. I thought i was somewhere below 10th position but after the lady race official checked through the list of open category log she confirm to me twice "Yes! you're on 9th position!" . Yes!!! top 10, but ouch that was my ultimately worst record in my racing career. I never been somewhere below at 9th. Thats bad. However, its better than nothing.

Overall everyone finished their laps at mid 11am, i've reunited back with my riding buddies, went over the tent for heavy lunch and had a good chat about the race and old time stories. Cold, dirty, muddy and wet but i'm happy to completely finish the race as it has been almost 3 years i haven't joined any race. Good thing we're all still kicking with some dirt power. Yeah. The next day we should attend the prize giving ceremony. What a day,

Race Registration

At 6.00pm everyone already flocked to our friends bike shop for registration and briefing. I took my race plate number "004", free L size T-shrit and gather around with other listening for instruction for tomorrow race protocol.

Ready for mtb racing?

There's a mountain bike race coming soon just around the corner coming this Saturday 31st Oct, i've done registering myself for the race participation. Got few rival from Brunei, Bintulu city and other district which known to have fast competitors. However i haven't been racing for 2 year now. Wonder if i should push myself physically to the limit or just stay cool behind the pack. My mental always say "Yes you can handle it!" but my muscles "Nay!" cause my age seem to depreciate overal performance of my body. After peering into collection of medals and thropy inside the cupboard that i won in the pass few years ago i was wondering...man i do feel old now. Somehow the best i can do is finish the race regardless what position.

Hammer trails

Rain heavily in the city but at the outskirt far away into remote dense open forest its all dry and hot. Torture day for me, every fun comes with pain, 'no pain no gain'. Was a blast fun ride going down the hill at high speed plus but i come out with major crashed down the huge holes and another slip and bang my chest against the saddle. What a day.

Youtube: Taman Tunku ride

Here some youtube video clip of our last week ride behind Taman Tunku Miri district somewhere along the single track, easy and fun ride. Thanks to Pier Liang for taking video cam on PSP on his helmet.

Miri Wet Land adventure!

Yesterday was a special day for me, was unexpected it turnout to be interesting ride of the month. Sunday morning was a bit drippy morning after raining throughout dark morning but ended before 6.00am. Usually i don't plan to ride during wet season because it would took me more than 1 hour to clean and maintain the bike after muddy dirt and muddy ride. Somehow there was strange feeling everytime when i look out into the windows staring into the sky with mixture or dark cloudy background with bring white cloud and blue sky noon at 12pm. A little drizzle rain, i called my friends and they said they are planing to ride somewhere near Bakam district which is very very distance from bad city weather. So i took my luck join them hoping i could escape from gloomy rainny city weather. I load my bike into my Sunday joyride car which i use to carry my trusty and dirty bike and drove kilometers away from home via coastal beaches using MIRI-BINTULU road. Its was a very clam and gentle weather as i move towards the outskirt of the city and into the remote country side where everthing is blue and green.
Upon arrival everyone in large number of biker already gather around unload their bikes and apparel. We're near the beach at our usual parking spot where you can see beatiful sight and scene around the beaches. The seaside is very bright litted light golden silk cloth waving on the surface and the wind really pounced on my body feel very refreshed and cleansed. By 3.30pm we start our ride through the villages and deep into the woods. It was dry surrounding at first entry but as we go deeper into the bushy and dense crowded jungle everthing getting very wet and muddy, We have to navigate and balanced our bike through slippery terriains, wet mud holes, narrow tree gaps, falling tree trunks, upp and down the hills with very high speed turns and corners. The best part is we have chances to clean our bike by going through very heavily flooded jungle with deep murky water which probably due to heavy rain and flood nearby some river. The water almost reached our knee level but we pedal as much torque as we can to avoid being stuck and spread the water into break it to minimal flood level. Through out our ride we encounter wet - dry - wet - dry -wet -dry - wet - dry situation. Our trail space become much narrower and narrower the further we break into the jungle. To to large number of people we need to stop due to heavy traffic...hahaha. Some of our rider really old people but they really have extreme endurance and power like a teenager thanks to their daily workout on their bikes, so far no one of them have problems with broken stamina and injury. We stumble lots of difficult obstacles especially with deep river grooves where long channel of river was crossing our path. We have to cooperate by helping each other to pass through the river. We have to help carry other people bike to another side of the river banks and up to stiff cliff. I can see there lots of positive team work and heavy task to help people around us....at the end everyone manage to get through the difficult challenges. Our rides sure comes with crashes, human splat into the water, same tumble into the dirt while other loose balance and fell into the clif,..barely.. for us that's is fun and exciting and no one argue about it else its wouldn't be called adventure ride. Thanksfully we didn't think about dangers like wild animal, reptiles and danger that lurks around us.
After hours being in deep forest we finally spotted an open air land just above the hill, we climbed up by passing through the river, climb up the dusty crusty hills and on our way towards the logging hils. Its all up and down, zig zagging and full speed to the highest peak on the land. On top of the dry dusty land we take a break and enjoy the beautiful sight around us. Its was the best moments being up there high above the sea level looking below carpet of trees, distance seas and experience fresh breeze of wind drying our soaky wet bodies which dry us in an instant. I took lots of beatiful photo on my PSP cam. A mixture of golden sunset rays and sunny blue sky, white clouds and orange yellow trails provide contrast and harmonic view on my camera lenses. Everyone was tired, i can feel my tummy become more and more slimmer as fat burned out excessively, i can see my six pax now..hee heee... So we continue our journey again with convoy of mountain biker exiting the logging trails and heads towards nearby tarmac road road which leads toward the beaches where we parked our car. Its was quite far distance and we need to pedal fast to reach the destination before dark. Due to fact some of the riders are roadies these guys sprint so fast few of us have to break away like F1 car. I have to push my power and leg muscle to the max to give a hard chase and draft at least on of the top 5 rider behind so i can draft behind another rider with less wind head-on resistance, everyone travel very fast with at least 1cm gap between each rider tyre colse enough to catch low wind resistance....we called it DRAFTING.
From exiting point at "Sungai Rait" tarmac trunk road to Bakam finishing point it tooks only around between 10-15 min to reach there at screaming speed.....by the time we reach there everyone hearts and muscle felt like it wanted to explode...hahaha., Thankfully we all serve with chilled cold and gassy isotonic drinks full with sugar to relieve our body ache. At the parking spot the sun already behind the sea glowing dim orange ready to give way to glittering stars. We hangout for a while and chat about the rides. As for me this is totally cool adventure ride, totally and emotionally keep me alert and excited. At least i dont have boring life, everyday life is always full of adventure. I loving it!