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,
