Prelude

There was no solid plan for Sunday.  There’s this seed idea on doing a ride to Mantin last week but generally most of us were a little hesitant due to few factors but the crazy hot weather was the mother of all reasons. The horrid time we had to go through during the ride to Pajam was still fresh on our minds.

I find this situation as very odd. At times during a ride, while under immense conditions (searing sun and headwinds), I felt like throwing my bike off a cliff or just ditch it on the road site. The LEKAS hell can bring the beast in you yet after the ride you yearn for more...One thing for sure, if you’re riding at 12 noon on LEKAS, you’d be running on adrenalin.

But I digress....

While cycling back home from the Roti Canai joint on Saturday, a car was honking from behind. My initial thought was another honk-loving wanker on an automobile who hated the sight of bicycles on the road. It turned out to be Suhaimi, waiving at me to pull over just to tell me he wanted to ride to Mantin on Sunday.

Later that afternoon, I received a text message from Zaha....Mantin! Not a bad idea...anyway Bro Man did mention sometime ago that he wanted to taste the ride to Mantin. Well I hope he’d loved it... hahaha

The Great Assembly (Quite Unexpected)

It was a sunny sunday morning. The sky was blue with little bit of clouds here and there promising another exciting ride to Mantin. I pretty much could picture what was waiting for us, the searing sun and  extremely hot weather.  Hope for the best, prepare for the worst...The LEKAS hell headwinds....sweeeeett...

Zack was the first to arrive at the 1st RV, Sg. Long Toll Plaza. Followed by me, Zam, Ah Meng, Suhaimi, Zamri (Zam Kechik), Wan, Syamsul and finally Razi followed by Li who was our support bike of the day.

After a brief chat we started cycling to the Bukit Kajang toll plaza cruising through the SILK highway where we met up with Bro Man, Romzi and Farizal.

It was heartening to see a large turn out at the assembly area even though some were not joining us on the ride to Mantin. Syamsul, Zack and Romzi went for Sungai Long route while the rest of us cycle to the LEKAS Kajang Toll where Zaha was waiting.

Maiden Ride to Mantin for Some
For some like Bro Man, this was the his first ever ride to Mantin via LEKAS while Suhaimi, Zam (Kechik) and Wan, they pretty much knew what it was like to cycle on LEKAS.

We were broken into two groups during the ride.  The breakaway group led by Razi and followed by Zam (Besar), Wan and Zam (Kechik) while the rest were Zaha, Farizal, Suhaimi, Bro Man and I while Li was the sweeper.

We rode casually clocking at the speed around 25-27 Kh/H cruising the LEKAS highway passing through Pajam and finally made a stop at the Mantin Toll Plaza. After a brief break we headed straight to Mantin town's nasi lemak joint.

As usual Farizal, Zaha and I went for the heavy breakfast while some went for lighter stuff. It’s a matter of different opinions and preferences but based on my last experience where I almost bonked while riding through the Jalan 6 Kaki  to Bangi with Man CIOCC because I didn't consume enough carbs during the break.

The Unexpected Encounter with Bob and the Gang
After break and refueling, we headed back to LEKAS highway as the route via the old road  to Semenyih was expected to be congested due to some road works going on.

While approaching the LEKAS highway entrance, we came across another roadie group crossing a road from a nearby shop lot. It was Bob and his gang and they just had their break at a nearby restaurant after riding to Setul via LEKAS. Apparently they started riding at 7.30am and parked their cars at the Billion supermarket near Bandar Teknologi Kajang.

This was a nice surprise and together we had a bigger group supporting each other on way back to Kajang via LEKAS under the blazing hot sun and crazy headwinds.

The searing sun, tarmacs’ heat and headwinds were too much to take. The once big peloton had broken in pockets of groups separated by few hundred meters gap. We decided to take a break at the Beranang RnR to regroup while taking refuge from from the hot sun. Looking at some of the faces, one can almost tell how the heat had taken its toll. Most of us had some sort of physical and mental fatigue projected from our badly tanned faces and body language. Just check the picture at Beranang RnR out, you’ll get what I mean.

The Chicken Exit Route
There was discussion on what would be the best route back to base and the 3 premiere options were:

1. Sungai Ramal Exit (Chicken category)

   Plus: Mostly downhill with minor climb. Coasting 70 percent of the time

   Minus: Must go through the dangerous Sg. Ramal Dalam interchange
   
2. Kajang Perdana Exit (Gung Ho category)

   Plus: Shorter distance

   Minus: One big climb at Kajang Perdana hill, busy traffic near TESCO and terrible road conditions.
   
3. Sungai Long Exit (Are You F**king Mad category)
   Neither Plus nor Minus, it’s just plain madness to ride here from 12.00-1.00PM

For Bob and the gang, the were saved from having to choose between the 3 above as they had parked their cars at Bandar Teknologi Kajang.

From the Beranang RnR, we continued cycling under LEKAS hell until the Kajang toll plaza where we made another brief stop to regroup while pondering why? what am I doing here at this hour when I could have just stayed home watching Melodi on TV3 while drinking fresh cold drinks from the fridge. Some people may like that but not us...we don’t bailed and we’d do it again.

We were pretty much separated by the time we passed the hill after the Kajang toll. Li, Razi, Farizal and I chose the chicken exit while the rest decided to do the “Are You F**king Mad” exit.  Wait a minute, Li? Yes, Li rode with us. We swapped clothes with Ah Meng while at Beranang RnR.  Ah Meng was the last man escorting Bro Man back to Kajang.

It was one hell of a ride. A big thank you to Zam (Besar), Zam (Kechik), Razi, Wan, Ah Meng, Li, Suhaimi, Bro Man, Farizal and Zaha for making the ride happened. If there’s any takeaway from this ride, that would be the endurance, passion, mental strength and strong will to stay the course. You guys were awesome. Bravo!

And not forgetting our long lost comrade, brother Bob the Builder and his gang, Mr. Loke, Nizam and the brother on blue TREK (Sorry I didn’t catch your name, my bad), thank you for the company. Lets do a ride together to Setul next time.

Fino al nostro giro seguente…

Managing expectations:
It usually takes 2-3 days for me to update our blog with the latest ride activities. But recently there is a mounting peer pressure to update it immediately and some even suggested the cut off period to be at 12.00am next Monday.

To update a blog, It is not as easy as it looks. There are processes taking place that require certain amount of time to be completed such as image uploading, editing and versioning. The hardest part is sequencing the plot and last and not least writing. And then there are photo and video uploading.

All I can offer is, I’ll do my best the best I could. 

Videos: