Sunday "Big One" Ride

Group photo @ the 2nd RV.

Route: Sungai Long
Riders (from left): Zaha, Farizal, Romzi, Zack, Najib, Cikgu Sham, Syam, Azmi Cevello and Dr. Azlan

Last Saturday evening I received a text from Cikgu asking if there was a ride plan on Sunday. Given the current variables, the monsoon season, long list of open houses and weddings, it's a bit difficult to plan a ride in advance especially for long distance.

Missing the Sunday ride would be a blow to my fitness recovery plan as as I already missed Saturday's due to "undisclosed reason". The ride was set and it's Sungai Long, the safe plan. The thing about this route is that its easily guesstimated with a slight degree of variations.

Hope for the best: Gloomy Sunday Morning
It was a gloomy Sunday morning and the road was a little wet due to the heavy rain last night. I woke up a bit late but lucky enough, I already had my bike prepped up earlier.

Got out of the house 5 minutes before 7.30am. While warming up, I saw Dr. Azlan ahead of me and managed to catch up with him while he was on his way to the Sungai Balak Toll Plaza. Zack, Romzi and Najib were the early birds at the RV, followed by Azmi Cervello and finally Zam Besar, Ah Meng and Syam (Discovery Channel).

Shortly after the last party arrived, we hit the road cruising at 28-30 Km/H heading towards the Sungai Long route via Sungai Ramal and Bukit Kajang under a slightly breezy chilly Sunday Morning.

The First Encounter

Zack, Dr. Azlan and Syam broke away from the pack while coasting down from the Sungai Chu's flyover with 15 seconds lead over the rest. We rendezvous with Cikgu Sham at the Sungai Ramal RnR where to our surprise, Farizal arrived shortly afterwards after "circumnavigating" the Cheras bound route from Bangi.

We continued the ride in a few groups via Bukit Kajang until the 2nd RV at the clover leaf. Surprisingly Zaha was not there and only arrived 5 minutes later. Soon after that, an MTB approached us. He was kind enough to stop by and say hello and introduced himself as Jai brom Bukit Dukung (its "Carry-Darling Hill" in English if you "naively" try to translate it).

Zam Besar and Ah Meng continued with their original plan with the ride to Pajam. Apparently the long distance route craving disorder has taken its toll on them. Anyway, we'll do the Mantin and hopefully Bukit Putus in due time when the open house madness is over.

After a brief chat, gawking at Cikgu Sham's bike and agreeing that waiting for MieTador was only a lost hope, we continued cycling through Sungai Long's dragon back route up until the 3rd RV, on the hill after the last toll plaza wehere we regrouped before heading out to the "Abang Racing" Joint.

I guess some might wonder what this "Abang Racing" is all about. Well, that's what we are called by the joint owner. That's right " Abang Racing". It sounds corny but what hell, who gives a sh#t?

Interesting Info: The Shimano-UUM 2010 Bike Challenge
The event is back. This time around they have both the XC and road challenge (90Km). It's happening on November 5th 2010. Those who are interested can visit the official site here.

Closing date is October 10th, the fee is RM120 and you'll get a shimano jersey too.

So siapa ada "bran"? I think I am interested already....

RV at Sungai Balak: Dr. Azlan, Zack, Romzi and Najib

Azmi @ the 1st RV

Zack chit-chatting with Azmi

Waiting for the rest to arrive

Group photo before "Roda Golek". I just realized that Zam Besar was missing....

Cycling shots options are limited when using the phone's camera. The Olympus died on me and its a state of "beyond economical repair" thanks to the cheaper lines of new digital cameras with better features.