Ride to Mantin: Feel the Heat?

It's Sunday morning and the Mantin ride was on. Judging from the trend, I'd figure that we'd be riding in a small party, probably less than six people.

It was a rather cloudy morning. Sure it looked promising but if there is one thing I learned about cycling to Mantin via LEKAS Highway is that, don't be too happy or too sure the weather is going to be nice all the way. Firstly the temperature changes by the hour and let's not forget the ever unpredictable headwinds.

Dr Azlan, Najib, Zam Besar and Zack were at the Sungai Balak RV Point when I arrived there. Unfortunately Zack and Zam were on a different route, to Sungai Long and not Mantin. Azmi Cervelo made a surprise visit, not his new TREK 2.5 but on a motorbike. It's one of those last minute change of plans.

We left Zam and Zack who were waiting for Sham Discovery and headed out to the 2nd RV point at the LEKAS's Kajang Selatan toll plaza. We started our ride to Mantin shortly after Farizal joined us and the customary group photo session.

We cycled casually under the still cozy cloudy and rather cold weather for awhile before making an emergency stop when Doc Azlan had his front wheel punctured. We continued our ride once we had the wheel fixed.

As expected, the weather changed from cloudy to sunny and eventually searing heat and sunny skies by the time we reached Mantin Toll Plaza.

The Chicken Out:

After we had our meals, we cycled back to Kajang. This time around the temperature was about 33-34° Celsius. To make matter worst, we had had headwinds all the way to the Kajang Selatan toll plaza and boy we struggled. Maybe not so bad for Doc Azlan who seemed really confortable cycling at 33-35 KM/h breaking away from the sad peloton, cycling on emergency fuel or what ever that was left in the tank.

The ride to the Kajang Selatan toll plaza was like the longest and tormenting ride ever. The searing heat, sunny skies, headwinds and tarmac heat were just to much to bear. We even decided to chicken out before we reached the toll plaza wehere we usually take a quick break and decide which route to choose for the ride home.

As much as I like to continue cycling with the guys, I realized that I had nothing left in my tank to continue the journey back home. I had to make the tough call by calling the emergency number, my missus. It's something that I'm not very proud off, but I'd bonked somewhere beyond this point before I reached home.

Thanks to Zack (who was riding with his Kawasaki Ninja) for his company at the Toll Plaza while I was waiting for my missus to arrive.

Abayo!