We did the Tour de Limau Manis last Sunday. Someone might think really,TdLM? Why the heck not? Let's name this route with something since it seems to be one of our staple route on Sundays.  It's essentially is the Limau Manis-Putrajaya route anyway and the best part has always been the "sweet & sour" rolling hills...yeap we're looking at 11-15 % elevation through out this route until Putrajaya.

How often have your plans changed when you least expected it? Not just crude oil or stock prices but weekend ride plans are highly volatile too. To many variables to the equation. In the case of our ride plan, all that is needed is someone to throw in ideas and few buy-ins that constitute a majority. When such things happened, luck favours those who are prepared.

It's best to bring along extra tubes (+ repair kits), 2 water bottles and a couple of energy bars or bananas. Well you could also bring along sun block, Tiger Balm, Deep Heat or Ammeltz YokoYoko if you don't mind the extra weight or bulky pockets. After all, there might be circumstances where fellow cyclist could benefit from the goods too, Mr. Utility man! This reminded me of Saipol, his Ribena pack and the Bagan Lalang trip.


Sunday, January 29th 2012
The original ride plan was Kajang-Putrajay via SKVE, Cyberjaya via Dengkil Highway-Putrajaya's Persiaran Selatan, RnR at Precinct 15 and ride back to Kajang via Jalan Ayer Hitam. Instead we did Limau Manis, Putrajaya's Persiaran Selatan, returned back to Wadi Ehsan Highway, Precinct 15 and ride back to Kajang via Jalan Ayer Hitam. The thing about the Limau Manis route is that it has awesome rolling hills with 11% elevation.

The changed of plan took place at the RV point (Petronas Station at SKVE near the LLM). Since the weather was  cloudy and most likely to be a shady day, the guys itched for an adventure ride, hence the Limau Manis route. Yes we're going to do a "ClimbMadness" ride! Gambatte!

Ever heard of this phrase, for every action there’s a reaction? There’s always a flip side of things. Some have heard about it but couldn’t really fathom what it really meant. It’s just a phrase, what does this make any sense? Well it made sense to me after the Sungai Merab Ride not so distance ago.

I’ve underestimated me and the Terror hill. My TREK 5900 has a 53/39 chain set with 11-28 cassette. Out of better judgement I tried to climb the 11-12% steep hill using 39/19 gearing combination. Not only that it didn’t work, it nearly got my knees popped. I had trouble walking for a couple of days due to strained muscle calf and thigh.

I’ve climbed this hill before with much ease and pleasure before. So what did I do wrong?

I realized that I used to be able climb this hill and the rest of the rolling hills because back then I was in a much more better physical condition. I forgot that I had a long break and I need to build back my fitness. I tried to outdo my self and didn’t listen to my body.Halfway climbing the hill I struggled to maintain a sustainable rhythm.

Sunday ride crew and friends at Diplomatic Precinct

Earlier this year, its not that long ago anyway, we agreed to diversify cycling routes for 2011 cycling calendar. Ideally Saturday ride’s route will be Sungai Long, short distance and lots of climbing, perfect route for cadence training. Sunday ride would involve long distance ride mission with minimum 50 Km to-and-fro.

The original plan was for Sunday Ride was the Setul mission. Due to changed circumstances, we decided to ride to Putrajaya. In order to make it a "sweeter" ride, the ride plan had been improvised from the normal Kajang-Cycberjaya-Putrjaya via the SKV expressway to the Kajang-Jalan Ayer Hitam-Sungai Merab-Putrajaya.

The fun part about this route was the rolling hills of Sungai Merab.

I couldn’t recall what triggered the idea to propose this route. The last time we rode through this route was when I tested my USPS- TREK 5900. Back then I had much better fitness level compared to now. But I'm pretty sure we had a lot of "fun".

There are two ways to “enjoy” the rolling hills of Sugai Merab. The first one is the Bangi bound form Desa Pinggiran Putra’e exit and the second one is Putrajaya bound via Jalan Ayer Hitam. To make it simpler, lets just call the first option as Sungai Merab Outbound or SMO and the later as Sungai Merab Inbound, SMI in short.