PCC-Proton Presidential Ride

November 24, 2006

On Sunday, 19th Nov 2006, I finished my first PCC-Proton Presidential Ride.

It was a grueling 60km of pleasure and pain all rolled into 1 day, 1 ride, with 1 goal – to just finish the damn thing.

I was drugged up on monday with muscle relaxant and painkillers for a very bad back, which I blame on my seating posture, carrying the bike on my back, and too much pushing of the bike up hills.

We headed up to KL on Saturday morning with Max & Ling at about 6am, reaching in time for a wanton mee brunch. Collected our t-shirts and race passports from a bike shop for the next day’s race. Wayne ended up buying this seat post he was eyeing on the Internet, plus a pair of FOX gloves. And I bought myself another pair of riding tights. *flip flip flip* the sound of money flying away.

Somehow we got roped in to help with the t-shirts, passport & goodie bag packing. And by the time we were done, we had to make our way to Giant for the next day’s breakfast and water supply, and head back to “Camp Singapore” to pack our camelbaks and welcome the rest of the gang. Dinner at a seafood restaurant around the corner, back to “Camp Singapore” for a shower, watched a few clips from the CRANK DVD to get us hyped up, and then off to bed.

I slept well on the bed, but poor Wayne was sleeping on the floor next to me. I was in the green sleeping bag, Wayne in the yellow. Janice and Andrew shared the room too, so throughout the night, I had to sayang Wayne when he started to snore, just so the Fangsters don’t get woken up.

Next morning, bright and early, 10 of us headed for Kajang. We prepped up, sprayed the OFF, registered ourselves, made our toilet breaks, helmut on, proceed to start line…and at the sound of the horn…650 bikers were ripping the tarmac and heading out towards the Kajang dirt trails.

The 60km route went through rubber and oil palm estates, a memorial park, fishing ponds, an orang asli settlement, and apparently through duck farms and a sugar plantation. No idea where those two destinations where, probably at the parts where I was looking down at the ground most of the time.

For the Singaporeans, it was like Bukit Timah, Kent Ridge, Ulu Sembawang all combined into one mother of a ride.

The 60km was divided into 4 routes, and at the end of every route, was a checkpoint where a colored sticker would be placed on our ride passport to show that you’ve completed that loop. You can’t imagine how happy I was to see every checkpoint!!

Poor Max and Wayne were cramping up almost every hill after checkpoint 3. They felt bad for holding us up, but honestly, thank gawd they cramped!! Gave me and Janice a chance to rest!!!!

Overall, i’m just really proud of myself for finishing the whole route, looking back, it WAS a lot of fun, and i’d probably do it again next year.

GPS markings (from Wayne’s Garmin) of the 100+ Pringles route taken by JanicMaxiWayne

Trail Elevation map

According to Pat from the Pedalphiles, the ride autopsy :
1 guy with a broken finger.
1 Singaporean with a broken saddle.
1st rider check in at 12.15
Last 20 riders needed a ride back from checkpoint 3.

Quote of the day: “Innocent wide-eyed Singaporean bikers….like lambs about to be sent to the slaughter…” - Ling

posted in Exercise, Friends |