Thursday, March 24, 2011

Klawang oh Klawang

A week of zero workout but lots of work travels. Kids were in exam mode, hence the tense in the air was controlled at a moderate level so as not to trigger any unnecessary brain damage, I'm referring to wifey and me. As usual, kids were the cool ones. School break followed and feeding frenzy took place when we went back to hometown. Three days of pure food and sleep plus the Singapore bike tour. We went back to KL on Saturday. Alasan...Ahad nanti jalan sesak. Actual situation, a long ride awaits.

Mindset and anchoring all the way driving back from JB. I need to push the milage boundary at super easy effort so as to last the hours and the miles. Home - Kuala Klawang - Home should cover 140km. First attempt. Time...only God knows. Billy Ocean sang "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going." On top of the super scale milage in the menu, we were tested with a handful of mishaps. 

First, Zarol our new born orang kampung cyclist decided to sleep extra minutes and causing the cycletrain schedule a hiccup. We had to speed up a notch our warm up spin towards the first meeting point Batu 9. Luck was not on Det's side when he sprung himself into a pothole at the roadside and landed in the drain. I was infront and upon hearing a very loud crash, I turned and saw Det sprawling in the monsoon drain. Argh! That was scary. Braked, turned back and helped him out. Twisted brakehood, punctured front wheel and pain in right knee. The rest was clean. He was lucky the drain was clean, no rubbish nor sharp objects. He insisted me to carry on while I just made sure he's rational enough before I left half heartedly.

Caught up with the rest at Batu 9 and Batu 14 spreading the news about Det. I was still disturbed as we rolled away from Batu 14 into Langat. Traumatised, I took every single attempt to inform the drafters of potholes and such.

The climb up Peres was nothing else but me story telling about the recent Singapore bike tour. It kept the climb unnoticeable. Oh! We met Fong! Been awhile there new mom! Shuk and Zarol decided to bail out from Kuala Klawang attempt upon reaching Peres peak. Perhaps the morning cold win chilled their confidents. Cut the nonsense short, we straight away cruise down to Titi and finally Kuala Klawang town for nasi lemak and roti canai. Time was good and 70km clocked. Splendid.

Attempting Broga reverse on a few occassions were something, but transversing Kuala Klawang and back up Genting Peres again was totally a different story. So I heard some season cyclist preferred looping around to Broga rather than climbing up back again.

The climb actually starts right away from Kuala Klawang. The 20km inclines back to Titi, the foot of Genting Peres was a gradual and pain at some stretches. The pure 13km climb (plus some rolling hills) back to Peres adds to the agony.

We tried to stay together which was surprisingly, worked! My previous attempts was null and void, everyone rode alone following owns' pace. That was a good start actually, bringing the meaning to the word "group ride".  So was the climb but it took it's toll soon after we were into the first kilometer. Saiful was hauled from cramps on both quads. It looked severe. Most of us stopped. The so called faster and stronger riders (konon) had already passed a few turnings ahead, so don't bother yelling out for help.

Fadil handed anti-cramp pills to Saiful. We waited with him for the pain to subside. I think it was merely 15 minutes when we started talking nonsense. Yeah. That's what we do when the IQ starts draining. The best part was, nonsense will definitely followed with laughter. Big one. I recalled those moments when we were stucked in the middle of nowhere during epic mtb rides. Just us and the forest.

We barged on with several more breaks attending to Saiful's condition. The final one, I handed him Nathan electrolyte tablet. It looked alrite then which lasted until our last effort to the peak. We were fortunate weather were kind, else, the climb would be more disastrous.

We descended in silence into Batu 18, stopped at a saundry shop for whatever we craved for the last few hours. I remember somebody bought Choki Choki?!! Hah! Coke, 100 Plus, soy drinks, cincau. Cans of them. Still we survived more jokes.

The ride from Batu 18 back home was rinsed! Heavy rain. The rest had their cars parked at Batu 14 but Bahri and me rode all the way. Soaked in and out but justified with a 140km pushing the milage envelope. Now when is my step back week?

Yeay! We made it back together...


2 comments:

  1. Mmg epic... 140km tuu
    So, how is Dett doing now?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Epic and hampir koyak. Hehe. Dett recovering strong. Alhamdullillah. Bila nak epic dengan kau ni?

    ReplyDelete

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