And...Nothing Else Matters

LeTua 100 - Nothing Else Matters. It may sound a bit fanatic or hardcore for some but overall, IMHO, it was an awesomely planned and organised event. Thumbs up to LeTua team for the formidable effort.

I was kinda prepared for the ride after the KCR face plant. My mindset was to treat this one just like any other weekend rides. Hence, there is no time targetting but to just finish it with the whole gang stress free and enjoy the camaraderie.

Since the UiTM Puncak Alam venue is a bit far from us TOK, who lives on the other side of Selangor state, we had to arrange for an early morning schedule. You know la with all the convoys and wake-up calls la & of course our solat.

Surprisingly after back calculating from the event start time, we had to leave home as early as 5.30 a.m.! This brought me back to the good old days of having to wake up in this hour for LSDs on Saturdays. Dah lama tak buat kerja ni rupanya.

Our RV point was Shell Batu 3. Ziff willingly to help with the goodies collection a day before and passed it around that morning. And the travel to Puncak Alam took us about 30 minutes with scenes of more cyclists driving to the same destination.

UiTM Puncak Alam (Pic by Shirat Azree)

Definitely the campus looks awesome. A newly opened campus with new buildings and new facilities.  Still with vacant lots for more schools. How I wish that my kids could study here in their time, kalau tak dapek pi obersi lah. Hehe. Konon.

We prepared ourselves and made way to the back of the line. Merely 20 minutes mingling and cam whoring while waiting for the flag-off. Ni kes VIP bangun lambat la ni. Puiii

The usual TOKs suspects

I was made to understand that the participation was limited to only 250 pax, but I was wrong. Somebody told me it was 1200 cyclists! Wallauwey! No wonder la pakcik yang beratuq kat trafik light dah mula tarik muka ketat sebab takut nasik lemak gerai dah habih tunggu bebudak kayuh beskal ni habih lintas. Among ourselves, the gang itself already counted to about 20 of us. Such a growing number that is.

The rolling of 1200 cyclists (Pic by Shirat Azree)

The first 50km of the ride was winding up and down through Batu Arang quiet town and headed out to Batang Berjuntai. The twisting and turning didn’t quite allow us for a full pack riding pattern, plus the road was not in a pretty shape too. However, the best part of the ride was when we reached to a 20km stretch of flat & straight road between Jalan Rawang and Ijok. The open road with padi fields on the sides were awesome. The highlight was we managed to gather almost 40 cyclists to form a peloton! This was rare. We simply shouted at any lone cyclists or small groups and invited them to join in. The cruising reached to an average speed of 40 where we took turn driving it. It was a splendid attempt until the first water station located at the end of it. How I wish we had photos of it.

Among the buddies & new buddies

Dragonback awaits as we exited from the uncharted route zig sagging through kampong road, which was very similar to Batu Pahat, Johor road. Junctions upon junctions and patches of uneven surfaces.

The legendary Dragon (Pic by Shirat Azree)

As anticipated, the climb up Dragonback was individual business. Nobody cares anymore about tagging along in a peloton and such. It was a personal war. And the sight of war casualties started filling the roadsides. Nursing cramps and walk-the-bike was common.

The ride back to UiTM through the new Puncak Alam road was nothing casual too. With two long climbs plus headwinds and tired legs was enough as adding herbs and spices to the ride. We were thankful that the weather was kind unlike our previous rides here.

We regrouped a lot for this ride. I noticed a few new faces willingly decided to tag along with us, after knowing of our strength and fellowship. Too bad we didn’t had the chance to chat more

LeTua managed to throw in a final surprise for us. A very steep climb up to a water tank to complete the 100km and it was a curse for the weak. So I heard.

Thankfully, there was no mishaps throughout the event. Overall, it was great plus the food after the ride was kambing after kambing followed with more kambing. Hahaha! The best thing was, everybody enjoyed the event especially our ride buddies.

To name a few, there were:

Alwin	Det	Jaja
Anuar	Ayub	Khai
Nizam	Azahari	Akmal
Affendi	Husni	Jai
Ziff	Shuk	Azlan (member kg Selama)
Hisham Fahro	Azmar	Boon Foo!
		Godzilla Cycle Gang

And one for the upcoming KISS album!