Date: 15th July 2012
Time: 7.00am (rolling start for 8km)
I cannot call this a race report because the organizers of Century Ride Malaysia state that this is not a race but a fellowship ride. However, it offers timing and placing... so hmmm. It also used to be Ipoh Century Ride but is now Century Ride Malaysia, although, there are now two more events that offer century distances, one in Kuantan and the newest addition Terengganu.
Items in the goodie bag. The Chang Jiang White Coffee is really tasty!
The Excelsior group
The Penang group
The Event Polo (as usual they don't make it with women in mind)
This year's medal. A really nice one that comes with a reusable larnyard!
This year's edition of Century Ride is best remembered for rolling steep hills. I rolled so much I lost count. It was a challenging course. The hills definitely killed me. That coupled with bad pelotoning strategy left me suffering for the last 50km. The initial plan was to try and peloton together with members for GClub but very soon into the ride (around 20-30km) I already lost them as they powered ahead and I got stuck with a slower peloton. I decided not to give chase as pushing yourself too early will just result in a very bad end. Lie Wei was me during that stretch and we tried to help each other and stick together. I would soon lose Lie Wei as well :( after we hit the first stretch of rolling hills. I tried to pull her up but soon lost her. I kept looking back much throughout the stretch but I could not spot her. I decided we may have been too far apart and it was time to move on.
I managed to ride with a peloton much of the ride until the second water stop at 99km. This was when things fell apart as I latch onto the wrong peloton leaving this water stop. The peloton I caught was going too fast and I was dropped very soon after. I cycled alone pretty much all the way until then as I did not seem to have enough energy to catch any other peloton that came by. The real suffering came from 110km onwards. My pace of 32kph at the start dropped to 28kph and later to 23-24kph only for the last 40km. I was quite pissed to find out at the last water station (around 153km) that there was 15km more to go! WTH?!? They did not count the rolling start distance of 8km into the total of 160km and so we were actually cycling 168km. I was not happy as my legs were extremely tired and it was getting really hot. That last 15km was the most torturous part of the ride. I was glad to cross the finish line but not very happy.
Despite my torturous ride, I still finish this year's Century Ride with a new personal best of 5:47 (previous personal best was 2010 at 5:57:36.25). I am not sure how this time came about as I stopped my own watch at 6:02:05 and I passed the timing mat at the start. I guess they must have figured out some way to deduct out the rolling start time.
A not-so-happy me completing the ride.
Poor Lie Wei had her own problems as she pushed too hard on the hills and suffered cramps the whole way. She is a champion for completing it despite all the cramps.
Lie Wei a happier moment of the ride.
Thanks Sandra Leng for the photos!
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