Cycling in Asia

5 riders, 200 plus kilometers, one hill, fast pace, Brewerkz finish – a perfect day.

We started the day out in Singapore at 4:55am.  Today we would ride to Gunung Pulai, a steep climb in Malaysia that was only described by few road bikers and many mountain bikers.  The descriptions were all similar:  this hill was hard to climb, harder to descend, and had other challenges such as mossy terrain and massive irrigation grates to avoid.  Having ridden with all these guys before, I suggested we go to Starbucks for some coffee and bagels before starting to ensure that there was some element of fun to the day.  It was Saturday after all!  Four of us met up at Starbucks on Orchard Road for a little pre-ride nutrition and ride planning.  Damian would meet us later near the border at Woodlands.

After a hearty Starbucks breakfast, we pushed off to the Singapore-Malaysia border.  We all crossed without issue and regrouped at the Shell station just before 7am.  Damian was keen to set off however we (read me) were keen to refuel before starting off on what was sure to be a fast paced ride.  ‘It’s only 60km to Kulai’ he protested.  Anyhow we refueled and then off we went through the busy streets of Johor Bahru.  Damian and Lundy immediately wanted to test the group and set a blazing pace causing my body to wake up much too quickly.   We finally hit the hills of Kulai and kept up the pace all the way to Kulai city  where we would stop to get some food and drink before the climb.  The local variety store was closed so we plowed on a few more kilometers to go shopping at Tesco for food and the mall for other items.

Kolpak Shopping

Donuts, hotdogs, dried pasta, Coke, 100 Plus and some buns were the foods of choice.  We had done 90km at this stage at a fast pace and we needed to eat some food before the climb which was only 13km away.  After fueling up at Tesco we hit the road again on the way to Gunung Pulai.

The roads to Gunung Pulai were very nice.  Despite being on the front pulling this group, I still managed to get this picture.

Again we traveled quickly to the climb. This is not the first time we have been here so we kind of had an idea where to go.  The last time we were here the hill was closed, gated off to the public so we did a U turn and headed straight to Brewerkz, a local pub in Singapore with good quesadillas and beer (burgers too).   Anyhow this time we had a plan: we were going to get our expensive road bikes over the fence and climb this steep, mossy, grate filled hill no matter what.  Similar to last time, we arrived to an unfriendly gate.  We opted to go around the gate rather than over it since it looked like any slip going over would surely be fatal for man or bike. 

We would not be deterred.

We made it.  Unfortunately getting around the gate was not going to be the tough part of the day. We arrived at this spot with over 100 fast kilometers in our legs and now we were about to start the climb that most blogs seem to only warn people about….and they were on mountain bikes.  None the less..we were brave.   Immediately upon noticing the climb, David Kolpak, aka Kolpak, immediately dropped his chain.   Rumors have been swirling about David and how he likes to delay rides when he needs time to recover or gather his thoughts.  This was based on his experience last weekend on the AUDAX 200km ride where he ejected his saddlebag twice and required handlebar adjustments at least twice.  Today the weapon of choice (initially) was the Kolpak Chain Dropper – a device that drops your chain at the most  opportune moment.  With Damian powering away up the hill and realizing that the KOM will likely escape his grasp, Kolpak immediately turned to the Chain Dropper to save his day.

After feeling safe that he had bought enough time, he saddled up again.  Now the fun begins with the climb.  The first part was nice, shaded to keep you cool, with slight gradients.  Ok I thought, this may be ok after all.  I was conservative on this easy section in preparation for the killer grades I had read so much about.  Finally after a bit of nice climbing we hit some seriously steep bits.   Tired legs were now being stressed to painful levels.  I arrived at the first bridge and noticed that Kolpak and Daniel were stopped for some obvious mechanical failure.  I stopped to see how I could help being the nice guy I am.   I am not sure what the specific problem was but Kolpak said that his crank was getting harder to turn as the climb went on, and he wanted to stop to see if there was something wrong with his bike – or maybe it was rider failure?

After enough resting and bike testing, we got back on the bikes and pushed onto the next bridge which was not far away.  Staring at the steep pitch that awaited, we left one at a time to rest as long as we could.  First Daniel, then Kolpak, followed by me to ensure safety from the back.  David made it up the steep pitch and when he looked around the corner he shouted ‘oh sh*t’.  This usually means the hill is getting harder….well it was.  This was the section with the huge irrigation grates and a grade easily above 20%.  With that in mind, I started to follow only to stop at the grate and muse at a stalled Daniel and Kolpak (no devices needed, just plain gravity at work here).  Of course I had to stop to get this photo.

Realizing that I would not want to descend down this hill, I decided to turn back at this point (with pride).  I was pretty sure that Damian and Lundy would have both made it up so I told Daniel to let them know I was not coming up.  (Kolpak and I nominated Daniel to go up to the top).

Always willing to lend a helping hand, Kolpak sent Daniel on his way before also sanely retreating from this crazy hill.  Only later did we realize we should have passed him our Garmin bike computers to ‘capture the climb’.

Apparently Lundy found Daniel lying on the ground a kilometer up from here.

I sat waiting, feeling humbled by this massive climb, knowing that hazing could be coming my way for failing to ascend this climb in full.  As I sat alone, Kolpak joined me shortly and we decided to descend and wait at the bottom of the climb for the other guys.  With descending not being my strong point, I took off my bike shoes and walked down the steep sections.  Humbled….humbled…humbled.   As Kolpak and I descended, we thought of the other guys at the top; enjoying the scenic waterfalls, cold drinks, spectacular views. 

Fortunately we all made it down safely.  Lundy and Damian were the only two to make it to the top which apparently had no waterfalls, drinks, or views…..unless you count a sole fat guard with a machine gun.  Kolpak and I felt better knowing we did not miss too much.

With the climb over we now had around 60km to go to get back to Singapore and hit Brewerkz for a much deserved meal and cold drink.  First we would hit the gas station for water and snacks before setting a ‘nice’ pace back to Singapore.

After hearing the words ‘nice paced’ Damian laughed, said ‘I am hungry’ and off we went.  I was happy because I did not eat many gels and this ride was very nice….so far.  Little did I know that the words ‘I am hungry’ meant that Damian was going to set a blistering pace, ripping everybody to shreds.  At one point we lost Daniel, and Lundy was screaming ‘Dan is off’, which sounded a lot like ‘whose your daddy’…..I thought Lundy was up to his normal  on-ride singing entertainment only to realize later that we had lost a man….Daniel had reverse dropped us.  I ended up taking two gels in the last 40km just to stay with the guys…. Anyhow we almost all reverse dropped Damian because his 35-40km /hour pace on the last 40km of the ride was highly unpopular….even breaking Ironman Lundy. (Kolpak and I were also dead).   Finally we hit the border which luckily had a huge line up for us to recover in.  After getting into Singapore things did not change too much…we were all spent, sick, tired and hungry.  We powered through and finally all arrived at Brewerkz.  As you can see from this picture, we were all pretty tired.

Unfortunately before Daniel arrived he punctured 1.5km away, and had to walk it in.  After ‘we’ –when I say we, I mean me- fixed the flat, we rode to the other Brewerkz at National Stadium where we found Justin and Lee still celebrating their 140km ride.  They rode for four hours and were on their fifth hour of beer drinking…..

Overall it was a great ride.  Totally exhausted, good friendship, good stories. It’s all good.  No better way to send Lundy off.

Italy on Wednesday!