Putrajaya, 12 December 2007

After a few weeks of layoff, cycling came to life again as a bunch of us, 8 to be exact, plunged in to a gruelling 90km ride to Putrajaya and back.

It started with only 7 of us, meeting point, Petronas station along Kesas highway. Our aim was to meet up with Uncle Michael in Summit before 8am, but delayed by Rachel's malfunctioning tire. Took us 1/2 hour to fix her front tire.

Michael(newbie), Samuel Chin(newbie) and me. The ride to Summit was a zip, fast and furious, unpaced paddling to make up for lost time. The newbie did well, considering what happened to Michael the last round he joined us (barely made up the 12km mark).

Once we touched down Summit, got lost looking for Uncle Michael's house, another 15 minutes wasted rounding the housing. But things started to flow when Uncle Michael lead us through Subang, connecting to the Puchong Highway that leads straight to Cyberjaya. The newbies were starting to struggle after the 20km mark, they were slow up the slopes. Of course me, being a nice guy (hehehe) encouraged them, waited for them, shouted for them to speed up, make sure they have enough fluid, and of course, rested while waiting for them (explains the energy level).

My cyclometer's reading was a little bit out that day, so the actual distance covered was a grey area. I reckon, the journey from Summit to Putrajaya was about 30km++. Upon touching down Putrajaya, Samuel encountered the first problem, his crank fell off. Though we tried fixing it, with an alankey and stone, the problem persisted, and it caused much delay to our schedule.

Nevertheless, we made it to Prescient 2, all of us.

Somehow, Daniel's camera phone made us look fat.

We loitered around for a while, and decided to head home.


What a bummer, Johnathan suffered a puncture. Thank God uncle Michael had the tools for a quick change of tube, using his Zefal CO2 inflator, he inflated the tube in less that 5 secs!! WHOA!!!

Happy faces all around

That small little thing held by Johnathan is what inflated the tube!

Anyway, Samuel's crank was really ticking uss off, so Daniel, Rachel and uncle michael went on home, while the rest stopped to help him.

Things got unbearable, so we stopped at a petrol kiosk before the Puchong toll for a break. Michael gobble down a hot dog bun and chocolates, while Johnathan and Samuel stopped a taxi to go home.

After that, it was another 20km cycle home. Michael Ong, uncle Vincent and I made it safely.

Quite a satisfying ride, considering the fact it was my first ride in a month, a little less than 90km in total! Great workout, and nice fellowship.