UUM May 1st Ride

Labour Day Recreational Ride : Shimano-UUM

Date : Labour Day (1 may 2008)
Venue : UUM Sports Center.
Distance : 40km - which actually turns out to be a little bit over 30km only
Goodies: T-Shirt, No name certs! and some 2007 visit malaysia crap! oh.. and a lot of lucky draws. But none for me la.. cuz I aint that lucky.

Hard to sleep the previous night before this event, was anticipating about it. Cuz, this might be the last mountain bike event I could go on before for the rest of the year due to a packed schedule for the rest of the year.
Anyway, started getting ready at about 5.20am or so, got to Guan's house at about 5.50a.m, packed everything inside Siau's VAN and headed to Pekan China for an early breakfast before getting to UUM.

Anyway, got to UUM sports center at about 7.10am. Quite a lot of arrival already, apparently the early checking time is really sharp. Better organized I guess. (In the previous event, late entry was allowed till almost 9a.m) Saw some Santa Cruz's, Commencal, a Giant that is like mine..

Celebrity MTB Blogger "Mat Kedah"

The ride starts at 7.45 or 8.. quite sharp. Most of my group was not even ready or didn't even realized that the race had already started. Stayed up front with the leading group cuz I was.. at the front at the time, talking to Mat Kedah.. didnt even knew that it was time to start.

Group in front was really close and tight.. collided with a cone in front of me, luckily it was head on.. so, the poor cone just fell and I continued after being laugh at a bit from the group that I was.. riding with.
**
The starting stretch was a 9km loop around UUM.. on tar. Quite exhausting because I was with the front group, and they are speeders.. really fast. couldn't manage to keep up, when we finish the loop, I've somehow exhausted myself to the point of.. collapsing.
**
After the loop, went into a rocky off road parts.. really rocky. This is where I have to make a stop. The combination of exhaustion in the loop and the rockiness in this trek combine is just too much for me.. stopped, and "kesi-kesi" take some pics of riders passing thru. Need air...
Got out of the rocky road, back to UUM compound tar trek.. heading out of UUM.
Here's where power seems to have come back. Was able to go on.. without feeling like collapsing. Came out of UUM and headed into mud country. Haha..
**
Lots of Muds and climbs before we finally descended from the off road hill's. During this off road stretch there was lots and lots of muds, a one single trek pass with both side of the pass corroded. Saw some downhill casualties.
First check point was after this trek. Took in mineral water, one banana. Guan arrived shortly after that.
Went ahead after the small rest.. another mud infested trek up ahead. But a short one only cuz, after going up a small hill and coming down.. its check point no:2 already.. after this checkpoint.. we went out to the main road for a little tar.
After that.. its down to mud country again, this time through the palm oil estate. Passed Tien/Siau/Yen(apparently, they dint went for the first UUM loop, which was why they were ahead..)
Checkpoint no:3 was at the end of this mud trek with 100+ drinks. After that, its just a 2 -3km dash back to the UUM sports center for the finish.

Overall... a short but really quite enjoyable ride. For some of us, there was complaint that, the route was too easy. But I guess it was what its said in the program. For beginners and intermediate riders only. The not fun part was that, in this ride, we were all riding for ourself. Me going it alone up front, Guan.. also dint see him.. Hao/TH/Patrick at least was riding together for awhile before they decided to split up. Tien / Siau /Yen.. had all stayed together.. I guess that thier ride must be more fun than ours. So, for our next "event"ride(I have a feeling, we'll be heading to Jerai loop again on the 7th of june), I guess we've pretty much made up our mind to ride in a group and as a group together.. after all, best memories are shared with friends rather than alone.

** = Pictures taken from Mat Kedah's Blog... hehe..
Here's the pictures :


Bike Preparation.. Yen and Siau.


owner of Xtreme-mountain bike blog meeting with owner of Xtreme mountain bike shop.


Get ready line..


Rocky roads ahead..


Too rocky that I had to stop/pretend to take some pics here...


Out of the rocky roads..


Goin up../ Pushin up..


View from top of the hill.


arrived..




more arrivals.


My poor mud infested bike.


a muddy affair.


Bike after cleaning..


Food time..


Guan and his hilarious expression.


Food Posse"


Guan, TH, AK


Food Review: OK la... can be improved with some udangs... and sotongs..


this is a shot of my foot 24hour after the ride. Got bitten by a stinking venomous ant(ya.. semut besaq giler!!) in the car park. My foot was all swollen up and itchy after that.. luckily the swollen and itchiness subsided after that..