2nd desaru ride

went to desaru with coach david's friends and the tri 21 peeps today. was my second time there and this time i was a bit more mentally prepared for what was coming up. i started the morning with a double portion of what i usually had for breakfast, so i was very full for quite a long time after that even on the bike...

met up with the rest at the ferry terminal, then took the ferry over. there were many of us, 23 in all! the ride started off easy for the 17km to the town for breakfast (at least for the others) everyone had wanton mee and chee chong fun (i had a bit of that) while i had soft boiled eggs. i bet my cholestrol level is now off the charts after the egg yolks i had...

then we went off for the rest of 30++++++ km to head to the roundabout point, where we would all stop to meet up. feeling quite good, i chionged and pulled my pack at bout 38km/h (according to the rest. my speedo not functioning today) that was until we hit the slopes, where i just died miserably and had to play catch up all the way till the roundabout.

after everyone gathered we headed to the hotel where we were planning to stay for the desaru long d tri in august. had some drinks there before we went off again to head back to town. along the way, the wind picked up and it just came at us from all directions but behind. head wind, cross winds all threatened to push us off, but we held on tight and just pedalled. norman and i took turns pulling the pack, and somewhere along there i must have lost my mind. cause looking back i have no idea why i still kept pulling the pack against that kind of headwind. nut case.
but i just told myself to keep going and pedalling, and somehow i managed to pull it off.

wind resistance has just level up!

reached the sugar cane juice stop where we had much needed refreshments and shelter from the heat. it was also here that i had my first taste of eating rambutans! not bad... quite an new experience... after which we headed back to town for some light eat and more drinks. it was getting reallly realllly hot, so we had to hydrate as much as we could. and ice cream! =D

last 17km back. i had already delcared i would just whack this last stretch, so off i went with josh sitting on my wheel as usual drafting. he's now my shadow. this went on at 35km/h... then........

with about 5km left i suddenly dieded and josh broke out of the shadows and pulled me! yay! well done josh! level up le! we plodded along at about 31km/h before finally reaching back to the ferry terminal unbelievably tired and burnt...

----fast forward----

after reaching back to singapore, nic, norman, JJ, coach david and his friend kenneth cycled back. i went to boon's and left my bike there to get my rear wheel true-ed, and came home bare footed.haha. didnt want to walk on my cleats.

total mileage: 110km approx

ok thats it. tired. end of entry.