By
Md Ishar Ishak aka SR,
Participant No. 59, de'Rojak MTB, KL
The weekend was a big relief from work for me, now I'm back in the office, with a lot of work to be done, issues to be resolved, I am already looking forward to next year' Jamboree...
It was really nice that Zaf arranged for me to bunk with Ice, Asri & Kimi (Non-Smokers) - so that I didnt have to smell the cigarette smoke when I woke up. And I was very surprised how discipline Ice was, 11pm bedtime, 6pm wake-up time..... 11pm bedtime????
Anyway, it's good to have somebody who can wake up early. As for the other 3 of us, we competed on who would wake up the latest... he he he.. The DH run on Saturday was good apart from the landslide. The tarmac DH had reduced my brake pads to almost nothing (which I found out going down Mount Eskrine). I wish I could have gone faster, but the agony of having to turn my elbow into landing pad had restrained me from letting go off the levers...
Sunday ride was, major FUN. I got to see nice legs.... not as many as I'd hoped for unfortunately.. Apart from the 45mins waiting at the "landslide crossing", the rest went quite smoothly... Upon reaching 47, I knew from last year that the ascend to 84 was doable... so I clencthed my teeth and pedaled all the way to 84 on the 32pounder...
From 84 to 168, I tried to employ last year's tactic, pedal & stop every 2 corners..... not this year, the bike was slightly heavier and I didnt have enough preparation, unlike last year - we did night rides etc etc. I though I pushed about 30% of the way.. reaching 168 was... heaven..
Joint up with Azemi as he was being photograph by a local tourist at the Penang Hill Challenge Sign Board. We were looking for others, didnt know where they went/gathered. So we proceeded downhill... Again the trauma of having skidded down last year stopped me from blasting down the switchbacks...
Joint up with you guys (tram hikers), and finally having to part company as we had longer distance to cover and you guys wanted to enjoy the DH without having to brake to save somebody' limbs & bikes. I lost Azemi after a while... joint up again by some of the people who smoked me going uphill earlier....
From 84 to 47, Alan & Genting wheezed pass me... "Oi, Norco belakang"... "! @@#@$"... bloody fast... just before the Stairway to Heaven, Genting hit a rut and endoed..... emmmm... I continued alone, starting to feel some thightnedd on the front of my right thigh... tried to go down Stairway to Heaven, after a few steps.. almost endoed... tried again... after another 2 tries & another endo, I walked the Stairs...
Thinking that evrything whould be alright from then on proved, incorrect.... with my heart beating above 170bpm... I felt tired... so tired that on one of the slippery slope, I just let the Norco rolled down, snapping 1 zip-tie in the process...
A lot of pushing... until I reached the swampy area.. From then on, it's DH all the way, with a few short ascends... I was really surprised at how easy the Norco ride up on the rocky section... The ascend down Mount Eskrine also taught me to get a Mudguard... water, sand splashing into my eyes.. the brakes without any pads.. it was scary... had major cramp on one of the climbs... took out the 3rd & last Oral Dehydration salt... voila.. the tightness gone... continued dh until I stumbled into Azemi fixing his punctured rear tyre. Stayed with him.. helped him where I could and off we go down the final section of Mount Eskrine...
Upon reaching the Finish line, we were presented with the very well made medal... all the 5 hours spent earlier was really worth it...
Finally, thank you everyone for the company. Zaf, I cant thank you enough for the great effort that you have done.
Now, lets plan the DH trip to Penang that we talked about yesterday....
Cheers!
SR de"sourfaced today"FSR
Jointly
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