April Fool Ride, Putrajaya, Apr 1, 2009

A total of 20 riders turned up for the ride and three quarter of them were from the Gedebe gang. Except for Alif and me all of them came down with their road mean machines. I said mean machines because they were indeed a very powerful bicycles where even the weakest of the rider will leave you breathing wind behind from the get go. A couple of Cervelo, Bianchi, Trek, Merida and the like. There I was with my Trek MTB thinking very hard on how or what to do to make sure I would not be too far behind. As usual I had Alif but I wanted to build up my speed and endurance and planned to stay in touch with the roadies. Which mean if Alif stayed back I’d hope someone would sweep.

Surprisingly when I arrived at the Dataran I was presented with a clear sky. In fact a few minutes after a crescent came out with stars flickering around. We definitely riding tonight I said to myself. We rolled out around 2145 and as I guessed tackling the outer ring of Putrajaya. Alif and I started off among the second pelaton but when ahead after the first pelaton waited at the last bus stand before we went out of the big Precint 1 round about. I pushed hard at the front but I knew the roadies will pass me in due time which they did as I was climbing below the junction just before the PM’s resident. With the biggest crank on I stayed with them. I could not help to think if I were on one of those flyers I would be blazing the Putrajaya night myself. With that kind of machine there is no way I would be just cruising. So for now to protect myself from myself I would stick with my Trek MTB. I was cruising at a constant speed passing the PM’s resident on my left and over Section 10 before proceeding towards the Cyberjaya Dengkil highway. It was a long nice incremental climb from there to the bridge over the old MDC HQ, my old office.

As I was under the pass to Cyberjaya Marina, the birthday girl, passed me. Quickly I moved behind her tail and let her pulled me through the gradient going towards Dengkil. As we passed Cyberlodge looking down at my old office I wondered whether I would be riding there had I stayed working for MDC. I continued tailing Marina closely until we were approaching the turn to Precint 5 that I let her go a little bit. But instead, probably not realizing I was behind her, she stopped waiting. I thought there was something wrong with her bicycle but when I came close she said she was not sure which way to go. I asked her to follow me and cranked up around the junction towards our halfway rest spot. At the rest point waiting were Pak Wan, MBA, Muhaimy, Pak Samad and Doc Taufik. By the look at it the first pelaton must have sped away. As usual we took a five minutes break. Apart from the obvious at the rest point is where bicycle stories were flowing. Each rides for us a new adventure as well as another classroom of anything to do with bicycle and cycling. This time Pak Wan held court narrating mostly their recent tour down from KB to Kuantan.

Pak Wan gave the ladies the honor to resume the ride and off Alif went almost flying followed by Marina. Knowing that if the guys follow suit I am going to be left behind I took off after them. Relishing a long climb in front of me plus the desire to regain my fitness I overtook them and rode at a constant speed alone upfront. I knew in no time the guys would be behind me. I felt I go harder but I restrained myself afraid I drained myself during the long climb. Soon I heard them coming from behind and one by one overtook me. Pak Samad on his road Trek came to my side about to pass but I held his progress by asking him about his Trek. He gave a thumb up. As Pak Samad slowly move up Pak Wan joined me from behind and we had a chat for a while.

Looking at the red flickering night riding light in front Pak Wan decided to chased and when he pulled out I tailed him hoping he could pull me. I never ever was going to last long tailing him as he inched forward further and further from me. However Allah knows best as about 30 metres before the overhead bridge to Kg Limau Manis came the rain. It was not heavy but we saw in front of us the guys beside the road. When I got there I thought I wanted to join them but since I am in the momentum to climb I decided not to stop and Pak Wan followed me. The guys stopped because they wanted to secure their handphones from the rain. As I passed I joked by asking ‘nak bukak payung ke?’ I made the right decision as I climbed the rain stop for a while giving me enough dry tarmac to push harder. By that time Pak Wan was way ahead of me already. I pushed and pushed until almost three quarter of the climb when the rain started to really fall and hitting my face. About 30 meters to the top I pressed forward using Pak Wan’s red tail light as my beacon. Once I was almost at the peak I was thinking of slaloming down but I saw flickering signal lights on my left down below indicating several of them were waiting the rain out under the overheard road. I hit the break and pull over slowly.

If not for the rain we could have been back to our starting point by 2330 but it was not all lost. While waiting with, mostly the Gedebe gang we got to know each other better. I witnessed also the Chief Poison and Super Dealer and Trader at work ). Pak Wan was relentless with his dealing and managed to get a deal done out of nothing. It was a joy to witness. The rain came pouring for about half an hour or so and nothing much we could do accept to wait. It was about midnight when the rain eased a bit and would be acceptable for us to continue and finish our cycling for the night. We waited for the last group and as soon as they joined us we pedaled hard home to our cars.

Since it was still raining when we reached the Dataran everyone just quickly packed their bikes, said goodbyes and drove home. Thus no makan-makan for the birthday girl just a wet Aprilfool ride.