joined the NTU Bike Rally 2009. was suppose to go with yu but she didn't manage to register (overwhelming response..) so i ended up going alone.
had to register/report at Big Splash at East Coast by 0630 and i reckon i should leave my house by 0500... however, i only woke up at 0500 and left the house at 0545.
see the dark dark morning sky and my helmut n bike!
reached Big Splash at 0615, registered myself and collected the top n number tag. tagged my bike n tagged myself. did warm ups.
see the around-the-island-route map??
flag off a lil after 0700!!
headed towards Fort Road, then Mountbatten and whoa, we are on Nicoll Highway. not too difficult, enjoying the morning sun still. next, turned left instead of hitting the straight road so will see the Flyer next. this idiot almost crashed into me, didn't know what he was trying to do. he tried to cut me on my left (hello.. curb...) and luckily for me, he did not crash into me. he crashed into the curb instead. ouch.
hi sheares!
ooh. flyer! hello!
ah passed by the durian, sorry Esplanade, next. And oh... hello One Fullerton. Oh my, so near the work place. hey, i can totally cycle to work next time. Will consider about that soon.
shucks, forgot my cash card. ha!
continued on, letting the CBD area pass by and turned towards Vivocity.
Checkpoint 1 coming up! Labrador Park.
That is a little after vivocity and blahblah. Never been here till today, so mountain-turtle of me.
PSA
Lab Park i reached.
everyone took the opportunity to rest, refill bottles and eat! oh shucks, they only have bananas and gardenia rolls.
next checkpoint will be NTU. ouch, seems far. left labrador and hit West Coast Highway which seems to stretch forever. Saw many road bikes on the opposite side. groups i suppose. Went past West Coast Beach (East Coast Beach still rocks!).
Jurong Port Road? oh my...
somehow i made it to NTU.
the track near NTU's sports & recreation center.
checkpoint had energy bars, other than bananas. ate two. cleaned up. put more sunblock and rested my poor legs. NTU is really a jungle.
soyjoy is not too bad, i tried the Apple and Hawthorne.
oh they have a bunch of people who got flagged off at NTU. anyway, i continued on my journey after filling up my bottle. out of the jungle!
Lim Chu Kang Cemetery. muslim, chinese, christian. Quite a hilly ride.... little did I know this is the beginning of many more slopes to come. Then I cycled past some farms... oh my... the smell of manure!!! And the smart people of the rally put the notice that says, 'Cycle faster to avoid smell'. hahah... that was a good one, too bad i didnt take any pic of it.
somehow, the road led to Neo Tiew Crescent, where the farms like Bollywood (Poison Ivy's) and Hay Dairies (goat's milk) are.....
the whole place have soooo many slopes!
luckily, the next checkpoint was quite near, just next to the reservoir. From here, on your left is the sea actually and you can see JB.
JB
On your right is the reservoir. Couldn't find any energy bars here so i had some bread and gatorade. I heard the next stop is Yishun. shouldn't be too bad.
reservoir
oh boy, was i wrong.
had to go along Mandai Road. a VERY VERY long road with lots of slopessss.... unbelievable.... (whoever that said driving was tough ought to be shot)
kranji way..
what?! zoo?
after a really loooong and hillllly ride, i reached yishun.
by the time i reached Yishun Stadium, i had to drag my legs off my bike.
managed to grab a hotdog bun (which they hid) and more gatorade. more sunblock. more rest. more water.
next up? hougang! oh wow.
passed by mich's place. went through Seletar Airbase.
appeared at Jalan Kayu. Heard some fellow cyclists went for prata...
oh i did an awas stunt here, trying to take a picture and almost got hit by car. oops.
yes, more slopes but i think i was beyond that already. couldn't really think much. by the time i huff and puff to this small carpark which was the checkpoint for hougang, i just wanted to get an electric bike to pooot me along. haha.
finally. hougang.
more energy bars and bananas. i so do not like bananas but for the sake of keeping myself alive, i had to.
bike, helmut n pack.
one of the safety cyclist and her sponsored Monotine bike.
ooh a Scott road bike.
the skies turned dark. very dark. i thought, better run along now.... so i moved.
boom
and it started to rain! perhaps i could just move on if the rain wasn't too heavy. alas! the rain got crazy within one minute and i had to take shelter under the big overhead bridge. yes, just like those motorcyclists you see...
waited... and waited... but the rain didn't let up. one road marshall came over and said the lorry might pick us (there were like 10 of us hiding) and our bikes to ferry us to the next checkpoint. so we continued to wait. and wait. and wait.
one hour later. the rain had subsided. became a drizzle. one of the guys decided to go ask the marshall where the lorry is. ohh well, we were told the lorry is more like a 'maybe' rather than a 'it is'. he asked if i wanna just ride off since it was our decision. i said yes. so i rode off with this group. there were 3 guys and 2 gals. we put on the cheapo plastic poncho/raincoat we were given in the morning and rode really slowly.
hougang, then headed for tampines ave 10. the group was great. they were looking out for everyone. along the road, we could see the road marshalls hiding under the flats or at the bus stops. most of them still continued to give directions.
we pushed on. no photos because my camera is not exactly waterproof. by the time we hit Pasir Ris, the rain is more or less gone. we saw Ikea n Giant!
Went past whitewater, Pasir Ris interchange and reached NTUC resort. then they wanted to stop, for what? to take photos!! hahah... okay! took a short break and continued on.
went along loyang way. then... one of the girl slipped and fell. ouch. the drains were way too slippery. thank goodness she didnt get hurt really bad, just some scrapes here and there. phew.
then we saw this other participant and he said the race was off! ha. well, luckily we didnt believe him and called the organizer.
'no no, the race is still on'
okay, so off we went. took a really long time to reach Changi Beach.
Along the road.
Changi Beach
no more rain by now. The girl who fell, decided not to continue since she had another appointment so she returned her rented bike and went off. The rest of us? we decided to just finish it no matter what.
paddled on.
rode past the airport, saw a dead snake, went past puddles, took a short cut to reach the beginning of east coast.
airport.
still changi
finally, east coast.
we chatted along the way. were joined by 3 other girls, JC girls. after a slow and steady ride, after much encouraging, we finally reached Big Splash!!! WOW.
ah ha! my first finisher tshirt! heh....
WOOOO! (photo courtesy of Dingcai)
nice to meet you guys, Daniel, Sky, Dingcai, Joann and Girl(oops i forgot to ask your name). It was really fun. i didn't mind the relaxed ride at the end. most importantly, it was the company that mattered.
time to head back... another 8km to do.. BUT.. i did not go home. went to Bleu instead. to join the dwarfs for the post-surprise party. hahah.. which didn't have much of the surprise element.
had a blast of a day. saw places i have seen, been to roads i have never been. i should do this again.
my bike had a blast too. thanks blueboo. お疲れ様！otsukaresama = tough on you
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