Audax Kiara Bay Pink Ride 9.0

It is January. Which means there was a Pink Ride to participate in. The Pink Ride 9.0 was advertised as the first Audax ride in Kuala Lumpur. To be accurate, this was the first Audax ride to start in Kuala Lumpur. A route of Audax distance will necessarily take you outside Kuala Lumpur.

The Kiara Bay Sales Gallery is a 12 km drive from my home. So there was no need to find accommodation near the start. Kiara Bay township is located adjacent to the Kepong Metropolitan Park, which features a 141- acre lake. A scenic place to start an Audax ride from.

All participants had their names on this banner at the entrance to the Kiara Bay Sales Gallery.

The pre-ride organisation was excellent, as always. Participants could collect their brevet cards at the Sales Gallery on the two days before the ride. I collected my brevet card on Thursday. The process was quick, helped in no small part by the use of QR codes to confirm what each participant was entitled to.

This time, there was quite a lot that came together with the brevet card. My favourite is the waterproof see-through wallet.

This Pink Ride was promoted as a good introduction to self-supported long-distance rides. A key provision was a Sweeper truck service. A first for an Audax Malaysia ride. An array of sponsors lined up to provide teh tarik, Mixue ice cream, AminoVital energy gels, and water at various points along the route.

The drive to attract new riders was successful. More than 1,000 cyclists were expected to start on Sunday morning. I was pleased to have a reserved parking spot in front of the Kiara Bay Sales Gallery for myself and two of my ride companions, courtesy of a friend in high places at UEM Sunrise.

V and I arrived at about 4:15 am. We were pleasantly surprised to see a nasi lemak stall and a coffee van already open for business. Breakfast sorted!

Our group of four were set up for a good day as the 5:00 am start time for our 100 km ride neared.

Riders who volunteered to guide and support first-time Audax cyclists had a Crew tag. I must admit I forgot I had a Crew tag on my bike, and was a bit surprised at the number of questions I was asked during the ride.

Most of the questions came after Checkpoint 1 from riders who weren’t sure that they were heading in the right direction.

Getting to Checkpoint 1 was a challenge. A short steep hill from KM 10.6 to KM 11.8 at an average grade of 8.6% was followed by a longer slope from KM 15.4 to Checkpoint 1 at KM 22.3 at an average grade of 4.5%. Those two climbs represent 400 metres of elevation.

That came as a shock to some who had to surrender to the grade and walk their way to Checkpoint 1.

The payoff at the top was the free flow of sweet teh tarik.

Checkpoint 1 was where the 50 km participants turned around. This edition of the Pink Ride is the first to offer a 50 km distance for those making an initial foray into the world of Audax rides. Some of the online comments after the ride were that the elevation made this a tough introduction to Audax rides. In reality, the total elevation for this year’s 94 km route isn’t much different from the total elevation for the similarly long routes in 2025 and 2024.

There is no doubt, though, that front-loading 41% of the total elevation into the first quarter of this year’s route made it a difficult start.

Fellow R@SKL W was at Checkpoint 1 when we got there. We were a group of five as we made the 17 km descent down the opposite side of the Ulu Yam climb. There was very little traffic, and the road is relatively straight. Those are usually an invitation for a high-speed descent. The road is mostly unlit, though, so I deferred to a sense of self-preservation and stayed on the brakes.

Our next stop was at the Petron petrol station at Rasa. That was 42.7 km into the ride. The konbini (convenience store) at that station is a FamilyMart, a major Japanese convenience store chain. We loaded up on sushi, tamago sandoicchi (egg sandwiches) and pesutori (pastries).

Back on the road again, VV and I fell behind D, KS and W as we rode toward Bandar Bukit Beruntung. Twenty minutes later, we caught up with D and KS, who were waiting for us at the right turn at KM 55. W was well ahead, and we didn’t see him again.

We stopped a couple of kilometres later at Restoran Al Haj Bistro for a coffee or a teh tarik.

From Al Haj Bistro, it was 15 km to Checkpoint 2 at the Shell Rawang Mutiara petrol station. After getting our brevet cards stamped, KS suggested that we stop in Rawang, 5 km away, for curry mee. We passed through Rawang without spotting the curry mee restaurant, so we kept moving.

It was 30ºC (86ºF) and rising as we cycled the last 17 km to the finish. I was thankful that I had not opted for the 200 km route. Some 200 km riders reported temperatures north of 38ºC (100ºF) during their ride.

We took refuge in the air-conditioned Sales Gallery after getting our brevet cards stamped and collecting our finisher’s medals. Once we had cooled down, we walked to Kanteen for lunch. A very nice end to the morning.

Kudos to Sam and his support crew for organizing yet another enjoyable Audax ride. 👏🏼👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼They cannot control the weather, but everything within their control was very well managed and run.

That is another Pink Ride done. As tends to be the case these days after rides like this, the initial sense is one of achievement, together with doubt that we will do it again next year. We’ll see what the mood is like come December.