I last participated in the annual OCBC Cycle events in 2013 and 2014. You can read about those events by clicking on the links below:
What lingered in my mind about those events were the number of participants, and how careful I had to be while riding amongst cyclists who could behave unpredictably. By that I mean coming to a sudden stop to take a photograph, or riding the wrong way down a hill. Those memories kept me from participating in OCBC events since then.
This year V wanted to ride the 2026 iteration. She had never done an OCBC ride before. So I signed up with her for the 50km ride.
I shouldn’t have been surprised at the number of people queuing for their ride packs as soon as the collection centre opened in the Decathlon shop in the Four Seasons Shopping Centre.
There were five collection counters, but the line moved slowly because many were collecting more than one pack. Packs were being filled one at a time with race tags, jerseys and so on. The gentleman in front of me picked up twenty or so packs.
After collecting packs, we all joined one line to drop our lucky draw numbers into a box. Each number had to be snipped off a race tag. That caused another bottleneck.
In my case, the long wait was worth it because a Decathlon discount voucher was amongst the freebies in the packs. I used mine immediately.
This big display board showed key information about the event. Some of which became the cause of heated comment after the event.
V arrived very early where I live to be sure of getting a parking spot. We had coffees at a mamak stall to eat up time before riding to Dataran Merdeka for the start. The newly-refurbished Sultan Abdul Samad building looked resplendent in the early morning light.
We ran into KS and R at the start.
There was entertainment while we waited for the flag-off.
As per our SOP for events like this, we stayed well behind the rush at the start line.
The route was two 25km loops through the city centre on closed roads. Cycling on Jalan Kuching was especially enjoyable because there is usually too much speeding traffic on that road. The section through the Lake Gardens was nice, too.
It was a slow first lap, particularly on the climbs, because of the sheer number of cyclists. The second lap was faster because quite a few participants had opted for the one-lap 25km event.
We got a shock at KM28, which we reached before the posted cut-off time. Instead of being allowed to make the right turn onto Jalan Sultan Salahuddin and to ride the section through the Lake Gardens, we had to turn left toward Jalan Kuching.
I don’t know what prompted the organisers to close off that section well before the posted cut-off time. I can tell you that it left many participants quite angry.
So V and I got to the finish line 5km short of the expected 50km.
We got free Milo and McDonalds sandwiches, which made up a little for the truncated ride.
I have another OCBC Cycle medal to add to my collection. I don’t think I will be collecting any more in future. The ride was fun, but not enough fun for me to want to do it again.
