Audax Randonneurs Malaysia (ARM) marked its 10th Anniversary with the eighth edition of the Pink Ride. The Pink Ride honours the power and spirit of lady cyclists. This now iconic ride is free for all ladies, encouraging more women to take on the challenge of long-distance cycling.
I did my first Pink ride, the BRM 200 km distance, in 2019. Read about that twenty-strong group ride here.
A dozen of us did the BRM 200 km distance again in 2020. Read about the Pink Ride 3.0 here.
It was 2023 before I did another Pink Ride. The Pink Ride 6.0 was the first edition that offered a Permanent 100 km distance as well as the usual BRM 200 km route. I opted for the 100 km event, which you can read about here.
Four of us planned to do the Permanent 100 km Pink Ride 7.0. Read about why only two of us did the ride here.
Four of us signed up for the Permanent 100 km Pink Ride 8.0. We all agreed that given our respective states of fitness, the BRM 200 km event was a step too far.
The start and finish was at MesaMall in Nilai. My Biker Chick and I were at the mall the afternoon before the ride to collect four ride packs.
Photograph courtesy of Audax Randonneurs Malaysia
Apart from some stickers, a discount coupon for cycling products, isotonic tablets and the all-important brevet card, we also got a super useful waterproof pouch. Perfect for holding a mobile phone and some cash.
The Pink Ride 3.0 in 2020 also started and finished at MesaMall. I stayed in a nearby hotel before that ride. Since then, apartment blocks integrated with the mall have been built. I booked two homestay apartments, one for my Biker Chick and one for G and V.
We had a nice view of the hills around Nilai.
G and V arrived that evening. We hit the mall right away, looking for food. Campur Campur Kitchen was a winner.
We walked off some of those calories by exploring the mall. We added calories by eating ice cream at Nice to CU. We bought drinks and nibbles for the morning at Jaya Grocer, and then it was time for bed. I set my alarm for 3:30 am.
G, V and I went downstairs to meet M at 4:30 am.
Photograph courtesy of ML
About 150 of us rode into the dark a little after 5:00 am.
The Permanent 100 km route took us from MesaMall through Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi, Sepang and over the Sungai Langat at Banting. It was very pleasant once dawn broke and we could see where we were going. The forecasted rain stayed away, and the air was cool.
Photograph courtesy of ML
We made our first extended stop at Kampung Batu Laut. Not counting the twelve-minute stop after just 9.6 km to fix my flat tire.
Photograph courtesy of VV
Photograph courtesy of ML
I refilled my 750 ml bidon for the second time at Pantai Batu Laut. I was making a concerted effort to drink a lot. I am sure the reason I struggled on past long rides is because I didn’t drink enough.
I had more to drink at our breakfast stop at Kafe Cikgu Kundang 2.5 km later. The bike racks caught our attention. The food was worth stopping for.
Photograph courtesy of VV
The first checkpoint was 3.5 km down the road at Tanjung Sepat. We met old cycling friends there.
Photograph courtesy of AL
From Tanjung Sepat, we rode to Sungai Pelek, where I refilled my bottle again. The weather continued to be kind to us.
Photographs courtesy of Audax Randonneurs Malaysia
The BRM 200 km riders turned right at Pekan Sepang and rode to Lukut, Port Dickson, Rantau, Sendayan and Bandar Baru Enstek.
We rode from Pekan Sepang straight to Bandar Baru Enstek and back to MesaMall.
Map courtesy of Audax Randonneurs Malaysia
About six and a half hours after we left MesaMall, we rolled back under the Start / Finish arch and into the mall to the final checkpoint.
Photographs courtesy of Audax Randonneurs Malaysia
We collected our medals and celebrated our successful metric century ride.
We all felt it in our legs the following day, but apart from that, we were none the worse for wear. I am sure drinking more than three litres during the ride made a positive difference for me.
There is another Pink Ride scheduled for May. Perhaps we will be fit enough to ride the BRM 200 distance.
Last weekend Brian and I made an overnight trip to Sekinchan. I had a new Expedition Saddle Pack, courtesy of a generous discount coupon from Apidura. This time, I had a Rapha Explore Bar Bag rather than the Route Werks Handlebar Bag I used on my last multi-day ride with Brian. This unused piece of kit was gifted to me a long time ago. I can fit it on my bar without moving my Garmin mount. The Explore Bar Bag worked well on this ride.
Photographs courtesy of rapha.cc
Brian rode to meet me at Syed Bistro, across from where I live, for breakfast. We clipped in and were on our way at 7:25 am.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
We rode about 8 km to the Federal Highway and then 22 km to Klang along the motorcycle lane beside the highway. I had plotted a route from the end of the Federal Highway motorcycle lane to Kapar that avoided going through Klang. What I hadn’t realised is Klang is circled by highways.
We turned off the Federal Highway onto the Selat Klang Highway. That road was busy but manageable on our bicycles. 3 km later the route map on my Garmin Edge pointed us toward a toll plaza (Photo A below). The Selat Klang Highway changes into the Shapadu Highway, also known as the New North Klang Straits Bypass at that toll plaza. Bicycles are not allowed on toll roads so we stuck to the left. Which was the direction we needed to go anyway.
500 metres later we came to an overpass that we were supposed to be on. I realised we had to get onto the Shapadu Highway to head left as planned. So we turned around (Photo B below).
We were able to cross the road and hop over the guardrail onto the Shapadu Highway without going through the toll plaza (Photo C below). 300 metres later we exited the highway and were back on course.
Photographs courtesy of Google Street View
That is a confusing web of highways. The road we took by mistake is also part of the Shapadu Highway that bypasses the toll plaza. It looks like the toll plaza is meant to ‘catch’ motorists who want to continue on the Selat Klang Highway as it heads west.
I know not to route that way next time.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
That highway mess was 35 km into our ride. By 50 km I was feeling a mess. My triceps and neck ached. I couldn’t get comfortable on my saddle. I thought “I must really be unfit.”
That was the start of frequent stops for me to rest and stretch to try and alleviate the aches. Eight minutes at 57 km. Forty minutes in the Burger King in Jeram at 67 km. Our discovery there was not to stop at that Burger King again.
The manager told us curtly that we could not lean our bikes against our table. “What is the difference between having the bikes against our table and two feet away on the walkway?” I asked.
“Nothing” she replied before turning on her heels and disappearing into the empty restaurant. We got the feeling that we were not welcome there. We won’t be going back.
A Mushroom Swiss burger and some iced lemon tea got me 18 km further down the road before I had to stop again. I rested once more at 93 km because my right knee had started hurting too. I sat down for thirty minutes 3 km later at the Petronas station at Tanjung Karang.
I took a couple of paracetamol tablets during that stop at the petrol station. As I waited for the painkillers to kick in I remembered that I took my prescription blood pressure medication before starting the ride. I check my blood pressure every morning. It is usually in the Normal to High-Normal range. When either my systolic or diastolic pressure creeps into the Grade 1 blood pressure (mild) range I take a telmisartan tablet. That happens about once every ten days.
I have never had a bad reaction to telmisartan. Sitting in the Petronas station I looked up the commonly occurring side effects, which are:
Fatigue
Flu-like symptoms like body aches
Muscle pains
Back pain
I think I discovered why I felt so awful. The extended physical activity must have triggered the side effects.
The paracetamol helped get me to the 109 km point. That was only 3 km from the hotel but I had to stop for a while.
I chose the Harbour View Hotel because it has a café. Good ratings on booking.com and a reasonable room rate also helped. The hotel is excellent. There is a room behind the 24-hour reception desk where we parked our bicycles. Our room was clean and had comfortable beds. The air-conditioning and television worked. There was hot water and good water pressure in the shower. The windows are double-glazed. There is a hot and cold water dispenser in the hallway.
The café is excellent too. We were in the café right after dropping our stuff off in our room. The menu is extensive. I had two ice-blended mango drinks and seafood fried rice. Brian had black pepper fried rice.
We walked around the block after a shower and a long nap. We didn’t see any interesting restaurants so we returned to the Harbour Café for dinner. I had another ice-blended mango drink and spaghetti carbonara. Brian had a fried chicken chop. That is a bit of his chicken chop on my plate of spaghetti. We had complimentary bowls of mushroom soup and a couple of hot chocolates each to finish our meal.
The double-glazing in our room meant we had a quiet night, despite the proximity to Federal Route 5. We planned to head out at 5:30 am. It was pouring at 5:00 am so we went back to bed. The next thing we knew it was 7:50 am and drizzling.
The hotel café opens at 10:30 am so we wandered outside for breakfast. We both had masala thosai at Restoran Salsabeel.
We pedalled away from the hotel clad in waterproof gear. I had planned to ride through the padi fields that Sekinchan is famous for. The fields are divided into rectangles by narrow roads. As you can see from the photograph at the top of this post and the one below, some are gravel.
Photograph courtesy of Google Street View
We skipped the wet muddy roads through the padi fields and stuck to Federal Route 5 out of Sekinchan. The drizzle lightened and we were getting hot. We were out of our rain gear after fifteen minutes.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
I felt much better than the day before. We made our first stop at the FIVE petrol station in Tanjung Karang. I was drinking more than usual, thanks to Brian reminding me to stay hydrated. I had finished one 750 ml bottle in less than 50 minutes. I needed a refill and a restroom.
Our next stop was at a sundry shop in a converted house in Taman Permai. We were 50 km into the ride and had stopped to stretch our legs. There were no mini-markets or small restaurants that we could see. We asked a woman who was walking past and she pointed across the road. We didn’t see the shop until a young girl directed us down a side street.
The shop was like Aladdin’s cave. Hidden away and full of all sorts. We bought water, chocolate milk and three types of nuts.
We left Taman Permai and turned right onto Jalan Bukit Kerayong. There was very little traffic and the road surface was smooth, albeit wet in places. That changed 4 km later after we passed the Worldwide Landfills Jeram site. Worldwide Landfills is a waste management company. The road ahead was a steady stream of dump trucks heading towards and leaving the site.
We turned a corner and the road changed abruptly from tarmac to mud. The road was being upgraded from two to four lanes. A 3 km stretch had been dug up and was being relaid. We were lucky there was a 1 km length of fresh tarmac that had not been opened to traffic yet. Although that just meant 2 km of muddy road instead of 3 km of muddy road. This photo is of the less sloppy last 500 metres we traversed. The worst was around the corner ahead of the trucks in the distance.
There was a lot of sand and mud on our bikes, legs and saddle packs.
We stopped for lunch at Nasi Kukus Sotong Besar on the north side of Klang because there were a lot of people there. We could have done better. The food was so-so. Brian fed most of his fried chicken to a stray dog. I didn’t finish my nasi lemak.
Our ride from our lunch stop to the Federal Highway was much less fraught than the ride in the opposite direction the day before. I plotted a slightly different return route through Klang. There was no toll plaza to avoid this time. We were on the Selat Klang Highway for about 2 km but that section was benign compared to what we rode the day before.
Our lunch was at 75 km. We had to stop at 87.5 km to hop over the guardrail back onto the motorcycle lane after riding 1.5 km on the Federal Highway. The motorcycle lane is closed where the UiTM Shah Alam LRT 3 station is being built. We stopped for a selfie after 97.5 km.
Photograph courtesy of Brian F
Brian exited the motorcycle lane 1 km later to head home. I had 14 km to go. I had to walk my bicycle at Dataran Merdeka. The 300-metre stretch in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad building was closed for the Malaysia Auto Fest 2024.
Photograph courtesy of hub media.my
3 km later I was home and feeling good. I had to make six rest stops in the last 50 km to Sekinchan. I needed just one stop for lunch and to rest my feet in 63 km on the return ride. There were no hints of, let alone actual cramps in my upper thigh adductor muscles. Unlike during and after long rides in the past. No doubt better hydration helped. Thank you Brian for reminding me to drink regularly.
The big discoveries of the trip for me are:
Not to take telmisartan before a long ride, and
The Harbour View Hotel
A long late afternoon nap and a rainy morning meant we didn’t ride to Sekinchan beach or through the padi fields. If we do return to Sekinchan we will probably stay at the Harbour View Hotel again. There are things on the café menu I want to try!
P.S. If you want to stay at the Harbour View Hotel, call and book directly with the hotel. You will get a better room rate than is offered online.
It started raining in the early hours and was still drizzling when I awoke. That validated our decision the night before not to ride in the morning.
Leena and Brian were up and out early to church for morning service. I went for a walk in the drizzle to look for breakfast.
Business was very slow at this stall.
I stopped at a much busier stall for nasi lemak with chicken rendang.
An hour later Brian was back from church and hungry. We returned to the same stall for his breakfast. The sun was out. It promised to be another hot and humid day.
I spent the day lazing in my room. I needed a respite from being out in hot weather.
It was cooling down at 5:00 pm. It looked like it might rain again. We headed out for an early dinner. Selera Bayu served us yummy food the night before. We went there again and ordered the same things, plus some batter-fried squid.
After dinner, we went across the road to Nyxel Coffee. Daniel didn’t have his canopy up because of the strong wind.
It was windy enough for kite-flying.
We spent another pleasant evening over coffee, watching the setting sun.
The threat of more rain in the morning convinced us to load our bikes into Leena’s car and have her drive us back to KL instead of cycling to Sungai Gadut KTM station to catch a train as originally planned.
We set off at 5:15 am to beat the commuter rush into Kuala Lumpur that starts from Seremban at about 6:15 am. Unlike my train plan on Day One, this plan worked. At 8:00 am we had driven 127 km, unloaded my bike and gear and ordered breakfast at Crema near where I live. An excellent ending to our adventure.
Postscript
My Route Werks Handlebar Bag QUOC x Restrap Sandals performed as expected. My Apidura Saddle Pack did not. During the ride on Day One, the seams at the tail end of the Pack gave way and a strap delaminated. Nothing fell out, but I put my clothes in a plastic bag before stuffing them into the pack on Day Two. By the end of Day Two, a seam further up the pack had failed and the tabs holding the bungee cord to the top of the pack had come unglued. The rubberised coating on the straps was also peeling.
The saddle pack had been in a cupboard since I used it five years ago. The adhesives and rubbers must have chemically deteriorated. Like most synthetics do in our tropical climate. I reported this to customer support at Apidura because I thought it would be useful for their Product team to know. To Apidura’s credit, I got a “thank you” for letting them know, and a discount code for a replacement saddle pack that is on its way to me now.
I’ll soon be ready for another bike-packing trip. Hopefully, the weather will be cooler.
We had a relaxed start. The hotel breakfast buffet started at 7:30 am. We had seconds. That was not the best idea. By the time we clipped in the sun was bright and the temperature was 28ºC (82ºF).
In 10 km we were on the ferry across the Sungai Pelek. Then it was 80 km to Pantai Pengkalan Balak.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
We made the stops we always make on rides down the coast. After taking the ferry across the Sungai Sepang we stopped at the Shell station north of Lukut for drinks and the restroom. Where we saw this new addition. A reconditioned Japanese vending machine.
I didn’t use the vending machine. I bought my usual chocolate milk from the station convenience shop. We also bought water. I had underhydrated the day before and did not want to make the same mistake.
The McDonald’s at Port Dickson Waterfront for an early lunch is another regular stop. It drizzled while we were inside but the drizzle stopped when we got on our bikes.
Any hopes we had of an overcast and cool afternoon were not realised. The temperatures south of Port Dickson were as hot as we experienced on the way to Bagan Lalang.
Graphic courtesy of visualcrossing.com
A second day of ‘Feels Max’ of 39ºC was not much fun. We had ridden about 25 km from the Port Dickson Waterfront. We were just 1.5 km from the Five Petroleum station in Pasir Panjang but it was so hot we had to stop here to cool down for fifteen minutes.
At 2:30 pm we crossed the Sungai Linggi, the border between Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. We had about 18 km to our hotel.
Half of that 18 km was along the beach. The view took our minds off the heat.
Photograph courtesy of Google Street View
We stayed at the Kampong Pinang Sebatang Chalets across the road from the beach.
Checking in proved to be a challenge. Reservations at Kampong Pinang Sebatang Chalets are filed by booking number rather than name. My mobile phone had run out of power. I couldn’t access the online booking number. My booking was found eventually and we hauled our bicycles up a flight of stairs to our first-floor rooms.
The balcony and blazing sun came in useful for drying my freshly-washed kit.
There are tiles everywhere. Tiled floors and steps are a distinguishing feature of homes in Malacca.
Brian and I were looking forward to a dip like we had at Hotel Seri Malaysia the day before. The kid’s mini pool at Kampong Pinang Sebatang Chalets was too small and not very clean.
The alternative was the Jacuzzis outside our rooms.
Sitting in the Jacuzzis outside our rooms just seemed weird to us. We passed on a soak.
We walked to a nearby restaurant for an early dinner instead. Leena joined us, having driven down to meet us at the hotel. The seafood fried rice and the rice with turmeric fried beef hit the spot. After dinner, we crossed the road for a coffee.
Danial, the 20-year-old owner and operator of Nyxel Coffee, impressed us. Entrepreneurial, resourceful and mature beyond his years. His coffee is good, too.
An example of his enterprising nature: he noticed people kept borrowing his camp chair to sit on the beach. So he bought a bunch of camp chairs and some tables to rent out for RM10 each.
Customers sit in his camp chairs for free. We spent a few hours chatting to Daniel over coffee and iced chocolate. He stays open until past midnight. I needed my bed well before then.
The last time I bike-packed was in December 2019. Six of us, including Brian, rode to Port Dickson and back the next day.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
This time Brian and I went on a four-day trip. For the first time, I used two pieces of kit I had bought specifically for bike-packing.
Photographs courtesy of image delivery.net and QOUC.cc
I bought the Route Werks Handlebar Bag in November 2020 and the QUOC x Restrap Sandals in May 2023. Most handlebar bags occupy the space on the handlebar where a Garmin Out-Front mount fits. The Handlebar Bag comes with an add-on stub (shown top right in the photograph above) that fits on the side of the bag. I can attach the Out-Front mount to the stub. That lets me use my UT800 headlight unimpeded. My Garmin Edge clicks into the mount on the lid of the bag.
The differentiator of the QUOC x Restrap sandals is that the centre straps can be reconfigured to hold the sandals on either side of a saddle pack.
You can see an Out-Front mount attached to a stub on the right side of the handlebar bag, my Garmin Edge on the lid, and the QUOC sandals strapped to my saddle pack.
The photograph above was taken on a KTM Komuter train. I caught the 6:54 am train at Putra station. The plan was to meet Brian at 7:20 am at Petaling station— five stations and twenty-six minutes away.
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry” is a line from the 1785 Scots-language poem To a Mouse by Robert Burns. That is what happened to my plan. My train made two unscheduled stops between stations and a long stop at Sentral station. It took almost an hour to get to Petaling station.
It started to rain en route. Brian wisely decided to serve breakfast at his apartment, adjacent to Petaling station, while we waited for the rain to stop.
Photograph courtesy of Brian
We supplemented the bread, butter and jam with some excellent nasi lemak from a small stall outside his apartment building.
The rain had lightened to a drizzle by 9:00 am. Clad in rain gear, we headed out to cycle to Bagan Lalang.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
Thirty minutes later the drizzle had stopped and our rain gear had to come off. We were overheating. That was a harbinger of things to come.
By 10:30 am we had ridden through Kota Kemuning and were at the traffic light at the entrance to Rimbayu. The light turned green and I pedalled away. Seconds later a car bumper brushed against my right ankle. I looked over at a driver, focussed on the mobile phone he was holding up in front of him. He hadn’t realised that he had run into me. “Stop looking at your 💩🧨💥 phone while you are driving” is one of the more polite things I shouted at him.
It was a good time to take a break. 7 km down the road we came upon the Toli-Toli Backyard Café. Like the other new buildings we passed after crossing the South Klang Valley Expressway, the café was not there the last time I cycled from Rimbayu to Jenjarom in January 2023.
We enjoyed Toli-Toli’s teh tarik, kaya toast and air-conditioning. It was 11:45 am when we left Toli-Toli. It was already getting hot.
It got hotter as the afternoon wore on. Our route was along quieter rural roads so we didn’t have to deal with traffic. The downside was that we didn’t have much shade to deal with either. These were the temperatures for Tanjong Sepat and Bagan Lalang. That ‘Feels Max’ of 39ºC is 102ºF. It felt every degree that hot.
Graphic courtesy of visualcrossing.com
I was cooked when we got to the Seri Malaysia Hotel in Bagan Lalang. It was all I could do to down two large iced lychees and nap for an hour before I did anything else. Take a shower. And go for a swim. When I made the room reservation the hotel swimming pool was a selling point.
Photograph courtesy of Hotel Seri Malaysia
Refreshed, we took a walk to the beach.
Dinner was at a ‘pick your own seafood’ restaurant. You fill a basket with your choice of freshly caught fish, prawns and squid and tell the staff how you want it cooked.
This group hadn’t cycled together in a long time. I was excited to join them on a ride to Kundang.
Photograph courtesy of KBS
A few kilometres into the ride my left foot started wobbling. It felt like either the Speedplay cleat was loose on my shoe or a float adjustment screw had unwound.
At 6 km my left crank arm, attached to my shoe by the pedal, came off the axle. I spent a minute trying to reattach the crank arm, to no avail. Not having the tool I needed, a 10mm hex key, didn’t help.
Later I realised that having the right-sized hex key would not have helped. The self-extracting bolt on my SRAM crankset had snapped.
Photograph courtesy of singletrackworld.com
I had a single-leg workout to get back to the car park. Left crank arm in hand. With the additional need to apply an inward force to stop the chainring from moving outward and disengaging from the chain.
Photograph courtesy of ML
Fortunately, the 6 km back to the start was mostly downhill. ML was with me and provided a very helpful push on the inclines. I did have to walk up the hill at the 9 km point.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
It was lucky we were only 6 km from the start when the crank arm came off.
Over to my LBS to get a replacement self-extracting crank bolt.
Everyone who wanted breakfast was at Kedai Kopi Jalan Pasar, across the road from the hotel, at 6:45 am.
Photograph courtesy of Google Maps
Not only is the location convenient, but the wan tan noodles are good too.
Photograph courtesy of ML
We loaded our bags into the Ativa, took a “Ready to Roll” photograph, and headed out to ride in reverse the roads we came in on yesterday.
Photograph courtesy of THL
The sky was relatively clear as we rode out of Teluk Intan. I don’t think I was the only one hoping more clouds would roll in.
Photograph courtesy of VV
There was more cloud cover an hour later but it was still sunny enough for us to need a stop in the shade at the fruit stalls and Kuala Bikam.
Photograph courtesy of VV
The humidity was 95%. I was sweating profusely. I was not the only one. Everyone was happy to stop at the first roadside restaurant we saw after riding through Sungkai. Kedai Makan Sri Bakti was out of roti canai. An unexpected breakfast crowd heading to an event at a nearby school ate them all. Nasi lemak and fried eggs were still available.
Photograph courtesy of GK
We were at the Slim River Petronas station at 10:50 am. We spent twenty minutes sitting at the small table in air-conditioned comfort, sipping our drinks. We were 23 km from the Tanjung Malim KTM station. We had plenty of time before the 12:40 pm train.
We were lucky with the weather on both days. The sky was overcast most of the time. When the sun broke through the clouds, the temperature never exceeded 32º C. The humidity and the increasingly rolling terrain still pushed my heart rate from 88 bpm when we left Slim River to 148 bpm six kilometres later. The others were feeling it too. We were happy for another break in a Tea Live at Behrang Residen.
Photograph courtesy of GK
I needed that large Signature Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea.
Photograph courtesy of tealive.com.my
We arrived at the KTM station at 12:32 pm. The 12:40 pm train was delayed so we had time to cool down and relax.
Photograph courtesy of VV
When the train did pull into the station I realised that we were at the wrong end of the platform to board car 6, the rearmost carriage on the train. A security officer and the train’s conductor told me off for riding my bike to the other end of the platform. The upside was that the conductor assured us that trains would wait for us to board before the carriage doors were closed. That is good to know.
The last five rides have been with the R@SKLs, most recently in January 2022. It was time for another udang galah dinner (giant river prawn) ride.
We chose the weekend of 5th and 6th September. I later learned that this was KL Standard Chartered Marathon weekend. The 10 km route circled where I live. My greatest challenge was crossing Jalan Sultan Ismail through a sea of runners.
Photograph courtesy of Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon
The decision to have a water station at the Medan Tuanku monorail station made it impossible for me to cross the road there. I rode along the pavement and on the parallel Jalan Medan Tuanku 1 until there was nothing else to do but jog along with the runners, edging myself and my bike through the crowd and across Jalan Sultan Ismail.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
This message greeted me at the entrance to Putra KTM station. Point taken.
Photograph courtesy of GK
All present.
Photograph courtesy of THL
Train number 2023 arrived on time and we were on our way. The two cyclists behind us boarded at Rawang. They would get off at Kuala Kubu Bharu station to ride up Fraser’s Hill.
Photograph courtesy of WWK
We were at Tanjung Malim station 73 minutes after leaving Putra station.
Photograph courtesy of THL
We were on our way after some food and drink at Restoran Hijas. About 85 km lay between us and Teluk Intan.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
After 12 km we rode up to a group of RELA (Malaysia Volunteers Corps) personnel directing traffic. We were not sure about what was going on at first. Then we saw the finisher’s gantry ahead. Complete with cameramen, videographers, and people waving flags and cheering. All expecting that we were the lead group of bike racers. I am sure they were all disappointed. TH and I made the best of it by crossing the line with arms aloft!
G looked online and found out what the event was.
Image courtesy of Politeknik Sultan Azlan Shah
At most one kilometre later TH had a puncture. The only flat tire over the two days.
Photograph courtesy of VV
Three of us helped with the inner tube replacement while the rest of us admired this traditional kampung house.
Photograph courtesy of VV
It was cloudy and cool, but very humid. We needed regular stops to take on fluid. Which meant frequent restroom stops as well. The Petron station in Slim River is distinguished by the painted wall on the building behind the station. We can count on V to notice these things.
Photograph courtesy of VV
We also stopped at the larger Petron station in Trolak to buy more drinks.
Photograph courtesy of VV
56 km into the ride is Kuala Bikam. Noted for a group of stalls selling fruit from the orchards surrounding the village. Pomelos, papayas, mangoes, bananas, watermelons, pineapples, jambu air (rose apples), guavas, mangosteens, durians, dragonfruit, soursop. The list goes on.
Photograph courtesy of ML
The sun broke through the clouds and the temperature jumped by 2º C. Ice creams at the 99 Speedmart in Taman Okid provided a welcome relief. The cloud cover rolled in again too.
Photograph courtesy of VV
We made one more restroom stop before we got to the Yew Boutique Hotel. Seconds before it started raining.
Photograph courtesy of VV
We hung out in the hotel lounge drinking our complimentary drinks while waiting for my Biker Chick to arrive with our bags. We had our bags ten minutes later. Everyone stayed while J walked in the rain to buy that famous Teluk Intan chee cheong fun. He came back with the last two pieces available. We supplemented that with orders from the hotel café. They have expanded their menu since the last time I stayed there. Just a snack though.
Then it was showers, naps and massages before meeting at 6:30 pm for dinner. It was still raining, so six of us squeezed into the Ativa for the short drive to Restoran d’Tepian Sungai. The two others met us at the restaurant.
Our food had been pre-ordered. Two udang galah dishes, sweet and sour fish, fried squid, omelette and mixed fried vegetables.
We made short work of the dishes before us. When the dust settled, there was nothing but rice left.
Photograph courtesy of VV
The rain was still falling after we finished eating. We grabbed umbrellas from the car, took this photograph on the bank of the Perak River, and walked through the night market to Teluk Intan’s landmark building.
Photograph courtesy of VV
The night market was filled with food vendors. V bought us all crispy apam balik (peanut-filled pancakes).
Photograph courtesy of Apam Balik Crispy Sepang
The Menara Chondong (Leaning Tower) was built in 1885 to store water and to display the time. The soft ground on which it was built as well as the weight of the water in the water tank caused it to lean towards the southwest.
Photograph courtesy of ML
We strolled back to the hotel, chatted for a while in the lounge, and then hit our beds. We planned a 6:45 am meet up for breakfast.
A Bicycling Magazine article titled The Average Cycling Distance By Age, According to Popular Cycling Apps popped up in one of my newsfeeds the other day. The article lists, among other things, how far users of Ride with GPS have cycled per ride over the past five years. Articles like this are catnip for me. I have to look up my average distance per ride data to see how I compare.
I use a Garmin cycling computer to record my ride data. The Garmin Connect software sends that data to Strava. Apparently, if it is not on Strava, the ride didn’t happen! Strava is an excellent social-purpose app, but extracting data from Strava for analysis is not straightforward. I use VeloViewer for a month-by-month or annual view of my ride data.
Veloviewer presents summary data in several ways. This Infographic shows the Total Ride Distance for a chosen year. I use Active Days as the proxy for the number of rides I did that year. You can see how much less I cycled last year compared to 2019.
This chart combines the average distance data from the Bicycling Magazine article and the average speed data from the TrainerRoad article.
I compare well to the average distance for my age group. I was 62 in 2109 so I have been in the 60-69 bracket for the past five years. My five-year average distance per ride is 55.10 km
My average distance per ride is dropping by the year though. That figure so far in 2024 is 40.98 km. Still reasonably above the 35.20 km average distance per ride for my age group in the Ride with GPS data.
I don’t compare so well against the Trainer Road average speed per ride data. My age group averaged 22.6 kph per ride in 2023. I averaged 21.3 kph. Like my average distance, my average speed has been falling since 2019.
My five-year average speed per ride is 22.7 kph. A whisker above the 2023 Trainer Road speed-per-ride average for my age group. I suspect the Trainer Road data has stayed consistent over the years. I have fallen behind that average since 2021.
I get an ego boost when I equal or exceed performance statistics like these.
I am also reminded that I have a lot to be grateful for. Being healthy and fit enough to ride my bicycle is a blessing. In an average way or otherwise.
In the Strava report the age groups are separated by generation rather than by ten-year periods. I look quite good against the other Boomers in that Strava report.
A grimpeur is a climbing specialist. A lightweight cyclist who can ride especially well up inclines. I am not one of those. I am more Magnus Backstedt, a retired professional cyclist who raced weighing 95 kg (209 lb), than Tadej Pogačar, who won this year’s Tour de France weighing 66 kg (146 lb).
Perhaps fortuitously, I started road cycling in Houston. A city where the only climbs are on overpasses.
Map courtesy of en-gb.topographic-map.com
This topographic map shows just how flat Houston and the surrounding area are. I hadn’t realised that Commerce Towers, where I lived in Houston, is in the highest part of the city, at 46 m (151 ft) above sea level. It is downhill from there to West End Bicycles where my group rides started. Doña Maria, our Sunday destination for breakfast tacos, is even lower.
You must drive about 48 km (30 mi) west to Katy and onward another 43 km (27 mi) to Bellville (elevation 92 m) to do any hill cycling.
I moved from Houston to Den Haag. Another city not noted for hills. Much of the surrounding area is below sea level.
Map courtesy of en-gb.topographic-map.com
I lived on Van Hougenhoucklaan which is 5 m (16 ft) above sea level. The sand dunes to the west are a natural form of coastal defence. They form the highest parts of the west of the country. You go 43 km (27 mi) east to Ruiterberg to find land twice as high as Noordwijk. Or 170 km (106 mi) south to Valkenberg which sits at 137 m (450 ft) above sea level.
I moved back to Kuala Lumpur after two years of pan-flat cycling in the western Netherlands.
Map courtesy of en-gb.topographic-map.com
My first ride in Malaysia was to Genting Sempah which is 637 m (2,090 ft) above sea level. That was a shock to my system.
I don’t have to go far from home to find a hill. Bukit Damansara is 6 km (4 mi) west of Anggun Residences. I climb 80 m (262 ft) to get there. Higher climbs lie to the east. Anything from 158 m (518 ft) above sea level to 500 m (1,640 ft) above sea level.
The terrain to the west isn’t as high, but it is rolling. An 18.7 km (11.6 mi) ride along the Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE) can include 361 m (1,184 ft) of climbing as you cycle up and down between 16 m (52 ft) and 70 m (230 ft) above sea level.
Map courtesy of ridewithgps.com
I can’t avoid hills, especially if I start riding from home. Climbing is hard work. In my case, the effort is worth it. I enjoy the payoff a lot.
Old Roots, New Routes 