A fully supported cycling event typically takes place on closed roads, with the organiser providing water and food stops, medical support, mechanical assistance, and ride marshals to ensure safe riding conditions. These events often include a t-shirt or jersey, as well as a finisher’s medal. All for an entry fee, of course.
My first fully supported cycling event was the Humble Lions Club Ride in Houston in 2010. That was followed by the likes of the Gator Ride and the Space Race before I moved to the Netherlands and rode in events like the Gerrie Knetemann Classic and the Joop Zoetemelk Classic in 2011 and the Amstel Gold Race in 2012.
Gerrie Knetemann won the 1978 World Road Race Championship. Joop Zoetemelk won the Tour de France in 1980 and was World Road Race Champion in 1985.
I continued to participate in organised events after I returned to Malaysia in 2013. There was at least one event, usually 160 km long, per month. Each event offered the usual support – closed roads, water and food stops, ride marshals, and usually included a jersey and a finisher’s medal in the entry fee.
2016 was a watershed year for organised rides in Malaysia. For two reasons. That was the year that a ride organiser absconded with the entry fees collected from about 3,000 cyclists who had planned to ride in the Melaka International Century Ride. That ride was cancelled. To rub salt in the wound, many who registered for the event were liable for hotel and travel costs in addition to the lost entry fee.
My R@SKLs friends and I had non-refundable hotel reservations, so we spent the weekend in Melaka anyway. Click this link to read about The Replacement Melaka Century Ride 2016.
Unsurprisingly, cyclists were hesitant to pay in advance for events after the 2016 Melaka Century Ride fiasco. Organisers with a history of annual events, such as the Campaign for a Lane ride in Penang and the Janamanjung ride in Manjung, and events backed by a large organisation like a bank or a newspaper, continued to attract participants. First-time organisers fell by the wayside, so the total number of fully-supported events dropped in the following years.
2016 was also the year that Audax Randonneurs Malaysia (ARM) started organising official Brevets de Randonneurs Mondiaux (BRM) events in Malaysia. BRMs are long-distance events that require riders to complete a set route within a specific time limit. As the number of fully-supported events decreased, ARM went from organising two BRMs in 2016 to twelve BRMs in 2019.
BRMs differ from more traditional organised rides in two ways. The first is that BRMs are self-supported. There are no food and water stops, and no ride marshals to control traffic and to provide mechanical assistance.
The second is that BRM participants do not get free jerseys and medals. If you want a jersey or a medal, you pay extra. As a result, the entry fees for BRMs are lower than those for fully supported rides.
The requirement that each BRM rider must be self-sufficient, with personal support allowed only at checkpoints, makes BRMs less appealing to many recreational cyclists. I am not one of those. I have a few BRM medals. You would pay for one too after riding 200 km or more 😄.
Fully supported events might have made a comeback once cyclists forgot about what happened in 2016. But then COVID-19 happened. The Malaysian government imposed a series of Movement Control Orders (MCOs) from March 2020 until May 2022. These orders restricted movement and assembly, closed businesses and institutions, and limited national and international travel.Â
ARM continued to organise BRMs whenever the MCOs allowed. There were nine BRMs in 2020, eight in 2021 and 13 in 2022. In fact, BRMs were the only option then if you wanted to participate in an organised ride with a planned route. Even long-running events like the LEKAS Highway ride, whose first iteration was in 2013, were cancelled in 2020 and 2021.
By 2024, fully supported rides were returning in the form of the long-standing LEKAS Highway ride and OCBC Cycle Malaysia, as well as new events like L’Etape Melaka and GFNY Kuala Lumpur.
2025 appears to confirm the return of the fully-supported cycling event. I found at least eight, scattered throughout the year and around the country. Some friends and I did one of these rides in August, and we have signed up for another in November.
ARM is still going strong. There are twelve BRMs on the 2025 ARM calendar. Long-distance cyclists have a lot of choice again after a long dry spell.
Some friends and I have already signed up for ARM’s first offering in 2026.
Now, if only I could get all of the old crew back on their bicycles . . .
Old Roots, New Routes 