The very delayed race at NTU (originally scheduled for 13 Oct ) was held at a time when a lot of guys already called it a season and are either resting or preparing for the new season. I went there to support my riding teammates, the Team Ascenders people, except the main climber had pushed his work commitments once too many times and with the new changes in schedule, he decided he was going overseas for work. Thus the team went without much expectations except to finish the 18 laps of riding around the hilly NTU.

Loaded with two pieces of Gardenia bread in the morning, I set off with a very heavy bag to Inglewood just down the road to take a lift from a fellow cyclist. Two bottles of extra 100 Plus plus my own drinks formed most of the weight in the bag. Add cycling shoes, change of clothings, tools and spares, and it was truly packed. After stacking up the bikes, and nicely using cardboard and black masking tape to keep the bikes stable as well as avoiding scratches, I think I've truly learnt well from the master stacker, Hairul (yes, I didn't forget lube and rags either). Had learnt a lot from him in our previous trips so I thought I stacked up the bike pretty well. In any case, we got all three bikes through to NTU without any of them falling off, and the rack was one without straps.

After unloading the bikes at NTU, we got off to registering and had time for a short ride around. I didn't feel good at all; even spinning around the starting area got my heartrate up to 150 plus, which was high already, and my legs are still feeling rather heavy, not to mention a bit breathless. Going up a hill was worse, pushing my heartrate all the way up. I just hope I had enough left in me to keep up with the group and at the very least, finish the 66km of ride. Someone got the incorrect information that there were only 9 persons starting in the Sports Category (there were 8 prizes so if there were only 9 of us... it won't be too difficult, not to mention everyone will prob not be pushing).

Esther came soon after and registered, then came back with a slightly deflated tire. Slow leak puncture... but she was riding 650c wheels and none of us carried spares for those. Another lesson learnt - 650c tires are not legal for UCI races. Well... at least she got the aerobars off the bike. In any case we tried pumping the tires up and that seemed to work. Hopefully it will last for her full 8 laps of riding. Her category had only two women riding; a third ang mo lady, most likely from ANZA, was too late to sign up but she didn't look like much competition. Kerrie and some of the other strong ANZA ladies were missing. So it's down to Sarah Lim and Esther, a sure-win situation. But when their race started, Sarah sucked on Esther's wheels right from the beginning and stayed there. A few of us were like... what the heck?! By the fourth lap, I started indicating to Esther that she should switch turns to pull. Some of the more overzealous guys started shouting more advise too. Don't know what happened but after that on the next lap Sarah came by alone. A while later, Esther came by and apparently her slow leak had gone into action, and she was running low PSI on her tires now. Guess it was best to just take it easy (fortunately it was not a full blown) and bring the bike home to take second place. Another lap and she was still okay then another lady came back and offered her bike to Esther, who then finished. Second placings, but she was going off soon.

My race was with the Sports and Open category - Open will start one min earlier. Apparently there were more than 9 in the Sports category, as we counted almost 20 people. Team Ascenders had four of us racing in the category including myself and things started well but going up the hills was terrible. Made it through one lap. I guess most of them just conserved before the big two-in-a-row hill climb and kinda slowed down at the road leading there but I much prefer a consistent ride so I came from the back of the group on the second lap and went up to see who was holding up the line... oops, apparently my team leader and another team mate. But now I had too much speed already and cruising, I passed them then decided to continue pedalling at an easy pace, only to find that nobody had followed me! I put on full gas and went up both hill at maximal effort, cruising down the long downhill at maximal speed also. I don't know if this was the lap where I hit my maximum speed but later on after the race, I was to find my max speed to be 66.5kmh - my personal max also on the bike. I turned back and still nobody, so I decided to make a break for it. Another lap, and still nobody... but by now I'm running out of fuel fast. This is going super-maximal effort and not sustainable. Still, I kept it up for as long as I could, but then I saw the group coming up fast and having been caught, I didn't attempt to push much anymore. Thus ended my two laps of fun! After this I was really really tired and tried to just keep up with the group. At one point I downshifted two gears accidentally while going up the steepest part and standing up, and almost slipped, veering very dangerously but fortunately my teammate behind me managed to avoid and everyone got past and I was still on the bike. Started noticing one teammate out... then another!! On the 10th lap I made another half-hearted break and got caught almost before one corner has ended, then someone else decided to make a break for it (later was to find out that it was Woon Lip) and he got caught too, but the pace had moved up so much that I got dropped.

In a way that was better for me, as I didn't think I could keep up with the group any more on the steepest part of the climb. Instead I just took it with my usual steady state pushing, not too hard going up, but steadily going down. Fazdli, or Ah Boy as he was known, was dropped soon too, and I managed to pull my way up to him. Having no more teammates to work for, I decided to help him and let him get on my wheel but I was surprised when I look back and he was nowhere to be found. His Polygon teammate was just ahead and I was hoping to pull him back to him then we work together. Eventually I managed to steadily pull up to his teammate and we took turns drafting, although again, I dropped him at the same spot just outside Hall 5. This was the spot which I had trouble figuring out earlier when recceing the race route because I found myself lacking in speed here. Apparently I had found the correct gearings to go past, to still be moving at 38-40kmh but apparently that tends to drop those following me. Turn back to check just prior to the left corner and normally there will be no one behind at this point.

From here it was just one long time trial to get myself to the end point. In a way just keep on going and not giving up (okay, I had this fantasy that I could still catch up to the front group) meant that I kept on overtaking people who got dropped by the first group. Working almost along for the last eight laps was excruiciating, and I almost gave up with three laps to go when I had zero, empty, nada inside me to go on... but thoughts of Ironman and how other people can do 180km while I have only done 60km kept me from giving up and getting off the bike. I was breathing so hard and grunting so much that everyone I passed will give me that look. But I kept on at the constant pace... but succumbed to using the lower gears on the steepest climb by now. And I kept passing people. No one else passed me except the Open category people. Well, the clouds did not turn black - that kinda stuffs you will only see in the Tour de France but I was delirious and lost track of what I was doing a lot of times. This was especially dangerous coz I'd forget about the two grills that we had to avoid and going downhill at 60kmh means I have to keep focused on the road ahead, more so because I am now using BOTH sides of the road to keep the speed going. My shifters also started giving problems three laps from the end point, and I had problems moving it beyond the 15'th gear to 11'th which was perfect for my descent..

One lap from the finish I just thought of getting off and stay there, but it's so close now, so I just went at the slowest speed I could without falling off, smallest gearing going up, and I have used up just about everything left. There was another rider just in front of me but I think he was going for the homerun too (either that or he had one more lap) but I not only couldn't be bothered but simply couldn't catch up to him. Took the descent rather safely coz my eyes were too hazy and my mind was hazier and just wanted to bring the bike home. Got into my now distinctive climb-in-the-drops pose (no one else seems to do that) and took it past the finishing line.

Phew! Phototakings and collected Esther's second prize medal as she had gone off already, then surprisingly one of the guys I passed got 8th placing so... I got 7th. Looks like there were no more than 6 people left in the first group and I was rather pleased not to have given up earlier. HR monitors showed one of my highest heartrates achieved in this ride, with a total ascent of 880m - almost the same ascent as a single way Bintan trip!!

Oh yeah, I still rode back with team leader in the rain because car was packed; no more room for bikes.  Had lunch at 3pm with team leader at Holland Village market, very big chicken rice.  Felt energy returning even as I rode back home.  After we splitted, I went for a time trial back home.  The Continental GP3000 tires I had were fantastic; they are very very grippy - not good if you're trying for the best time but in the hill and rain, they work very well.  I was going up to 50kmh along the Adams/Lornie Rd back home, drafted by the cars, but not taking any unnecessary risks with the wet road.  Still, the tires made me feel very comfortable riding at such speeds.  Felt like they'd hold on to anything!

Did not wash the bike until a lot later, but had to because of the rain, plus I might not be riding till the end of the week.  Planned to go swim but rain got heavier, and then I had to go settle some stuffs already.  So didn't get to swim in the end.  Today the arms felt super tired, like I just finished a 3km swim so it was good that I've been swimming and building up those triceps, if not dunno how I'd gone through the race.