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Thursday, 19 August 2010 13:35 administrator

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 August 2010 13:37

Ipoh Century Ride 2010

Wednesday, 04 August 2010 13:02 Tough Cookie Eliza

Oh what a ride it has been!! First thing first, I've NEVER ridden over 100km in one go and the longest training ride prior to this was the Joyriders Fraser/Genting trip end June, which was just slightly over 100km over3 days, most of which were downhills... hahaha... So why do it? you may ask...

Honestly, the biggest attraction of the ride is the Ipoh HorFun and all the other good food there. Traveling as a group for such events is a fun thing too, plus cycling in Malaysia is such a nice experience. It's also a personal challenge to complete the ride.

We (15 of us) left for Ipoh on Sat, an 8 hour journey with only 1 makan stop at Yong Peng. So you can imagine how famished we were when we got to the hotel!! After the usual race pack collection and briefing, a few of us (Snail Queen included) made a quick dash for our chicken and hor fun fix. That was soooo satisfying!! Then straight for dinner after that quick-fix. Strategy for the next day's ride were dished out by Joyce, along with our dinner.

Buses and trucks were organized to take us from our hotel to Bukit Kinding Resort, the start of the ride, about 12km away. We were flagged-off at 7am, rolling start at about 5.75km. I stayed at the back since I get a little nervous when I'm in a pack. So I was at the back of the pack all the way. My first immediate goal was to get to the checkpoint at 80km before the cut-off at 11am. It was a nice cloudy/shaded ride for this first half. The route was undulating but nice. There was even a bike lane in one of the areas, I think it's Kuala Kangsar. Riding past villages & forests, with kids waving and high-five-ing, it made for a nice Sunday ride. Yeah I did manage to get to the checkpoint with about 40mins to spare, quite pleased with myself actually :)

The story after the checkpoint is quite different, that’s where the big hills were!! *gasp*... it was a nice feeling to freewheel downhill after huffing and puffing all the way to the top, but all too soon I had to huff and puff again. That went on for eternity!! My speedo was single digit on some hills. Boy was I glad to see the 3rd pit-stop!! btw, all their pit-stops were so well stocked, you can almost have a buffet there. There were donuts, cakes, bananas, nasi lemak in addition to the drinks and sponges. Very nice!! You could also stop and buy durian along the route too.

The last stretch of the ride took beyond eternity. It didn’t help when you see riders who were behind you given a push by some guys on motorbikes. Sigh! a few more notches south in my position. Maybe those riders were rushing for the awards lunch... haha... I was just so very happy to finish the ride :)

Here's some stories of our fellow Joyriders:

Super Duper Christina retained her title (hey Chris, u got lungs like Lance I think)
Aviva Peter and Janine Hope came in 3rd in their respective categories (was told Janine was having a chat near the finish, thus lost the2nd place)
Snail Queen Joyce was 7th in the Ladies Category. Lost the pack after her chain dropped and couldn't catch up after that. Still fantastic effort!!
SeeDoubleYou Choonwei did a fantastic job with controlling the pace of the peleton. Came in 19th overall in his category. Did a great job with organizing the trip. Many Thanks!
Tom Sherry had an accident but was able to get back on the saddle and rejoined the peleton. If you saw the pictures of the injuries, you would think he got into a fist fight with someone.
Sandy Sherry also completed the longest ride of her life. Well Done!!
Brandon was chased by a dog. We guess it was a bitch...hahaha
Ricardo didn't have a good outing :( ... Started with a snoring roomie, then crashed on the course which caused a crack on the bike. Now he has to write-off his carbon Cervelo... *ouch!*
Fast Flat Chris did his first road race!
Jean-Marc Boudreau aka JM - first time riding in a peloton and enjoyed it so much that he said he will do this again!

Overall, it was a great outing for me. The event was well organised and it was very nice of them to give recognition to the different riding groups. Joyriders was presented with a nice trophy :)

- - Butt-sore-no-more Tough Cookie Eliza :)

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:09

Sirkit Muar Road Race - the Lanterne Rouge story

Sunday, 08 August 2010 12:12 Hot Sauce Lisze

Ahhh... But what the queen has omitted to say (earlier)was she was hoping to be stranded for the nite in Johore with the Hunk and the Monster... hehe. But alas, they showed up just as the bus was about to leave... and so thequeen’s "Little Bo Peep" fantasy goes up in smoke!
Here's the account of the rest of the day's events fromthe back of the peleton....
When we arrived by coach in Muar it had just stoppedraining. The weather was cool and breezy - perfect for the ride. Unfortunately,looking around, Winnie, Eve and I realized we were like the accidentaltourists(or cyclists in this case) in a race where the women were in the leagueof hard-core cyclists like Malaysia's national team, Super Duper Christina andJoyce the Super-fast Snail! All thanks to Winnie who persuaded us to go alongwith her so that she could "get away from the kids for a day" :-(ToldWinnie the next time she feels like that we'll go to a spa!
We started the race already disadvantaged as we were yakkingtoo much and hanging too far back that we were slow to react to theannouncement to start (which was in Bahasa). By the time we realized that thegroup was getting away, we had to pedal furiously to catch up... but it was toolate. The gap just kept increasing. It did not help that the terrain gotundulating very quickly - not our favourite terrain - we do better on runway-flatroads, 24k TTT races hehe, remember? Around the 7th km or so, my legs werealready crying "help!' as we strained up yet another steep slope, making alast-ditched attempt to catch up with the tail end of the peleton. Then, as Iwas despairing over the next 73km ahead, I suddenly felt my saddle give wayunder me! My saddle had come off from the seatpost completely -I don't knowhow. But to be completely honest, my first thought was "phew, I can hop onthe support lorry"! Unfortunately my dear friends insisted on waiting forme to re-fix my saddle and ride the rest of the way together, so I couldn’texactly let them down.
So ten minutes later (yes, we women are worse at fixingsaddles than light bulbs), with no hope of ever catching sight of the peleton again,Winnie, Eve and I continued to plow along, facing one arduous ascent afteranother. The first 45km was just one long climb after another - or at leastthat's what it looked like to me. Thank God the last 35km was mostly flat, butby then we were so spent we could only chug along at about 32kmh.
At least we were treated like VIPs - we had 2 escortmotorcycles and the support lorry on our heels - who were no doubt wonderingwhat these three Ah Lians were doing in a bike race, wanted to make sure we didnot ride off to Kota Tinggi or somewhere remote. At one point we even hadtwo additional police escorts on motorbikes. One of them came up beside me andasked, "You all last ah?", to which I quickly replied "Yaw, mybicycle got problem lah". He then looked at me skeptically and asked,"Where you from ah?". I thought for a second and replied, "Ah,Japan" (sorry Mika!), and quickly rode away from him! Hmmm... now thinkingmaybe we’d attracted all the escorts - that's why no one was there to make sureHunk and Monster stayed on the route! Sorry guys!
Anyway, almost 3 hours later and ready to kiss the groundat the finish line, we completed our 80km, very thankful and completely exhausted.It was certainly an experience I would not want (or dare) to repeat anytimesoon, but we did have a lot of fun on the trip - including constantentertainment by Kona James on the bus (especially after the bus driver’ssudden braking caused some of his sandwiches to go flying!), Snail Queen’sLittle Bo Peep fantasy, and hanging out and stuffing our faces at the coffeeshop while waiting for Hunk and Monster to be found.
Thanks once again, Joyce, for the well-organised and funtrip!

Cheers!
- Hot SauceLisze

Last Updated on Sunday, 08 August 2010 12:19

Road Race Tournament - Sirkit Muar Johor

Sunday, 08 August 2010 12:02 Snail Queen

We never had so much DRAMA @ JoyRiders trips!

First of all, 7 JoyRiders winning the top 10 medals in the same category is something we are very proud of! Well-done boys! Congratulations!

Thunderbird Bergtor – 3rd
Aviva Peter Hope – 5th
Pirate Pilate Michel Velasco – 6th
Tom Sherry – 7th
Robert `Godzilla' (new nickname!) – 8th
Jetset James Webb – 9th
New member - Hunk El Presidente Dan – 10th

Hunk El Presidente Dan & Hunk Buaya Max just joined us like after Ipoh Century Ride on Aug 1st the week before, and both of them are making headlines @ JoyRiders!

Hunk Buaya Max and Honey Monster Joseph both got `lost' as they went the 164k route. So both decided to have their own `illegal' race of 145k! Meanwhile we were so stressed out coz they had no handphones either!

Search teams and `helicopter' search were called to help while we waited over 2 hours. The coach was on the verge of leaving with everybody while Snail and Johnson stay back to identify these two illegal immigrants with their passport and hp.

Thanks to a few beer drinkers, the coach was delayed and then we got news that a Monster was found! Monster had a ride of his life and did 145k creating his own illegal' race and was the winner in that category!

Finally the Hunk Buaya Max came charging thru the finish line with a marshal escort for 2nd position for the illegal 145k race!

Guess these two know how to get attention from everyone of us and we can't wait to read their side of the stories!

More winners….

Senior Vet

Mighty Johnson Disco Duck – 2nd

Ladies

Super Duper Christina – 7th

And congratulations to the following for taking part too!

Aviva Janine
Sandy Sherry
Hot Sauce Lisze
Good Evening Evelyn
Winsome Winnie
Conman Pascal
Big Mouth Francis

Hero of JoyRiders for 164k

Kona James who completed the event despite of a flat - 6kfrom finish line!

Brian Johnsen better known as Brian@STAR who bravely signed up for this long distance together with James! Unfortunately he was stuck with another team who had a fall and had to take the shorter course back!

Thank you everyone for another exciting weekend! Enjoy the photos!

-Snail Queen

Last Updated on Sunday, 08 August 2010 12:12

The Queen Rides in Ireland

Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:42 Snail Queen

July 24 - Rode 80k with Fraser Hill Tom and Mike in Westport, Ireland. Road is rough... great for resistance training, scenery is stunning... weather is cold... makes me hungry fast and sinfully drank one glass of Irish Guinness stout for recovery!

Tomorrow we are doing @ least another 80k ride to Clifden.

Fraser Hill Tom was trying to 'kill' me by taking me to more hills and setting a fast pace! Hope I survive tomorrow!

- Snailing in Ireland

July 25 - First of all, Fraser Hill Tom & his wife Marea have been over feeding and teaching me how to drink Guinness since I arrived! Was wondering how am I going to keep up with Tom with the extra baggage!

Sat July 24 - Started the ride @ Clifden, Joyce Country in Ireland...after Mike dropped us off.

Obviously I was delighted to know that I am in Joyce Country named after James Joyce. Fraser Hill Tom promised that we will be riding with tail wind if we start in Clifden back to Westport but I also learn you can never trust Irish man when he kept changing the mileage the day before.

As usual it was very cold for me and they call it summer here! Ireland roads are rough and u literally 'vibrate' on your bike! Reminded me of a joke that I heard long ago about two nuns riding their bicycles who took a short cut on those rough roads. After the ride, the nun asked, sister, have u come that way before? Now, I know where the joke came from!

Had a lot of fun chasing and drafting Tom who I suspect was on 'Viagra' power since he is working for Pfizer. Vibrating and dancing against the wind is definitely a new challenge ... and thought this is great training if I ever want to do the Tour of Etape again.

Scenery is fabulous and must say the cars here do respect cyclists or maybe because they know Tom? As we were about to reach home, Tom decided to extend the ride to the 'Quay' to show me the river &sea and torture me with a final hill to get home - total mileage 82k

The reward that night was a nice Irish/Italian dinner of the best mussels cooked in wine, fresh monk fish in lemon butter sauce and tiramisu dessert followed by a cultural experience of an Irish famous pub Matt Molloys where it was packed shoulder to shoulder with everyone holding on to a drink!

I must be excited today and was up earlier since Tom promised another scenic vibrant 'tour' to Achill island.

Photos will have to wait till I get back in August.

- Snail drinking in Ireland :)

July 26 - Blowing in the Wind...

How many roads must a man cycle along before they call him a man?

How many rides must the snail ride before she gets to eat and eat?

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind

The answer is blowing in the wind.... (Bob Dylan lyrics)

Har, blowing in the wind of Ireland! Yesterday rode with Fraser Hill Tom from Newport to Achills Island ... back to Newport and home - 98k and had another mind blowing experience! Mind blowing coz first of all, the snail has a chicken heart and sometimes I wonder why am I cycling? Hate going downhill @ rocket pace and of course climbing mountains is another sad story too!

Ireland wind comes from all direction near Achills Island, I had to hold tightly to handle bar coz i could feel the wind pushing me off direction...and the road signs showing the car slipping off the road didn't help! Hanging on behind Tom for my dear life and Tom kept asking...err, Joyce... U still there? Later he told me that there are cyclists that get blown off the road!

Thank goodness the wind took pity on us and later we did enjoy some marvelous tail wind along the rolling hills of Ireland. Weather was typical Irish according to Tom...a little 'misty' rain, cold wind and occasionally the sun will sneak out and smile @ us.

I began to imagine that if I had continue to stay in Ireland, I would have become a stronger rider and turn into a Monster Snail riding in the rough road, cold wind and hills of Ireland! Too much Guinness Stout that let's ur fantasy break wild?

My answer my friend is blowing in the wind of Ireland!

Thank you Tom and Marea for the Irish experience and see u both in Singapore this October!

- 'Monster' Snail

Last Updated on Sunday, 08 August 2010 12:00

Tour de France 'LIVE' from Lourdes

Tuesday, 20 July 2010 13:33 Snail Queen

Together with Rob, Richard and John, we watched Tour deFrance in action @ July 19 - Stayed in Lourdes and watched @ Mouleon Barousseand met Lindsay & Greg Lanham from Singapore there! July 20 - Watched theTDF @ Argeles-Gazost and Ian joined us there.

-Snail Queen

Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 August 2010 13:34

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