.... the jackal rides and run....

The Steel Brigade rode for the first time on Sunday morning; 4 steel bikes - 2 CIOCC and 2 Colnagos. Mark's new red CIOCC, aptly named Scarlett, is a real beauty! Rode a respectable 35 km/h ave on one length of coastal and were quite fast up the hills. The steel brigade now looks for more steel riders! Did a quick pose and shoot cos Mark had to be home early....presenting the steel stallions! Ben's CIOCC San Cristobal - White Knight, on full Campy Chorus 10s Mark's CIOCC Replica - Scarlett, on full Campy Chorus 11s Kim Leng's Colnago Master Olympic - on full Campy Record 10s Earlier that morning......I took some pictures of the Haze, my ride... Jack's Colnago Master Piu - on Shimano Ultegra/Dura-Ace Setup

We don't have much choices when it came to hill riding in Singapore. There's no such thing like a slow 30km climb to 1000m......the best offered over here is Mt. Faber. Period. 1.5km up hill to 90m and then down 1.5km. Its a 3km loop where one would have gained 90m of elevation and lost it again all under 10mins, with a max grade of 11% or 12% depending on which uphill approach (in contrast, the climb to Genting Highlands is 30km whereby the killer last 5km offers slopes up to 15% grade!!). My fear for hills are behind me (I had a bad knee injury from Changi Hills on my 2nd day of riding my new bike back in mid 2008 which had me taking painkillers and visiting the sports doctor) and I really like going up hills (not sprinting) and wish I could do longer hills. So I jumped on my bike one morning last month and thought maybe Faber would be a good. Previously I did manage 2 rounds and it was quite tiring, but that was back when I tried to follow faster riders up! So for this trip,

This was the single most toughest ride I've ever had to face up to till now! Ben started it all and I jumped on the bandwagon. We had to collect SGD900 each to participate, he had some spillover donations so he passed some on to me to ease my collection woes (I work in an engineering firm, guys here are either stingy or too lowly paid). Managed to get some of our cycling friends to donate as well so thanks guys! Its for a good cause. The Charity BnB this year (as always organized by the folks at The Salvation Army) was held 5-6th September. 70 riders and countless more support guys participated in this event. We took a boat from Changi Ferry Terminal to Tg. Belungkor in Malaysia, which was to be our starting point. The ride took us 150+km up north to Mersing on day 1 and back the same route on day 2. The rolling hills were quite bad toward the last bit and the weather on the first day was not too nice. It was really hot! Good thing was that the support vehicles were always around t

Way back in August, I got myself the Garmin Edge 705. It was an almost impulsive buy and it was expensive. Ok, I must say that 6 months on, I did not regret a single bit. Its one of the best investment I every bought for my cycling hobby. Its a glorified cycle computer with navigation and HRM. A great tool for training and sure beats the Polar CS200CAD I had which I found a tad too slow to respond and did not have the capability to store enough data. The Edge records just about everything, including elevation! And best of all I can upload all the data into Garmin's website and manage them from there. However, my favourite management software has to be the Sport Tracks software which is available for free!

Prior to this, Ben, KL and myself have been on Desaru loop couple of times. By no means easy with rolling hills and hellish weather but runs a short 90km or so from the Terminal to Petronas and Back. For Gary, Mark and BP, it was their first cycling 'adventure' out of Singapore. They were all well prepared with special chocolate bars and gels etc. that looked good.... KL experienced terrible thigh cramps after Petronas so we had to slow down a little. I too was suffering the early onset of calf muscle cramps but was ok to continue. All in all the ride was fun but the weather was not. It was really sunny and hot! Below are some pictures from that day, all well posed and happy looking! BP, Mark, Ben and Me in the bumboat KL & Gary In full gear.... In full gear and special pose from Gary The men and their machines... Happy but tired at Petronas stop (1/2 way point more or less...) Mark & Gary Me and Gary (showing some tongue...)