Ipoh Ride #1 : Ipoh - Cameron Highlands (Equatorial Hotel)

Seeing how busy my schedule is these days at work its IMPOSSIBLE to go for a stint like TOP last year. So since I've registered for this years Ipoh Century Ride 2011, why not go a day earlier and do some real climbs, something not possible in Singapore (Faber is 80m as opposed to Camerons 1650m!).

So Ben and myself did the coach thing with our bike packed in the CRC bike bag and headed to Ipoh on Thursday night after work and dinner. We reached Ipoh around 6am where my dad picked us up. We unpacked the bikes got them quickly built up and headed out to Kampong Simee for some Kon Lou Mee (dark soya sauce mee). At 8am, we head out from my home towards Simpang Pulai (12km).

Here's the terrible part of the ride. Along the road towards Camerons...I looked at my Garmin and though damn, forgot to display the elevation data. So I started fiddling with it, stupid. I hit a rock lost control and flew into a ditch. It was a 1.5m ditch, rather deep. I was lucky to survive with a sore arm, sprained wrist and bruises here and there (including the face!). Fortunately there was a stall right opposite, literally in the middle of nowhere and we took a rest there and had my wounds cleaned up. After about 30 - 40mins just to gain back my composure, we started off again.

Very pleasant climb in equally pleasant weather! I had absolutely no issue going up with my standards, even had 3-4 cogs left most of the time. I had to be prepared to the final 9km to Equatorial where the steepness comes in. So for a good 40km or so it was 3%-6% kind of grade. Stopped at the same kopi stall at the 55km mark (from home) as last year.

Weather got a bit cloudy from then on and upon hitting the junction to Camerons, it was downhill! From 1500m right down to 1200m signalling the last 9km climb of 5%-9% typical grade. I was on my final gear and it sufficed, going up at 60rpm on average about 12km/h. I liked the final ascent as it started to drizzle like last year and that literally washed away my tiredness.

We reached Equatorial with 5hr total ride time, covering about 85km....16km/h average...painfully slow! Had a well deserved Roti Canai there while we waited for our kind friend to pick us up back to Gopeng for a well deserved shower and dinner! Thanks Yang!