TDS mini tri..

Soooo... as earlier noted on my blog, this past weekend was the first of my 3 *gasp* races this year. I dragged my sick and sorry arse out of bed early on Sunday morning and found that Kale had already loaded up all the gear and was just waiting on me rolling out of bed. Felt kinda bad walking out of the house cos I really didn't have to do anything except get ready and push my bike out of the door.

As we walked out the door (me pushing the really cool, borrowed bike [more about the bike later] and carrying only my waistpouch), I said to the hubby (who was locking the door while balancing his bike, a big duffel bag with all the race stuff in it and the cooler bag) - "what would i do without you?" referring to all the stuff he was carrying. My smartass of a husband replied "you'd probably still be asleep in bed..." which was not quite what I was expecting, yet awfully true.

Dawn met us at the carpark (yes, such dedication, she actually got up early to come with) and then Kale proceeded to load up the car (sense a trend yet?). We drove over to the Nanyang Technological University Sports and Recreation Centre where the race start was. Vanessa showed up soon after and I got registered and all marked up while Kale took his mandatory pre-race dump.

The girls kept on asking me to stretch, but I figured the longer I put it off, the longer I could fool myself that the race wasn't happening.. hah. I'm paying for it now as I type. Owww....

I proceeded to get my stuff set up and hooked the bike on the stand. NOW I shall tell you about this bike. See, Dawn was supposed to do this race with me. Problem is, I only have ONE bike and there would be TWO of us. So, Kale asked around, and Jeanette (the other girl who went to Thailand with us) was kind enough to lend us her bike. I figured I'd ride her bike and Dawn would borrow mine. Now, she's a professional triathlete - meaning that she competes in these things for real. So you can only imagine what a nice bike she has. Yup, carbon frame, aerobars and all.

We only had one slight problem - I have never ridden a road bike before. At least not since my pink and green racer bike that I got for my 11th birthday. We borrowed the bike last weekend to try it out, but the rain got in the way, so I got on it for posterity's sake at home just to set up the seat height. We only really took it out for a spin this past Saturday.

I got REALLY nervous when I realised that it steers awfully different from a mountain bike.. it's far more sensitive.. I rode it a couple times around the parking garage (to get a feel of braking on a down ramp)...and then called it quits. Figured I'd use the bike for the race since Jeanette went through all that trouble to lend it to me.

So yeah, back to the race.. I hooked the bike up to the stand and reassured my neighbour that it wasn't my bike and I didn't know how to use it. We headed over to the pool and got ready for the start. My mom and sis showed up for moral support just before the race started.

Kale had a little pressure before the race. The organisers used his picture on the registration form AND he was told he should try to win the race. No pressure, eh? =)

Van, Dawn and I before the race 
Kale and myself before the race


Me in the pool at the start of the race 


They started with the girls. Only 4 girls started - and we spent a full 5 mins waiting for 2 of them to show up. So basically I was bobbing around in the pool with one other girl trying to keep calm while feeling like a deer in headlights.

The race started, and the 2 girls on either side of me took off FAST. I kinda burned myself out trying to keep up with them. What I do remember was that it was kinda like the Olympics.. they had these cameramen on each end of the pool taking pics of you as you surface.. I felt famous.. haha. The novelty quickly died when I was REALLY wanted to stop at the end of a lap to catch my breath and felt too ashamed to be caught on film stopping. Sigh. I saw Kale enter the pool to get ready for his race as I was finishing my last lap, and he made some funny faces at me underwater. He said after the race that I didn't look too happy.. he was probably right. I felt like dying. Must be this whole swimming thing... I don't think I'm cut out for swimming. I don't think I'm going to make it past the swim in the Osim tri in July cos that's in the sea.. and this was but 4 laps in the pool. eeks. Man, I'm unfit.

Anyhow, I got to the transition area and tried to yank my bike shorts over my wet skin (note to self: remember that lycra and wet skin don't go together). Dawn caught some very embarassing shots of me with my fat in folds as I'm yanking my shorts up. A girl that I was in high school with that was volunteering at the race chose that very moment to come over and say hi... I was mortified, but what could I do?

I got on the bike.. and then proceeded to ride straight into the pavement (note to self: road bikes don't take well to sudden yanks on the handlebars). I let out a high-pitched squeal and heard the crowd get a good chuckle behind me.


me on the borrowed bike 


Felt like hurling during the first lap of the bike ride.. was really tougher than I thought. The road bike thing wasn't very smart either cos I was so nervous going downhill that I was probably going slower than I would have on a mountain bike. The marshalls sent me the wrong way so I lost some time (yeah, like that would have mattered) trying to explain to the officials that I had only done ONE lap and I needed to do TWO.. and so could someone please tell me where I needed to UTURN.

Anyhow, I passed the 2 girls who had gotten out of the pool before me on the 1st lap and somehow made it in first off the bike. I was a little nervous cos I hadn't seen Kale at all during the ride...and I had expected he'd probably come flying by me. As I was getting off the bike in the transition area, I realised why. I heard the emcee shout "Go, Kale!!" and I realised that he had already come in from the run and was finishing his race.. AND I still had the run to go. Sigh. The funniest thing was that Vanessa and Dawn told me that as Kale came across the line, the emcee announced "And here's Kale, a professional, 3rd in..blah blah blah.. AND a wonderful person".. heh heh

I walked the rest of the race.. and I only ran right towards the end cos I had seen 2 girls pass me on the run, and I knew the last girl couldn't have been far behind and there's nothing like a little competition to make Denise move her butt. So I did, I ran the last bit of the race and finished it.


all of us after the race

Da family after the race  


My mom and sis left after for church. During the prize presentation, as I went up to collect my prize, the emcee announced "and this is Denise, who's very special to us. She's the BELOVED wife of Kale." Wow. I'm a beloved wife. Sweet!! So by association, since I'm the beloved wife of a WONDERFUL person.. then I guess I'm wonderful too, eh? =)

So, Kale won the race (surprise surprise) and he "said a little something" after he collected his prize and basically said that it was "nonsense" that diabetics couldn't do things like this.. and everyone laughed along with him, so that was pretty cool.

We headed off with Van and Dawn for brunch (mmm.. eggs...). I know I've already thanked them for coming down to show their support.. they gave up their Sunday morning to spend it with us.. and that's just too sweet. So yes, thanks once again girlies! =)

Ok lah, time to go take a shower. I would put pics up but my office firewall doesn't allow the software to access the internet, and the home computer is still undergoing treatment... will try to get them up as soon as I can.. promise!!

viral update

so kale's feeling better, but now i'm the one who's down with the cold. =( throw some cramps in with the cold and i feel like crap.

was going to go see the doc today but i have so many mtgs today that i can't even find time to go. =(

ugh.

something only a guy would say

kale's lounging on the couch watching the telly. he flips the channel to the Discovery channel where some crane is demolishing something.. and immediately a "oooh" escapes his lips.

when i laugh at him, he replies "chances are, if there's something big, yellow and loud, it's probably cool..."

that's probably the funniest thing i've heard all day... too bad i'm yellow, loud BUT small.... otherwise i'd be cool too.

sigh.

a little faith and patience

the past couple of days have been a real emotional rollercoaster for me. my rotation finally got put up for approval, and basically, what was offered to me was something totally unexpected. .

to cut the long story short, i came home yesterday more than a little demoralised. i felt a little like things were never meant to be, and that i didn't have much control over anything. i asked kale what i should pray for - peace to accept whatever the outcome? strength to fight for what i want? or something else... he advised that i should pray for patience. and as usual, he's right.

today brought some relief. it didn't bring answers, but it did at least bring options. options that i think i could live with. i'm waiting for some answers, and hopefully God will help me have the patience to wait for those answers.

i also mulled over the age-old question.. how do you balance fighting for what you want with accepting that some things aren't meant to be. the hubby's reply? "you do what you can, and then you accept it". last night, that reply just frustrated me. to me, that felt like a non-answer.. how do you know you've done all you can? how do you know when to stop? but today, now, i sort of understand. i have peace of mind that i've done what i have to do. i have spoken to whom i need to speak to... and all that's left for me to do is wait. and if it doesn't work out, well, at least i know i tried. i think pushing any harder would perhaps be too much.

so yes, i guess now i just need a little faith and patience (and perhaps a little tenderness as the song goes). i think sometimes i just need to sit down and breathe and relax and wait for things to become clearer. i wind myself up too much sometimes. you learn something new each day - in my case, it's to slow down and wait for things to play themselves out. that, and to have faith.

so yes, i'll pray for patience AND peace of mind tonight.

race briefing

so we went for the race briefing yesterday. nothing earth-shattering. looks like it'll be an ok race. 4 laps in the pool, 2 rounds on the bike, and a run which finishes up on the track. should be ok.

the best part is there are (so far) only 5 girls doing the individual race.. so dawn and i will definitely come in within the top 5. bwahaha.

on another note, kale's almost down with the flu. i say "almost" cos he's been fighting it with medication and up until yesterday he was winning.. now the flu seems to be making a strong comeback so we'll see what the outcome is this evening... hope he gets over it before the weekend...

we're back on track ...

We can once again pig out on DVDs at home again.. woo hoo! SAFE opened up a HUGE superstore in Harborfront and the parents,Selene and I went to check it out. Managed to pick up a new dvd player for all of $75.. score!

So the hubby just managed to hook the thing up (we were having a problem with no audio when we first plugged it in) and now we can play DVDs once more. Never realised how dependent we were on the DVD player until Dawn came to visit on Saturday and she just sat around as watched the Discovery channel cos there was nothing else to do.. Sorry, Dawn!

I think it's ill-fated, every time that Dawn and I decide we should go do something sporty, be it cycling or swimming, the weather doesn't cooperate and instead starts pouring.. as was the case this past Saturday. We were supposed to go try the bikes out but with car problems (a whole other story) and the weather, we ended up pigging out at home with bak kwa and cuttlefish instead. So health, eh?

Anyway, Dawn's back to being occupied this week.. so I guess we'll have to try to do the bike thing on Saturday in preparation for the race next Sunday. Hope it doesn't rain! Have to go to the race briefing tonite... *groan*..

not knowing...

one day after the central career committee thingamajig and still no news.. the suspense is killing me. i wish i knew at least what the vibes up there are... sigh.
or even just what the process from here on in is supposed to be. i hate not knowing. (yes, that last sentence applies to ALL aspects of my life as the hubby will be happy to tell you.) so once more for good measure:

i. hate.not.knowing.

ugh.

now this is bliss....

we finally moved all the furniture around and set up the tv in our bedroom (yes, after living here for almost half a year).. so now i can watch tv from the comfort of my bed!! woo hoo!!!

no cable, but hey, with channel 5's offerings, i'm a happy woman.. =)

video killed the radio star

i'm married to a radio star. ok, so maybe "star" is a little bit of an exaggeration, but my lovely husband was on the radio this morning for a total of about 10 mins. it was meant to be a piece on the upcoming diabetes triathlon and why it's important for diabetics to exercise, and how diabetics can (in the words of my lovely hubbby) "do anything any normal person can". however, thanks to the not-so-clued-in DJ/host, it turned into a "diabetes for dummy" session, where the physiologist present explained the difference between type 1 and type 2 and how hypoglycemia can happen etc...

so, while it didn't quite turn out the way we expected it to, it was still quite cool to hear someone you know on the radio.. and speaking intelligently and intelligibly, at that. so good job, hon.. you make me proud. =)

there was also a lot of trouble this morning trying to ensure that he got himself to the radio station in time for the show. throw in morning peak hour traffic, cum heavy rain, cum lack of taxis, and busy taxi telephone lines, it took him almost 45 mins to get himself a cab.. think he made it in by the skin of his teeth.

so that was the dramatic start to the day of our very own celebrity. kale's back to being just another one of us.. back at work.. good news is that it's already the afternoon, and not long before we can meet up for dinner!! yeay!! food!!

technical difficulties

so, if you've been wondering why it's been so quiet on this blog lately... one easy answer. our home computer crashed. on the same day that we found out our dvd player wouldn't turn on. yup. there are gremlins in our house who like messing around with electronic equipment.

anyhow, kale's working on trying to recover our data (most importantly ALL our photos which we don't have back-ups of) and then we'll try to get the computer back online. we're getting international help from my cousin in singapore, tyson and patrick in buffalo. yup. so hopefully we'll be able to save everything.

have lugged my laptop back from office for the interim.. so we still have internet access, just kinda sporadic, is all.

enjoying a rainy evening from the comfort of our house - respledent with our new couch from ikea - it's great to be able to stretch out. our house is coming together bit by bit. problem is that by the time we get everything set up just the way we want it, we'll probably be just about to move. hah.

ok, going to go take a shower and enjoy the evening...we just got back from dinner with kale's friends.. and it was a great dinner with far too much food. but it's just nice to be back at home, the two of us, in OUR home.. with our new couch! =) we really haven't taken the time to just sit and savour our new place. so i think we'll start tonite.yup.

swopping goss...

just a quick update before my next meeting...

met up with jessy, ivy and elaine for dinner last nite cos nick was away in thailand for the other bike race. (they're all significant others of kale's bike friends). we met up at sakae sushi and ate waaaay too much.. had all the fried food we could eat. ignoring our bloated stomachs, we headed over to NYDC for more food (cookie monster mudpie to be exact). mmm.

we swopped stories about the guys, and about hair and clothes... and generally had a good time gossiping. what i find odd is that we're all very different people, and would never have gotten to know each other and hung out if it weren't for the guys. i honestly don't think our paths would have crossed otherwise. but, we get along pretty well.. we have a good time making fun of the guys, and at least we have company on these races. =)

we're plotting to see if we can get the guys to go take dance classes together.. we figure misery loves company and perhaps peer pressure will work. heh. see how it goes.

Of couches, vases and mattresses...

Typed this earlier today while waiting for lunch but didn't have time to upload it so here it is..

Just a quick update on the weekend. I basically slept Saturday afternoon away cos I had a splitting headache that had carried over from Friday evening. Woke up in time for dinner with John, Ivy, Jim amd Jessy at Victors. I've eaten there enough to get the full-fledged VIP card. Bumped into my parents and Selene there - Singapore is too small!

We got up on Sunday, drove my mom to church and then headed off to church ourselves. Sat behind a 12 year old who was going on 30. She had more jewellery on than I had, and her skirt was so short it was up the wazoo!! We then headed off to Ikea to order ourselves a new couch. The one that we have now was a gift from my parents and while very pretty and comfortable, is too short to actually lie down on. We got a 3-seater olive green couch and ottoman and it'll be delivered with our replacement mattress this Saturday. The mattress is a whole other story - we've only had it 7 months or so and there's already a big dent in it. I swear it's Kale's butt that made the dent but he insists otherwise. Oh well. Ikea has a mattress guarantee program so we have to pay $19 for depreciation and we get a new mattress. Not bad.

While at Ikea, I stopped by the florist to get some flowers for Mothers day. Now, each tulip stalk costs $3. So I wanted 6 tulips, and I wanted them wrapped up. The lady then happily tells me that that would cost $45 cos it's considered a bouquet. I flipped and walked out, went into Ikea, bought a really pretty vase, and then had Kale buy 3 tulips for the vase and left Ikea triumphant. Now, not only did I have something worth keeping (the vase) but I got the whole thing for less than the stupid bouquet would have cost! pffffttt!!!

We went over to the 'rents for lunch and went through some of our old stuff that has been stashed away in storage forever! The 'rents are moving soon so they're clearing out the house. Found all my old uniforms, and some baby clothes. There was even a cushion cover and an apron that I sewed in primary school! heh. Threw some of the stuff out, and kept some of the old sweaters and warm clothes that my mom had knit way back in England. Figured they'd come in handy when either Selene or I have kids.

We then headed back home where I cleaned up my blog and changed a lampshade while Kale unpacked his bike. We then drove out to Dan Ryan's for Mother's Day dinner with my family and my grandma. Had waaaayyy too much food, but it was good. Came home, watched some telly, Kale called home to wish his mom a happy mother's day, and we called it a nite. Pretty uneventful, me thinks. A nice slow weekend to catch up on rest before a full week at work.

Tour of Egat - Pre-amble and Day 1

Here's my version of the Tour of Egat. Kale's done his race report as an addendum to Jim's race report.. and I guess that'll be posted on the Cycleworx yahoo group site away from prying eyes. I'm going to give my account of it.. which will of course be the uneducated female water crew version.. but heck, I figure it'll give a different twist to the story.

Day 1 - Saturday

Kale and I had packed everything away the nite before.. I loaded in a couple of extra t-shirts and shorts for good measure and also threw in a bottle of travel wash for the daily "laundry" of his jersey and bib. The london cab came at 8:30am and we got to Terminal 2 without much incident.

A couple of the guys were already there and we waited for Yusoff and Mimi to come with the tix. A pretty orderly group check-in followed and the group resembled an overage school trip. Poh Ling (sp?) gave a pretty amusing recount of how Mimi's wife was now sitting at home with a still-running Renault cos Mimi had the smart key with him in his pocket (at Terminal 2) and we had a good chuckle. Jim said goodbye to Jessy, Boon Pin tried to reassure Jeanette's parents that he'd take good care of her and we lumbered through to immigration.

I popped over to grab my Chanel foundation from the duty free and then a BK ham crossiantwich and an iced milo later, we caught up with the rest of the cycleworx team and some anza guys at the kaya toast place in the departure lounge.

Flight passed pretty uneventfully.. we hung around the bangkok airport waiting for the philippines and malaysian teams to get in and then trooped outside in the sweltering heat to the buses and trucks. Loaded up and then headed off to the 1st hotel - De River Hotel (or smthg like that). The guys unpacked their bikes in the lobby while I watched over the bags in the karaoke lounge area. They took off for a short "bike-check" ride while Mimi, Jeanette, BP and I headed out to the 7-11 to get some snacks and while away the time. First impression of Bangkok was that it was kinda messy and very very hot.


At BKK airport

Jeanette buffing BP's nails in the bus from the airport

In the karaoke lounge at the 1st hotel


Dinner was at a restaurant down the street. Food was so-so.. I would soon come to realise that every meal would be pretty much the same - tom yum soup, green curry, some unidentifiable meat, veggies and fruit. We bought a bottle of drinking water to play it safe... and then proceeded to try and avoid getting sprayed by diesel from the water ferries plying the river next to our table and snot from Uncle Richard who was blowing his nose upwind. Eugh.

At dinner the first nite

The cycleworx table at dinner the first nite


Made our way back to the hotel.. everyone was pretty dang excited.. had a meeting in Mimi and Yusoff's room and that was pretty much it for the nite. The rooms were pretty nice.. the bathroom looked decent, and except for the "puddling" effect in the shower, the experience was better than expected.

Day 2 - Sunday

Brutally woken up at 4:30am by a hotel wake-up call. Were all confused cos we were expecting a wake-up call only at 5am. Got the team wake-up call again at 5am and trooped down for brekky. Decent brekky but couldn't stomach anything so early in the morning.. had tea and that was pretty much it. Soon learnt that that'd be the routine for me.. 3 mouthfuls of bread and a cup of tea for breakfast.

Loaded all the bags and race stuff onto the truck and the cyclework support team (Mimi, BP, Jeanette and myself - hereon in to be known as "the crew") climbed into a cab to head off to the start of the race at the EGAT hq while the guys all rode off on their bikes. Turns out we couldn't leave till all 4 cabs with all support crews were loaded up. The Philippines team ended up missing the rest of the riders so they waited alongside us to ride to the startline. Turned out to be a pretty big mistake cos our crazy taxi drivers took off at 70kmh down a busy bangkok street! Finally made it to the startline, unloaded all the race necessities into the van which BP and I were sharing with the SG team (Ah Fei, Dr Loh and WeiMin(sp?)) to follow the Open, juniors and 30-39 group.


Start of the 1st day


Our trusty vans

Kale getting ready

The brudders - Raymond and Terence

The veterans

Ah Fei in the front seat

The back of the van

The rolling start took off and it soon became apparent that our driver wasn't very cooperative. He refused to pull over into the right lane despite everyone else doing it. Not so sure how much of that was due to the fact that he didn't understand a word of english and we didn't understand a word of thai!


Kale on his way during the rolling start
After a looooong rolling start of 28km, we pulled into a gas station. Thank gawd cos I needed to pee bad.. thankfully had enough time to run into a bathroom. Was the second time that day that I had to share the women's bathroom with male riders. (the first time being in the hotel lobby when the male riders totally commandeered the women's bathroom and i had to go and look for an alternate bathroom!)

The 1st group took off, and we followed a couple of cars behind. The atmosphere was pretty hyped up with a chopper flying overhead and a whole train of cars following the peloton. We spent most of the first couple minutes in the car re-arranging ourselves and then got comfy for the 1st 50km of the race. We weren't allowed to do anything for the 1st 50km anyhow.. so we sat back to enjoy the scenery.

What we didn't expect was to see one of our riders, Terence, so soon after the start of the race!! He had stopped on the side of the road not more than 5mins after the gas station.. we rode by him and he pointed (not unhappily) at his wheel.. turns out he broke a spoke. We had a good laugh at him in the van and drove off after the rest of the peloton. BP called Mimi to help Terence out when their van passed him after the start of the veterans' race.

We took a couple of pics of the scenery (see pic below)... and then spent the rest of the 180km passing water out to riders. Witnessed a crash where Dr Loh's son, Jiwen took a fall. He was up and back riding in no time with Ah Fei's help and that was pretty much most of the drama.


The rolling start venue

The big Buddha

Cows charging alongside the road

Finally caught up with Kale's pack in the race and tailed him for a bit. To be honest, I wasn't really nervous for the earlier part of the race, cos I knew that if I didn't see Kale, it meant that he was doing well and hangin in the pack with the rest of them. The minute we caught sight of him, my heartrate picked up and I got instantly more nervous. My heart leapt into my throat when he missed a left turn and got sent straight instead.. he almost got hit by an u-turning pick-up and then had to climb uphill and chase the pack he was with originally. I found expletives subconsciously coming out of my mouth as I cursed the race officials.. I then found myself holding my breath, silently egging him on to catch up with the rest of the pack. He finally made it back and I breathed a sigh of relief.


Kale riding
Kale came across the line 3rd in his category and I met up with him after the finish line where we had some pepsi and cooled down. It was bloody hot! I hadn't sweat too much since I was riding around in the van. But the minute I got out to talk to Kale, I started dripping.. I then began to realise how difficult it must have been for the guys to ride in that heat!


At the finish line of the first day

Hung around wondering how the hell we were going to get back to the hotel since we had no van (the singapore van was full).. and whether there was going to be a prize presentation. Mimi thankfully came by with a van to pick us up but Kale decided to hang around to wait for the prize ceremony. I headed back with BP and Mimi and then sat down to have lunch. Before I could even start, Kale came back and said that they were dorking around and hadn't started the ceremony.. he sat down and before he could start eating, the van with the luggage pulled in and so we had to get up to get our stuff. Grr.

Turns out that the reason why the prize presentation took so long was cos they had sent a pack of 5 guys the wrong way so they did only 110 km as opposed to 180km. AND they had the audacity to give the pack of 5 the same time as the 1st guy who crossed the line.. so now Kale was 8th instead of 3rd. The dumbasses..

Went up to the hotel room.. and the first thing I did was to turn the damn a/c on!Not as nice as the first hotel room.. but still decent. Played the domestic wife and washed Kale's jersey and bib so that he'd be able to wear it the next day. Gave him a little rub-down cos I was in a giving mood..(it was a nice, clean rub-down so get your mind out of the gutter!!) Took a little rest and then headed down for dinner. Dinner was more of the same - tom yum soup, unidentifiable meat, etc.. and then had another team meeting in Mimi and Yusoff's room. Went out for more ice-cream at the 7-11. Found out that this was actually a nightly ritual for Yusoff and gang.


Hakim telling war stories

A blurry shot of us after the 1st day's ride in the lobby of the River Kwai Hotel

Me trying to be japanese

A shot of the brudders to prove that they survived the first day

We had decided to share the Anza van since there was only 1 guy in that van and would be less cramped than the SG van. So we got all our stuff squared away, packed everything up and then went to bed.

Day 3- Monday

Loaded all our stuff into the vans in the hotel driveway.. took a short ride to the startline. A van with a bike on the roof managed to pull down the inflatable arch on the startline and that caused a little stir. After much confusion and waiting around (the no english thing was not helping).. the race took off. This time around the rolling start was shorter, and there was barely a wait before the race started proper. This caught some of the guys who were taking a pee by the road by surprise as they saw the peloton take off. Hah.


Uncle Richard, Kale, Raymond and Terence at the start of the 2nd stage, outside the River Kwai Hotel

The brudders - the "before" picture for the 2nd day

Us - the mandatory "proof i was there" picture

Kale, Colin and Andrew hiding in the shade prior to the race start. Kale chowing down on Thai-style gummi bears. The food of champions!

Terence, BP, Raymond and Kale at start of the race

Japanese Jim, Yusoff, Eddie, Hakim and some Philippino guy..


Today was the hill stage. The guys were all kinda mentally preparing for a climb. I had heard horror stories of this stage, but man, it was nothing compared to what I was about to see.. The big hill came about 70km into the race.. as soon as we made a right turn up the hill, it suddenly became really steep.. and the riders were starting to drop off.. we passed a pack of 3 thai riders sitting on the road shoulder chilling and smiling at us as we drove by. A couple of riders on the left, and then I spotted Terence slowly edging his way up the hill.. man! Passed him some water, had a quick chat with him and then kept on going up.. later we saw Terence pass us on the back of a pick-up truck.. =) Kept on going and it really was like confetti, all these riders just stopping left, right, center. Man, this hill was pretty damn steep. Passed some national guys, but I didn't get a chance to see Kale.

An attempt to show how steep the road is

Finally made it pass the big hill and headed downhill pretty quickly. Our Schumacher of a driver was booking it down the hill.. suddenly we see these marshals waving frantically at us gesturing us to slow down.. turns out this sharp left turn had a layer of dirt on the inside of the turn. Apparently the marshals weren't there when Kale's pack made it through there, leaving them to their own means to negotiate the turn!!!

We made it down further and then again came across more marshals,this time warning us about a foot deep of mud across the whole width of the road. Sebastian (from AnzA) was negotiating it just in front of the van and was wobbling all the way through.. looked like the terrain would have been more suitable for a mountain bike! We passed Terence who was back on his bike.. hmm...

By this time, I was pretty pooped. We were pretty convinced that the race was coming to a close.. and that we weren't far from the finish. We pulled over to pass the guys some water and I was happy to see Kale coming by looking strong. Turns out the "rolling hills" they had talked about were still to come and it took us quite a wee bit more to make it to the finish. Each time we made it up the crest of a rolling hill, my heart sank as I thought of how Kale had to make it up 1 more hill.. it just seemed like sheer torture! I had nothing but admiration for these guys. Bear in mind that the weather was something ridiculous like 43degrees celcius! Passed Terence climbing into the van again and got a good chuckle out of that!

Finally pulled into the finish, met up with Kale and he looked fine. Relief set in. Bumped into Ah Fei and he shared some story about how some Cannondale guy got kicked by one of the Thai team managers cos he called him a dope-dealer. Apparently the Cannondale guy was pissed at the Thai guy for not passing him water. But the Thai guy wasn't a neutral water guy and had no obligation to pass this dude water.. even though most times he did pass water to ppl who needed it. Serves the cannondale guy right for calling ppl names! Turns out it was the same guy who I had spoken to the day before and had flown in from Cali just for the race.. and here I was thinking he was a nice guy. Duh. Raymond finally made it across the finish line.


Us at the end of the race - all sweaty and icky

Richard, Terence and Raymond - Raymond all proud he finished the stage!


We again waited for transport back to the hotel. No luck there.. no idea what the deal was with transport.. no idea if the veteran guys were coming back with the other van. In the end, Raymond, Kale and I climbed into the Anza van with the Anza guys.. and drove the one hour journey back to the hotel. BP, Richard and Terence waited for other transport.

Got to the hotel and surprisingly, very few other ppl were there. Turns out the vets had taken the barge across to the open finish line to meet up with the others there. Turns out there was no need for them to have done that, and there was still not enough room for BP, Terence and Richard so BP and Jeanette took the truck with the bikes back to the hotel while the rest took the van back on the barge again to the hotel. We were just glad to be able to sit down and order some real food. They give out packet lunches at the finish line but you really can't swallow anything in that heat and the food is often unidentifiable anyhow!

Finally got our room keys when Yusoff and gang made it back to the hotel. The guys hosed off their bikes.. the guys horsed around outside the hotel rooms, and I got an eyeful of someone's ass-crack. For the guy's sake, I'll leave him unnamed on this site! haha. The room was spartan but clean. I was already disappointed at the state of this bedroom but it sure as hell was nice compared to what was to follow!!

Yusoff had a spider in his bed, Jim and Raymond had a wasp fly around their room, and I had red beetles marching up and down outside our door. Euuuuggghhhhh.. GROSS. Dinner was further out at 5:30pm. I was all disgruntled as I had finally cooled down and was finally clean and was in no mood to traipse out to the middle of nowhere for dinner. Kale cajoled for a bit and suggested a quick bite at the hotel restaurant prior to dinner and I finally agreed to head out with him. As we were climbing into the van for dinner, Tiny (a HUGE australian dude from Anza) lumbered over and said that he had seen a full 5 seconds of Kale on national tv... turns out they had a quick report on the race and a large portion of the video image was of kale booking it.. pretty cool.


Map of the dam area @ dinner

Dinner was uneventful.. we drove out to the nearby market for ice-cream and to load up on water. Had a meeting in Yusoff's room again, and then headed back to bed and crashed. Was totally sapped from the heat.

Day 4 - Tuesday

Got up early as usual. Grr. Wandered over to the restaurant for brekky and true to form, it wasn't ready. DEcided to come back to the room to pick up our stuff and carried it back to the hotel lobby (near the restaurant) in preparation to get loaded up in the van. Had my usual mouthfuls of toast and tea for breakfast. Mmmm..NOT.


The brudders on the morning of the 3rd stage

The cyckeworx team

The race start

The lovebirds


Loaded up into the Anza van and followed the guys out to the rolling start. Again, the rolling start was kinda disorganised.. with guys peeing and the race starting on them. Followed the 1st group out and Dave (the guy in the van with us) was pretty concerned about his son, Andrew who was riding in the 30-39 category. Turns out he was dropped early on, and not being familiar with racing, he wanted to stop to check on him. BP was pretty livid cos Kale's group had since long gone and he wanted to follow him to make sure he was doing ok since he had a good chance of doing well. Both guys didn't see eye to eye, and after some drama, we picked Andrew up and then headed off to make sure Kale was doing ok. We saw Terence ride by looking ok while we were waiting, and he as usual was all smiles, despite the agony he was in with the heat and all.. that guy is always good for a laugh!


Kale at the start of the race

BP giving Kale a drink


CAught up with Kale and he was doing good.. we drove straight to the finish line and I was able to catch Kale coming through the finish line.. JUST behind Colin.

Drove down to this little staging area where the drinks and prize ceremony was. They had some locals dancing in the heat in traditional costumes.. poor things. No one was really paying attention to them anyhow! Got our keys and then drove up the hotels. Urgh.
Some of the guys - Terence, Eddie, Raymond, Richard, Kale and Fadzli

The little dancers


This was the worst one yet! It looked like a school dental clinic! It had louvred windows on one end and crappy swing-out windows on the other end so you could see through the room. There were metal bedframes with tacky "starry" bedspreads and nasty wooden furniture. The worst thing was that there was only 1 small stand-alone a/c unit and it did nothing to cool the room down. The bathroom was equally vile.. they provided slippers for the bathroom (yes, that's always an indication of the state of the bathroom) and the sink tap lever lifted right off unless you used one hand to hold it down while using the other hand to lift it up to turn the water on. Eugh. AND AND AND.. get this, the towels came in plastic wrap. Yup. GROSS. I was pretty much at the end of my tether at this point. The day's drama had gotten to me and I didn't want to deal with the hotel room. It was just a bit too much!!

I helped to get the luggage off the truck and broke a nail in the process.. told Kale that he owed me a mani and a pedi and ironically enough, he heard "you owe me MANY".. and i left it at that! ;p heh!

The management of the hotel were smart enough to weld the keyring shut so you couldn't leave the key tag in the slot to keep the electricity on in the rooms. Kale and BP made short work of it with a pair of pliers. Yusoff and Mimi then rounded up the driver and we headed off to find proper muslim food since they hadn't had a real meal in yonks. A 20 min drive later, we find ourselves in some random restaurant by the river. The owners didn't speak english, we didn't speak thai, the menu was entirely in thai so we relied on sign language to get our food. To give you an idea, we pointed at a plant in order to get vegetables. Yeah.. it was that sad. The food was AWESOME. And it only cost us SGD5 a head!


Kale trying to break the key off the tag

Us in ghetto hotel #1


We drove back, tried to cool down, Kale took a nap, and I was too uncomfortable in the room to do anything so I pulled my book out. The vans came an hour and a half later to ferry us down to dinner.

Dinner was equally sad.. the usual tom yum and stuff... we headed over to the minimart to get ice cream again. The atmosphere was charged as everyone realised the next stage would be the last stage. Everyone was resolved to finish this stage being the last.

The evening was kinda odd, I was called into Mimi's and Yusoff's room (kinda like being called into the principal's office) to settle some stuff with Tiny regarding the day's earlier drama. We then had a team meeting to sort out the logistics the next day.. and called it a night.
Calisthetics?? Kale and Uncle Richard - 20-something vs 50-something