Hot, humid and bright - that was the Batam that greeted Prash, Tony, Christian and me (minus Richard our absentee coach & captain) along with about 200 riders when we reached at 7 am local time. "This is already the hottest temperature I've ridden in, and we haven’t even started yet!” said Prash. Pleading looks towards the skies yielded no dark clouds anywhere on the horizon.
With Prash at the start
Following some last minute checks to the bikes and a bit of fuelling up on the Clif energy food bars, we set-off at 8 am. It was an uneventful start, except for riding with a police escort – a first for most of us. As Prash (he was a busybody throughout the ride) started shooting his mini-documentary on the ride, we settled into the rhythm of pedalling away for at least four to five hours.
Disaster struck for me after about 7 km when my cycle's chain came off the front sprocket. Nothing untoward I thought, it’s happened before and shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to fix. It hadn't just come off though – one of the links had broken. What can I say, I have strong legs (not).
Fortunately, the repair van was tailing not too far back and they quickly set about to fix it. Despite their best efforts though, it took about 20 minutes to replace the busted link. The delay left me way beyond last place – even behind the tandem bikes which were part of the Singapore Disabilities Sports Council troupe with one visually impaired rider riding with a guide.
There was worse news for me however - my front gears stopped working leaving me with just two on the rear and no traction on the front. “Think of the children. This is a charity ride, not a race. You’ll manage fine, you've trained well. It’s just rollers and undulating roads. There are no major hills here. You won’t need the gears!” As the monologue continued in my head, I kept pedalling away to regain my rhythm.
It took about 8 km of steady, high cadence riding, but eventually I overtook all the tandem bikes and came up to the stragglers on the regular bikes and tailed them till the first check point at about 32 km. After a 5 minute break I was off towards the 2nd check point at the 49 km mark.
The target was to reach the third and final check point at 60 km. From there, the only way to get back on the ferry home was to head back and ride the remaining 37 km to the finish line. With just another 15 km to go, for the 3rd checkpoint, I was feeling pretty good about my chances despite my bike’s condition.
A special mention must be made here of the heat and humidity – which were abysmal. It was unbelievably hot throughout the first leg. There was no respite from the heat except for the short bursts of downhill riding which helped to catch a bit of the breeze. While the actual temperatures may have been 32-34 C, the uphill climbs made it feel like being in a furnace.
The APEG team (l to r: Tony, Prash, Christian and me)
The roads now started getting tougher. While there were no hills yet, the inclines on the climbs kept getting steeper at each turn. “It’s not a race, it’s a charity ride” replaced “Eye of the Tiger” in my mental chants as I struggled on past the second checkpoint. While it had been a tough ride so far, I had just about managed to keep my head above the water. The next 12 km to the final checkpoint, however, completely overwhelmed me.
These were not “rollers” or “undulating roads” but proper hilly roads. I didn't sign-up for hill climbs. I didn't prepare for hill climbs. I didn't want to do hill climbs.
Despite the short distance, this was by far the toughest part of the ride. The lack of gears was really starting to hurt now and the strain of the climbs would eventually take a toll on the legs.
Christian passed me on his return leg about 5 km from the checkpoint. So despite my struggles, optimism swelled that I wasn't too far behind the others. If I could get a second, third, fourth wind, I may even be able to catch-up with them.
Tired and exhausted, I eventually made it to the final checkpoint and it was a huge relief to see Prash and Tony there, taking a break. As we merrily ranted about the weather, the toughness of the circuit, life in general and Richard in particular; we gradually recovered and started the journey back. A couple of other brave hearts joined us too – riding big, heavy mountain bikes!!!
My day was about to get much worse though. Within 3 km, cramps struck both legs leaving me off the bike and on the road. The others rode ahead to look for the ambulance to help me back up. After resting for a couple of minutes, I started cycling slowly as the ambulance found me after about 10 minutes. The pain relief (magic!) spray did its job and I was on my way again.
The ambulance staff wasn't too confident about my legs holding up though and decided to trail me all the way to the checkpoint. Whether my speed was 6 km or 60km (my top speed for the day), they were right behind me. Not a couple of kilometres behind, not a 100 metres behind but just one car length behind me. On an empty road with no other cyclists. Throughout. Despite their best intentions for my health, I couldn't help feeling like an injured / dying prey being tracked by a vulture.
I finally reached the checkpoint where once again Prash and Tony were waiting and were glad to see me riding rather than in the ambulance (still a car length behind me). The most welcoming part at that point was the rain. It was a short, hard shower and it was a great boost for us as we set off to cover the final 30 km expecting a relatively smooth ride to the finish.
This day however, was designed by Murphy himself to prove his damn law.
With 20 km to go, the ride organisers - led a by a policeman only bothered about not missing his lunch, asked us to stop riding and place our bikes in their van as there was only one hour left to finish the event. After some frantic haggling, we wrangled a half hour from them and continued on our way. We were all absolutely determined to finish and rode at a good pace (by our standards!) for the next 30 minutes. By then the showers had long vanished and personally for me, the effect of the magic spray on my legs was seeping away.
The key milestones on this last stretch were four big bridges, with the first one about 8 km from the finish. Struggling uphill and over the first bridge, I felt my calf lock up once again and couldn't go beyond a couple of kilometres after that and finally collapsed – about 5 km from the finish line. As they helped me in the pick-up truck to take me to the finish line, my disappointment at not finishing the circuit gave way to the satisfaction that I'd given it my absolute best - even though the vulture had eventually won!
The rest of the group rode across the finish line within the next 20 minutes and we all had a satisfactory celebration before being transported back to the ferry terminal.
The team at the finish line - we did it!
None of us is planning to do this event again, but we are all very proud of our efforts and the level of fitness we were able to achieve in a relatively short period of time. Equally important, our fundraising campaign (the whole point of all this effort!) has so far raised over S$5,900 for the supported charities - UNICEF's Schools for Asia programme and the Singapore Disability Sports Council.
