Tuas Cycling

I lazed about the whole day, almost wasting the perfect cool weather. Finally I decided to move my butt and take my bike out for a spin. I had to inflate the tires somewhat, but I think either my tire nozzles or the pump was spoilt. I could not get air in beyond 90-100 without it hissing and leaking. Hmmm maybe I should buy a new pump (but the one I was using was new too!).

Put the bike in the car and drove to West Coast Park. Planned to do Tuas area and get home in time for family dinner outing. 2hrs of cycling time, wonder how much I could do. I started the ride, and stopped about 100m. The speedometer was not sensing the distance because the front tire was fixed with the magnet on the wrong side. Ah, I did not check my bike after last week's race. So I stopped at a bus stop and tried to switch the front wheel. Not bad, at least I remembered how to do that. Ok, meter fixed, back on the ride.

There were surprisingly still many heavy vehicles and big trailer trucks at that time of the afternoon. And they were hurtling down the roads in a menacing way. The head wind was very strong, I practised riding on the smaller front gear. There was also a lot of cross wind, and I could feel myself swerving slightly even when I was going straight. Even when I was on my drops on a straight flat road. The instability increased each time a trailer sped by me, and I would wobble a little. Took a lot of control to keep the bike pointing forward and drawing a straight line.

Reached Tuas Biomedical Park area where traffic was very light and I could do about 5km on the drops with no disruption. The roads and air around Tuas were not the most desirable. The roads were rough and sometimes I would be stuck at the back of trucks transporting sand/ pebble that left a ghastly cloud of dust behind - had to hold my breath! Depending on which part of Tuas and the factories in the area, the air would smell of sweetness, to burnt rubber, to sourish and an assortment. But I guess it beat having to be in start-stop traffic weaving in-out of congested roads.

Managed about 50km before rushing home. So very late for dinner!