Long awaited public holiday! Had a date with Alber and Henry, but my sub-conscious was refusing to wake up this morning. Finally dragged myself out of bed and got changed. We were going for a long ride. Perfect weather to be outdoors today, nice and cool after last night's torrential rain.
Alber and I rode from my place to meet Henry at 10-mile Junction. Henry planned the route for today and led the way up towards Woodlands Rd and right turned onto Mandai Rd. It was a route full of rolling hills and headwinds. Traffic was relatively light in the morning. We went from Mandai to Sembawang to Upp Thomson Rd and did a loop through Lower Pierce Reservoir to Upper Pierce.
Too many rolling slopes and long downhills! It was scary to go down fast, knowing that there was a traffic light at the other end of the slope. In particular, the long winding path along Old Upp Thomson Rd was challenging. It was one of my running routes around Macritchie. Well, running was low speed. Cycling was high speed. It was difficult to slow down at the end of the slope, yet critical as it filtered into high-speed traffic hurtling down Upp Thomson Rd. For a brief moment, I was reminded of a flying tumble. Then we headed to Yio Chu Kang and Seletar. Henry's wheel dropped into a curb-side ditch at a traffic light and he fell sideways. Thankfully it was red light, stationary traffic, and he got away with a few surface abrasions. After a short stretch, we stopped at Selegie Soya Bean for chin chow, tau huay and you char kway. :) Distance clocked ~35km.
The next segment of the ride took us through the scenic Seletar airbase, where the fields open up in front of you. It felt as if we were on a joyride into the countryside! We cut out at Seletar Reservoir and followed the road (Yishun Ave 1 - Mandai Ave - Mandai Rd) all the way to the Shell Petrol Kiosk at the junction of Woodlands Rd. U-turned and did the reverse to Seletar Reservoir, and U-turned again. Each uni-direction was about 12-13km, so 1 loop was 25km. I stopped on the 2nd loop at Seletar Reservoir for a Gu-gel.
Henry was very fast, and he went back after the second loop for a lunch appointment. Alber and I slowly made our way through the headwinds and upslopes - an intoxicating combination, light-headed from lack of oxygen! Haha. We finally plodded our way back to Woodlands Rd, Upp Bt Timah Rd and Bt Batok, stopping for lunch at a coffeeshop near home.
Total distance 90km. A lovely way to spend a public holiday. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment