My alarm went off at 5am. I hit the snooze button, clearly reluctant to get up. Finally, I pulled out from my blanket, 530am. Alber and I were meeting Henry at 615am at the Changi CSC Club car park. We crossed to Changi Point Ferry Terminal to meet the rest of the folks going to Desaru. There were about 20 of us. The immigration clearance was quickly settled and we loaded our bicycles onto two bum boats. The ride took about an hour across to the town of Pengerang in Johor. I was surprised to see Clarence and Cat too. They were riding with another group of cyclists. From the Pengerang Jetty, we began our 100km ride at 830am (map). I was already beginning to feel hungry. Oops.
The ride was split into a few sections. The first re-grouping point was 15km away in the town of Sungei Regit. The stretch was fairly easy and straight. Then we rode another 35km to the refuel point at Petronas gas station (~53km). The headwind was relentless along the coastal road. It blasted at us non-stop and occasionally swayed our bicycles. The stretch around 35-50km was fully of rolling hills. They looked really steep from afar, but were actually more long, gradual and manageable. But throw in the challenging headwind and we were looking at hard cranking up the slopes. Part of the route was familiar, we covered it during last year's Desaru Long Dist Tri. Our riders broke up into 4-5 packs of various speeds over the distance. We tried to huddle and draft, but it was not easy. We ended up overtaking, falling back and overtaking....
After a much needed refuel - I had a happy Magnum Classic ice-cream (cheap in Msia!) and Milo packet drink - we continued the ride towards lunch point. That surely was part of the motivation for the excursion today. :) We did not backtrack, but took a traverse route. The return route was had less headwind and we were able averaged much higher speeds. But the sun was also out in full blast by then and we could feel the heat burning through the skin. Before long we reached our lunch destination at Jade Garden. The iced lime juice was such a thirst quencher! I gamely gulped two glasses. Lunch was rewarding enough, we had vegetables, herbal chicken, cereal prawns and buttered lobsters.
The post-lunch ride was a 15km back to the jetty. I almost cramped up on my right quads, and then later on my left quads. My oh my.... I certainly did not wish to roll my bike and walk the distance! I dropped my chains to very light gear and switched to high cadence. Surprisingly, it did flush out the lactic after a while. The road sign that stated "Jetty - 2km" was very welcoming indeed! Counting down......
We reached the jetty before 3pm. Distance covered was about 97km. It was a fantastic ride with many of my Yellowfish classmates, and we got to know some new faces as well. The combination of sun and sweat (salt) lulled by the gentle waves was intoxicating, I slept through the return boat ride.
I was happy with my ride today, had put in effort - so that I could redeem my reunion dinner tonight! Haha.
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