Sunday, June 8, 2008

BROGA ride

Sunday morning, and it was raining cats & dogs. I've got a ride with veteran Jacky (desaru finisher) to BROGA. But the rain put a drag on my cycling plans. Had to wait till 9:30am, which I then proceed to Cheras Bt 9 to wait for him. We started at around 10am, slowly grinding our way to Hulu Langat Bt 14.

On the way, we encountered 2 parts of the road flooded, causing the road to be submerged under 1 feet of water. Cars & motor bikes were stopping and waiting for the water to subside. We can't ride through it, so we dismounted, and carry our bikes over. Then we continue on to Genting Peres.

Genting Peres climb was hard at first, but then it gradually came into smooth, almost flat uphill, except at the end.

From there, it was 'over the 50km' speed limit as we zoomed up and down the slopes of Titiwangsa range to reach Kelawang. At Kelawang, we had an half hour lunch. My bike meter showed 72km on the mileage. In anticipation of Bukit Tangga, which I heard was the toughest hill climb for this route, I downed 2 plates of rice. And 2 glasses of fruit juice as well.

From kelawang, we went through 10km or more, before we hit bukit Tangga. And from there it's all the way up for another 2 or 3km. The climb was tough, but we kept on grinding the pedals. It was not exactly a straight road up, but some parts turns right and left. As we almost reached the top, we were cheered on by guys on bikes. It was definitely a consistent struggle pushing up the %#*@#@# hill.

From there, we made a quick downhill ride and reached the junction to Lenggeng. We stopped by a fruits stall to quench up on coconut drinks and fruits. The owner said, it'll take around 9km to reach Lenggeng. I thought "not far, and should be easy". Little did we know we'll face 2 more major hill climbs, before reaching Lenggeng.

After Lenggeng, there's 2 sections of road which were under construction for like 300 meters. I feared falling or the tire going bust from all the impact of small & larges stones, but luckily we prevailed.

After 110 km, we finally reached BROGA. Quite an small picturesque town, with hills nearby. We stopped for ABC, and some fruits, before continuing to Semenyih. At Semenyih, we continued on to Kajang using the highway, and all the way up to cheras. The real BROGA loop will go to Tekala, but I'll leave that another time, because time was not on our side. Kajang highway was quite a ride as well, going up overpass, underpass, with faster traffic zooming by.

I finally reached home at 6:25pm, with 146km on the meter.

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I think running a marathon is so much harder than this. Although legs are a bit sore, but not as bad as marathon.
Now, anyone know some 200km plus road?



The instructions says...not to play with your odometer...

This car was trying to pass through..but stuck halfway....never drive in any flood situation, unless it's 1 inch high.

Water level was really high

climbing genting peres...

After genting peres...

The infamous bukit tangga...


Jacky, this guy is 53 years old, and still can cycle hundreds of km

I was just glad conquer bkt tangga. This is at the top.

BROGA!!!


Nice broga town view...

15 comments:

Raymond said...

OMG u did Broga after 2 weeks getting your bike!!!!
I have been cycling for 2 years but dare not go there!!!

C-CUBE said...

Wow, now u into Ultra biking!!!!

yipwt said...

raymond,
Broga is doable. Just some hard climbs only.

c-cube,
I dunno how to define ultra biking. How far to go?

Anonymous said...

not as tough as what everyone claims right ? :D

Keipo said...

salute !!!

yipwt said...

hi mich,

The difficulty was ok. I didn't felt quitting at any point.

tey,
thanks.

C-CUBE said...

In ultra running we just double up the normal distance which is comfortable to most runners eg 21k, 42k, and anything more than 42k is consider ultra ~ 60k, 84k then 100k.

So u can used the same analogy, for eg the normal distance to cycle comfortably is 40k, 80k, and anything more than that like 160k to 250k shud be consider ultra cycling.

Kevin Siah said...

Wah your learning curve very steep. Me too haven't rode further than 90km. I think you are the one who should be giving me triathlon tips hehheh.

John said...

Hey, you're supposed to wait and ride with us to Broga. Anyway, happy that you've achieved it.

Anonymous said...

Yip what are you made of?

Anonymous said...

Dr Raymond, he did Broga after a week doing Sundown 84km!

yipwt said...

john,
I heard u got a crash...broken a rib. So don't think could ask u. I did ask raymond ng, but he's into Euro.

But, I didn't do the full loop, just 3 quarter.

haza,
I came down from pluto, disguised as a human...:P

Cycling is pretty easy actually, if you are strong in running, cycling is half the suffering.

Raymond said...

Haza,sometimes I also wondered what is Yip made of too?
Frankly,I think the Ironman distance(3.8/180/42) is a lil' too short to ur liking !

Anonymous said...

dude,

if ironman is tomorrow, i think u can straightaway enter the competition :)

Jaja Shah said...

oh dearrr, well done!!!