Kuantan - Kuala Lumpur ride 276km

Luckily for the third day, the rain stopped, the sun embarassingly poke out, and it's a good day to cycle.
So I had to do what I had to do. Cycle back to my home in KL. My parents sort of disagree for safety concern.
They thought it's better to courier back the bike and take a bus.

After having fried rice for breakfast, I departed at around 7:40am. I had some worries on my tires pressure. Had not pumped in
since the ride from KL. Couldn't find a pump in Kuantan as bike shops were closed. So I am betting on getting home on not so inflated ones.

Reached Gambang without much difficulty. Stopped an Sri Jaya for some fruits and drinks, then passed Maran to quickly get to Temerloh.
Once in Temerloh, after the bridge, had some lunch. I think distance covered was 120 plus km. I was hoping to reach Karak in about 4.

After lunch the remainder of the journey was a bit hot as the sun came out. Didn't manage to get much speed, and reached Karak at around 4 plus.
Karak is just 52km from Temerloh. At Karak, had some drinks and was soon off. The previous fruit seller was surprised I cycled back. I acknowledged his comments,
but I knew ahead the path back is still a long way back. karak to bentong is around 15km. Had to cycled part of the highway before turning into Bentong Timor.

Reached shell station at bentong around 5.30pm. I knew I had 30 plus km to Genting Sempah, and I don't want to be stuck in the dark climbing up.
But at this point, with 195km on the meter, I was on the verge of bonking. Forget it, I am already bonked. And all this while climbing up to Sempah.
With numerous twist and turns of never ending tarmac, I just hoped my legs could take it. For if I have the choice of a support car, I wouldn't mind throwing in the bike.

After 1.5 hours and close to 7pm, I managed to reached the small bridge just before the steep ascent up. It's a 5km, I think, climbed up to to Bukit tinggi.
Stopped for awile to lace up the front LED lights because this part is totally dark.

With energy at zero, and lots of pain, and pedalling like mad, I finally reached Sempah. I was spent. But I've got to eat before going another 40km.

With lots of thinking to do, I finally concluded, anything more than 200km for cycling is pure hardship. Throw that in hills, and it becomes insane.

After dinner, I propped up the bike for the last ascent up, which is like 1km climb, before descending down to Hospital Orang Asli.
There's zero lights here, and while gravity helped on descent, it's certainly a harrowing time figuring what lies in front of the road. I was more worried of
rocks, potholes or anything that can throw me off, than some polong or hantu. A crash here will be a nightmare. In fact there was once I hit a hole and almost lost it.

Finally managed to reach HOA, then cycled to Gombak toll and back to city life.

But that's not the end of it, with 20km of MRR2 highway in the rain, it's just as hard as well.
With 1 km to go, finally the back tire went flat.
I was so glad it was 1km. I slowly walked back. At least I could still walk. Didn't want to change the tire because mine is very very hard to changed. It's not those bendable tires,
where you could easily popped the tube out.

As I reached home, I saw my car, and I felt wouldn't it be easier if I had just drove. I love my car more than ever.

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Conclusion:

Riding from KL to kuantan is not hard. At least 10 hours of riding time.

Riding from Kuantan to KL is very hard because of the climb. And also a longer distance because you have to reach Bentong first.
I think that's additional 5km. In fact it's so hard, I don't think I want to do it with support car either.


Road to Gombak...



The intersection just before Bentong, go left to hit the highway...

Temerloh soon...



At Maran, but still have 70km to cover...

After Gambang, the road is lighted, so was not worried...

Pedalling as hard as can to reach kuantan...

On the way back to KL, before Gambang...