i got to know this guy called chin yuen (cy) when we were forming the team. cy is an interesting character. he quitted his job a couple of years ago as a teacher pursuing his dreams and ideals that he sees fit. he traveled a fair bit around the world. he typically would bring his dahon folding bike (a dahon vitesse, which i have one too) and see the world on his folding bike. the fact that he got sponsored by the dahon distributor here helps. (you can check out his interesting blog at five to spare ) we spoke about things a little bit and i told him that i am actually leaving singapore in a couple of weeks time. coincidentally, his girlfriend plans to pursue her phd in melbourne and we loosely agreed to meet up if it happens and ride together around beautiful melbourne.
i met the other 2 dahoners later and my immediate reaction was `oh oh....!'. there were 4 of us who will start off the ride and the 3 were fighting fit and looks like they are ready to kick the asphalt. if i had ride consistently, i would not have felt that intimidated. plus my bike is stock parts, while their dahons has superior parts, skinny race tires and all. not least superior rider.
after all the formalities, dr vivian balakrishnan flagged us off. i did well for the first 25km keeping up with the joneses and we reached the 1st pit stop without much fuss. by then the morning sun is beginning to scorch and i know things started going downhill for me when i reached the stretch of jalan buroh. i felt a tinge of pain of my thighs but i pressed on because i was still with a bunch of cyclists and do not want to look like in pain at such early stage of the ride. by this time, the 3 dahon speedy gonzales already left me for dead. i am pretty much on my own soon after.
just before i reached the 3rd pit stop in kranji, the 3 of them were actually waiting for me at a bus-stop. i could tell they have been waiting for quite a while and i felt really bad for them. the idea was to ride to the kranji pit stop together to show some `dahon power'. it was probably another 7km to the stop. i started off well along the straight stretch keeping up with them, but once we turn into the new tee road stretch, my cramps of both thighs started acting up big time now. i had to `drop off' the pack and felt bad. i struggled to the stop and by the time i arrived, the 3 guys were sufficiently rested and ready to go! well, i graciously begged them to go ahead and not wait for me. it would be travesty to ask them to wait for me and then to be left behind again after 300m. in any case, i wanted more time to rest. i also dare not sit down as i am not sure if i am able to stand up (ever) again if i were to. my legs were stiff and i was clearly grimacing. i rubbed the `deep heat' cream to loosen up the muscles. a nice shimano rider to me to drink lots of liquid to keep hydrated and the cramps will go away. i wonder why he hadn't told me 40kms earlier. now, it didn't exactly comes in useful in that hour.
my last leg were plain ugly. i cannot recall exactly but i think i almost black-out once while waiting for the traffic light to turn in my favour. my legs were almost jelly and i keep telling myself to just do `one pedal at a time'.
to complete the loop is a relief. `how about a 2nd loop?'. i almost punch that guy in the face for saying that; if only i could still walk 3 steps to get near him. i couldn't. walk, i.e.
all in all, it is a good experience for me. generous colleagues and friends helped donated more than $500 for the cause.
and next time, i'd make sure i train for such long rides. no more macho delusions from myself.
this is the team dahon during the start of Enduro 08. CY is on the far right.
that's me, before the start. i will spare you the `after' picture. 
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