Cycling is like life. Cycling with no goal is meaningless. What meaning is there cycling in circles? Or living aimlessly? Meaning comes from direction and destination. Join me in my life's journey on a mountain bike :)

Blogging since 2003. Thank you for reading :))

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Exhilaration acceleration

Feb distance: 220 km

East Coast, 70 km. Once in a while, I have a good day. For warm up, I cycle 12 km to the start point: the Formula 1 pit. I've wanted to cycle on the race track and now I can. There's 2,400 of us doing the 40 km OCBC Cycle Singapore challenge. We're packed like cattle but when the ride starts we somehow space out. I see dropped water bottles (which must've bounced out of bottle cages as we speed over speed bumps). I also see two cyclists go down in separate incidences in shuddering turns but I'm without a scratch as my mountain bike is oh so nippy. In the risky East Coast Park area, we're early enough to avoid the misguided kids and pedestrians (though they must be especially foolhardy to venture on the wrong track with pelotons bearing down). I hang on grimly at 35-38 km/h and start overtaking in the last few km. Near the finish line, I sprint and hear the commentator say, "Here comes a mountain bike, it's not built for speed ... but look at that, faster than a racing bike" as I overtake a spent roadie. I might've been the first mountain biker to cross the finish line but kudos to the guy on knobbies who kept up until the last few km. Oh yes, what a beautiful day.

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