Grinding up Genting

Fri 15 - Sat 16 Apr:

To Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia, 105 km. Looks like shit. Wait a minute, it IS shit. Bird shit on my waterbottle, on my bicycle, on the rooftop car rack, as we whizz from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. It's Saturday morning rush hour as we do a "warm up" ride at 37-40 km/h. It's ok for the roadies but as the sole mountain biker ... HHL too has become a roadie and is ahead with the rest of them on her two-week old Orbea Vitesse. I fare better as we cycle up 26 km towards the 1,800 m peak. She overtakes me, I stick to her wheel then go up a 10-degree gradient while she waits. All of us DNF (did not finish), perhaps 6 km from the top, as we run out of time. What a shame. I'd hoped to break my "highest altitude" personal record. Going downhill, my speedometer fails. 0 km/h, it reads. More like 50 km/h. I'm the last man as the girls turned back earlier while the other guys led the group of 5. It's a sickening ride back to Singapore.