To Mount Faber and Lim Chu Kang, 78 km. When I see the race list, I know who's going to win the NUS Cycling Club King of the Mountain time trial. I'm right. DC, reputedly Singapore's fastest guy on rollerblades, clocks 3 min 58 seconds up Mount Faber. "Doc" Chin clocks 4:09. I come in a second later, third among the nine mountain bikers. A crummy second and I could've been joint second. Still, it's my first ever time trial. I tag along with the gang for breakfast then head west with a handful of them. I think it won't rain, but I'm wrong. It dawns on me that the sky is getting greyer. Soon, it rains buckets. The diagonal rain soaks my soaks as I shelter at a bus stop at Lim Chu Kang. I head out when the rain lightens out, but it pours again. I shelter at Upper Thomson Road, with bikeshop man. He whips out a thick Shimano 2006 catalogue and gives me a critique. It looks like it'll not stop pouring. I sprint in the rain to keep warm; I feel like a goldfish being hosed. I puff my cheeks to blow air out so rain water doesn't get in. When the rain hits my lips, it stings. When it hits my bell, it rings. Somehow, the exertion makes my running nose clear up...
Photo courtesy of WQ Ong
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