National Championships
Came in first lap in 4th only to have a puncture that would subsequently push me back to 7th. Nevertheless, was a good ride.
National Championships
National Championship first lap
Running the last bit.
Running
Nationals MTB
Details are out on Cyclone’s website.
2 Laps for Senior Sport, which I believe will be one heck of a crazy mad push right from the get go. First and foremost, they’ve changed the track and it will be flat out for the main part of the section till the climbs at the gas pipes. So jostling for positions will be critical.
I’ve got stiff competition from Sam and Ellery who are traditionally better right from the gun. Well, we’ll see how it goes this time round.
Roadies will be racing this weekend. Hope they do well and bag some medals back!
Championship Course
First Tri… Lived to Tell the Tale…
And so my first Triathlon happened on Sunday. I woke up Sunday morning not feeling too settled. Didn’t manage very much sleep through the night. Everything was pretty much packed the night before so things were pretty smooth in the morning.
Transition was set up pretty quickly as well as getting my body marked. Bakjiu who nice enough to came down and support was on hand to give me the little added support!
Transition Set up
Was I nervous? Obviously. I haven’t done an open water sea swim for years and swimming was my achilles heel. How would I fair with all the pushing and shoving?
While waiting for my wave to push off, Gerald Tan spotted me and came over to say hi! It was certainly welcoming to see another contestant on the ground since Pan wasn’t able to come. Pan’s place was given to SH’s bro instead, and I managed to have a quick word with SH before the start. Gerald was also doing his first Tri but he’s been doing Bi’s and Aquathlons for some time now. So massive swim starts were pretty natural to him.
Anyway, 9am came and we set off. I placed myself somewhere 3/4 from the front as I didn’t want to be pushed down by the faster swimmers and get kicked in the face either. As expected, it was quite a chaotic start especially with Team relays also starting at the same time. I got kicked and pushed a side a couple of times. Somewhere about 200m into the swim, everyone seemed to be squeezing closer the to rope and I was already on the edge. To give myself some space, I swam breast stroke for about 80-100m just to fend off a few people and not get pushed under. Some bugger was tugging my legs. Urgh.
Start
Got out of the water in 16:29. Which was faster than I had expected. I thought a 20mins was about the time I could manage. I found the transition area a little too grassy and prickly. I got poked by quite a bit of mimosas and some of the thorns were irritating me through the rest of the race. By the way the thorns are so fine that up till now, I haven’t gotten some out.
Then came the bike. I was pretty happy that I was managing a 37-39km/h on the outlap and on the return about 35 with headwind. I was obviously pushing hard to make up time and to capitalize on my strongest leg. Did a 32:52 for 20km. Pretty pleased. I thought I could go faster as well. Oh well…
Running. That was pretty painful. My legs were starting to tire after the bike leg and thorns + fatigue was starting to take its toll. Trudged at a rather steady pace for most of the race. Finished the run leg in 28:24. Not too shabby. Oh did I mentioned I saw a Zhenyu (Pan) screaming by on the run. Damn.
In total I came in 25th for my category and 10th for my bike leg. Happy? Yeap. Pretty pleased with my first Tri. Will I do it again? You bet. =)
** pics courtesy of Justin Chua or better known as Bakjiu. ** – More pics to come.
TTT @ Changi
Well done Team Conticomponents. We secured our third road podium for the year and we’re looking forward to greater achievements later this year.
Podium Boys - 3rd Mtb Category (Photo from Stanley)
Once again, big thank you to all the sponsors making this possible.
Making your own sports drink.
Thought it was worth a try since I spend quite a bit on Sports drinks every time I ride/run/swim. Close to $5 every time.
Abstracted from BikeRadar Website.
By Dr Kevin Currell, Triathlon Plus
Key ingredients
So what are the ingredients that do this? Simply sugar, salt and water. The sugar prevents a decrease in performance caused by a drop in blood sugar, the fluid helps stave off dehydration, and the salt helps absorb and retain the fluid.
Using table sugar
Making your own sports drinks will save you a fortune and there are two main ways to tackle this. These will make up 1 litre of sports drink. The first involves taking 60-80g of table sugar, adding half a teaspoon of table salt, adding no-added-sugar cordial and topping up with water.
If you add less than 60g of sugar it might not be enough to prevent the drop in blood glucose. If you add more than 80g of table sugar you’ll start to delay fluid absorption. This means the fluid takes longer to get to where it needs to be – the blood and the muscles – and will not be as effective at staving off dehydration. More than 80g of table sugar also increases the likelihood of stomach upsets, particularly if you are running soon afterwards.
Using fruit sugar
A second option is to use fruit juice. Again assuming you are making 1L of sports drink add 400-600ml of the fruit juice to a 1L bottle and dilute with water, adding half a teaspoon of table salt. The advantage of this method is the type of sugars found in fruit juice – mainly glucose and fructose – which are the most easily absorbed mixture of sugars. This will lead to more of the sugar being used as fuel, increased fluid absorption and give a better performance compared to a glucose-only drink.
Cannondale 7kg bike. OMG
I bet you didn’t think 7kg was quite possible for a XC rig but seems like Cannondale has done it. Breaking 16 pounds on the scale is their specially built Flash Carbon. Its rigged with Di-2 modified shifters with some serious shavings all over the bike. Think removing the crank and shave, or removing a already featherlite Podium MMX spokes to rebuilt. Price? $15k USD. I mean, its a Ferrari of XC bike isn’t it?
**edited** Oh did I mention, this bike uses Scrub Components. Now available on Conticomponents.com 41g each. FTW!
Cannondale Flash
Di-2 Custom
Scales don't lie as they say.
Photos and details from Cyclingnews.
2 weeks to first Triathlon + Equipment
Nerves Nerves Nerves.
One reason why I have abstained from Tri all this years was simply due to the swim. Swimming has never been my forte and still isn’t! But like I mentioned some posts back, Triathlon for me, is to seriously challenge myself to push beyond fear, and to achieve something I never though possible. And it will start in 2 weeks time.
Looking to complete the sprint series route under 1 hr 30mins. Yes its not fast, and it ain’t that long either, but its finishing that matters.
Equipment wise,
Bike has been set up and ready to go. Its got about 400km on it and should be working perfect. Below are the highlights of the set up.
TT Bike
Frame was imported at an excellent price, and its the exact same one you get from Karbona and etc.
Karbona TT Lite
Cockpit is a combi of T2+ Aerobars and T2+ Wing Bars.
T2+ Aerobars
T2 Wing Bars
Bar end shifters are Microshift Ones. They’re light and cheaper than D.A.
Microshift Bar Ends
Still left a Tri Top to get. Hopefully soon!
Trail Run – 10km. Xterra Msia?
I have been thinking about doing this for quite some time, but never got down to doing so. Today I took the running shoes and head down to BT to do a lap of offroad running.
With the terrain and hot sun, it sure makes perfect training. 1.5km to the trails, 7km lap, 1.5km home.
Did the entire lap in 38mins. Not too shabby for first BT trail run.
Weight before run: 67.5kg. After run: 65kg. A total lost of 2.5kg of water from running. Thats not including about 300ml of Salt Tablet water. I have to get this water loss in check or else it will impede me in long races.
Now that i’ve got offroad running training going, should I try Xterra Malaysia? June 13th? Hmm… No? Yes?
Xterra Msia
GetSet events this weekend
2 Events happening this weekend. Hosted by our friends from GetSet.
GetSet
1st is the Mt. Faber Madness which is 50 laps of Mt. Faber Pender loop.
More info here.
Mt. Faber
2nd event is a much less sadistic one. I Cycle chill out party event.
More info here.
Legs didn’t fire…
Not too sure why, but maybe it was a cumulation of 2 nights of insufficient rest, that caused me to end my training prematurely. Was planning to do a brick training today, but somehow after the swim, the legs felt crampy and didn’t fire. Forced to stop halfway and turned back.
Took in quite a fair bit of food for lunch and dinner as well. Hopefully the food and a good nights rest will set me back on track.
Feeling of legs not firing is just not fun.
50 laps of Faber.
Anyone keen on joining 50 laps of Faber? Hosted by GetSet.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=104919639541413
ITT Coastal 36km
After spending the last 2 weeks training on Pan’s Planet X, I finally got down to doing the first ITT race this year. It was 36km (3 Loops) of the famed Changi Coastal road. I knew I could do an average timing of about 57-58mins on the course and so I was not overly worried.
1st Lap – I started out of the blocks pretty fast, averaging about 46km/h in the first minute or so and knew that the pace was way too fast for me so I decided to back off a little, avoiding the risk of blowing up too fast. Probably adrenalin that was allowing my legs to go so fast. Somehow the legs felt cold on the first 1-2km and wasn’t really firing at optimum levels. Maybe the next time we will need trainers to warm up.
On the backstraight, it was super gusty and the headwinds were strong. Only managed at 33-34km/h on the way back.
2nd Lap – Felt much stronger this round and legs were starting to fire.
3rd Lap – I had a Open Cat guy about 100m in front of me doing about 36km/h on the back straight. That helped me maintain a decent timing on the way back.
All in all, I managed a 10th position, at 58 min 15 sec. Not too shabby if you ask me, considering I don’t usually ride in the time trial position, but I will surely be looking forward to the next 2 TT races this year.
Suffering
Pushing hard
6 days to ITT
Team Conticomponents Road team will be featuring at Cyclone Road Series this year. Starting with the first race this Sunday at Changi Coastal on Sunday.
Most of the boys have been preparing hard doing simulated ITTs along the respective training grounds. Do come down and support us!
As for me?
I’ve got the most recent weapon ready..
And yes.. Tim.. I’ve already removed the plastic aero front part. So its just shades and helmet. Anyway the extra shade makes ventilation worst.
1 Year Of Pain
I will make it official as of now. I’ve decided to do Aviva Ironman 70.3 next yr and OSIM Tri. So I’ve got exactly a year to get myself into shape and complete it. To be honest, I think its really possible, but at the same time, I know there is a lot of pain and training that will have to go down before reaching that final finishing line.
Sprint Races that I will take part to get myself into shape.
1. Tribob Triathlon 2nd May
2. Tribob Bintan Triathlon 22nd May
3. Desaru Triathlon (Johor) 2nd October
Well, like the ad says, “I don’t do this to beat other athletes. I do this to beat one person. Me.”
Pan’s Bike – Planet X
In preparation for 28th March’s ITT in Changi, I managed to get Pan to lend me his seriously sick bike. Don’t you just love your team mate?
This machine just screams FAST and by the way, this frame won ITT stage 13 of TDF in 2007. Now thats seriously some street cred if you ask me.
I love the set up and it fits me perfect. Just did 20km on it and it fits like a glove! Perfect. Now.. I will try to find an Aerohelmet to match the Bike’s slipstream.
ITT Weapon. Courtesy of Pan.
Ridley didn’t have a TT frame then, and sticked stickers onto this same Frame. =)
Cadel Evans. TDF Stage 13 Winner 2007.
Ocbc Race
And so the day arrived. The day that a few of us had anticipated for a couple of months. I was under some pressure from the rest of my team mates as I had not ridden my road bike for months. I was seriously starting to loose interest in road and mountain biking was taking up a mainstay of my training. It was only 2 weeks ago that I started getting back on the roadie and doing some solid miles on it.
As for the rest of my team mates, Amreet, Weizhe and Tim, they have been riding tons of road. They are specialist roadies so they have been doing Tuesday Rock Racing pretty often which speeds surge above 50km/h at times. Must be good training I suppose.
Preping the night before.
So preparation on race day. Woked up at 3am, was contemplating on driving down but realized that it will probably be a nightmare getting out of town area due to all the road closures so decided that riding down was the best idea. However, I made it a point not to exceed 30km/h, didn’t want to waste my legs for no reason.
Had Breakfast at KAP Mac and then took a 30 mins chill ride down to CJ to meet the rest.
Breakfast
By 5.15am, most of our team mates were there and we were trying to squeeze to the start point. Start point was already packed with quite a fair bit of “under 1hr” cyclists. OCBC seperates people who can finish under 1 hr as compared to people who can’t. This is to help prevent slow riders from clogging up the start point.
Crazy number of Riders!
Starting!
Tim
Amreet
To be honest, I wasn’t too worried that the speed will be fast at the start. For a mountain biker, we’re used to mad sprinting right off the line so road starts couldn’t be that bad. We were promptly flagged off at 6 and the strategy was to stick with the front pack all the way.
Roads were pretty dark and the front pack was pretty edgy. Some of the Cycleworx guys were trying to do breakaways and caused the front packed to surge inconsistently. There was also alot of pushing and shoving going on. I had to elbow a couple of people to prevent them from taking me down. All was pretty good till we reached ECP. First, the roads were way too dark for people to ride at 45km/h. And to make matters worst, people were not keeping their lines when they went over the humps. It wasn’t long before someone had to go down. In fact, it was the person behind me that went down pretty hard and pulled Tim down with him. Poor Tim was sucked into it and had his helmet smashed.
Once the crashed occured, the front packed surged to seperate themselves from the chasing pack. This time, speeds were pushing 48-50km/h along the jogging paths, bloody bloody dangerous to ride on. I locked my wheels around one of the 90 degree right turns but managed to control the bike doing a powerslide. Lucky me!
In the end, it all came down to a bunch sprint. The last turn a rider pushed me into the barrier so I got boxed in and had to slow down. Too bad by the time I picked up speed, I couldn’t contend for the sprint. But overall I managed a pretty good result. For my category, I managed a second position so I couldn’t complain.
Second Place
Overall, it was a good experience since my last road race was a couple of years back when I was still racing in Juniors. I’ve gotta say, I may have just rekindled my love for the road again. My team owner just asked me to compete in the road races this year as well. Now… its time to train for ITT in 2 weeks time.
10 laps of Faber
I’ve gotta say, 10 laps of Faber is more painful on the brain then actually on the body. But why Faber? and why 10 laps?
1. Got a rather bizarre technical problem on my Carver so had to abandon my 6 laps of BT.
2. On my way to Faber on my roadie, a car squeezed me to a curb because he was turning late and I crashed.
3. Pissed, and never managed to do my 10 laps previously.
When I arrived at Faber, Passi:one group was just turning in together with me. They had about 4 guys doing Faber together. Somehow, they felt that they must be faster than me (roadie ego), so as I sat on their asses and pushed the pace, they kept standing up to pedal faster. So much so that one guy blew and fell way behind. I then worked with the other 3 of them up 2 laps of Faber. On the third, which was their last, they went all out for pace and I left them to do their own crazy pace.
I’ve got to be honest that on my 4th lap, I was starting to tell myself maybe 8 laps might be good enough. 10 was just CRAZY. But when I reached 7th lap, I was starting to feel strong. My body was probably starting to get used to the pain and I knew 10 was in reach. So after about 1h 30mins, I completed the 10 laps and headed back. After two Saturdays of back to back Pain, I guess I can conclude that a lot depends on the determination of the mind over the body.
In Surgery.
Ketam Pics
Pushing Hard during XC.
Trusted Carver
Short Track
Medals from the rest of Team Conticomponents!
Team Conticomponents
A big thank you to the sponsors who have made Team Conticomponents possible!
Ketam
And so the day arrived. Team Conticomponents have been training hard for the first race and we were determined to give it a good showing and let everyone see that we’re a force to be reckoned with.
For Pan, Jeremy and myself, we decided to stay over in Ubin the night before to get a little more sleep before the race. Guess it was not too bad after all and Celestial Resort was surprisingly quite a nice place! Breakfast was included as well, to our surprise!
Bikes Lining up the night before.
As for me, I was racing XC (Seniors B) and Short Track.
Weather was hot as ever, with zero clouds in the sky!
No Clouds. HOT!
XC – The race started well with the same few criminals taking the front. There was this GT guy that was seriously holding us up until we pass him before going into the forested section. In the forested section, I managed to pass both Ellery and Samuel but they caught be back at China Bowl. Subsequently, towards the end of the first lap, I was getting a little bit of leak in my rear wheel and decide to ease off the pace. I knew 4th position was quite a distance away and therefore securing a podium was quite important. Finished about a minute plus behind the first 2 guys, and the final podium spot.
Short Track Open – To be honest, I wasn’t going to do ST to get a podium, but rather for points scoring. Ellery my competitor was also taking part so points was at stake. Race was pretty fast and my objective was to hang in there and collect maximum points. Race was rather chaotic at certain corners but survived without much of a hitch. Ivan came in 3rd! Congrats bro. I came in 5th.
Rest of the results of Team Conticomponents:
Bobot Master XC – 5th
Ivan Super D Juniors – 1st
Sam Super D Open – 3rd
Bobot Super D Masters – 1st
Total Podiums: 5
We’ll be looking forward to the first road race to see even greater and more positive results!
Podium! 3rd!
Final Prep
Lim hard at work!
Sunday will be Team Conticomponents first race and we’re all excited and looking forward to great results. We had a quick team discussion last night at The Wine Company (our corporate sponsors) over bottles of Pongras, and to tie up the loose ends logistically. Did a quick ride this morning with SH and I’ve gotta say he’s pretty fast! Haha, he was really pushing me quite hard till I had a mechanical.
Now the Carver is undergoing final touch-up at Cycle and Pedal before the race. Next week the full servicing will occur.
Official Drink of Team CC - Pongracz
Ketam Ketam
Race is in 2 weeks so training has been stepped up a little. Last Saturday I had a good ride in Ketam with L&T guys (Ellery, Daniel and Joshua) and Bike Labz (Samuel). Pretty fun bunch and they set a good pace through the laps.
Sadly, my XTR Rear D was giving me problems, and I couldn’t shift to my 34t and my 11t. After some inspection at CNP on Sunday, it seems that the linear springs aren’t stretching properly. With the race this close, I changed it out to a XT.
Also bought some ammo for the race. There’s just no time to pump in the race!
Co2 Canister and Head
Enjoying the Dry Singletrack
I’ve always thought that I was more of a wet muddy kind of rider, but this past week, when the weather has turned sunny, the singletrack that I’ve ridden on has never been better! On Monday, I had great fun at T-15, Scorpion and BT. So when I realized that the weather was still nice and dry on Wednesday, I gave Andrew and JC a call to ride Tampines. Tampines may not have the most challenging trail in terms of technical ups and downs, but it sure does have some nice climbs to push yourself on.
Blue Skies Again!
Andrew Climbing
JC's Turn
Enjoying the Ride
Group Shot
Tampines ride happened to be Andrew’s last ride as well. Wish him a safe trip back to US and enjoy the “real” singletrack there! Haha…
As for me and JC, we’re supposed to hit Ketam this afternoon, however JC was a little wasted after yesterday’s ride, so since he wasn’t riding, I wasn’t too keen on travelling all the way down to go alone. Instead, I decided to hit Kent Ridge. Did a total of 8 laps and my lungs were on the verge of coming out. The climbs and roots are no joke. But I have to say, I really really really enjoyed myself. I will be hitting KR more often in future.
Carver 96er Posing
After 4 laps.. still smiling!
Carver 96er heading into the trails!
KR! YEAH!
Eric 