ToF Stage 3

If only I was as good on my bike as I was with predictions. Fredrick of Thanyapura, whom I was talking about, won today's stage in style and became the leader in the GC now. He attacked on the "wall" on the 38km right from the start and forced a super hard climb. Anyway the truth is out for me. I am not in the shape that I had desired for. And in this condition, is very hard to compete at this level.

I was with the first pack on the first half of the climb, but David Gowty from Cannasia in front of me opened up a small gap. The small gap then became a bike length, then 3, then it became too huge to close. Soon the second pack passed us, including Matt the leader. I suffered at the back of this group and the pain from my injuries didn't help. I felt pain all over my body and sore hips throughout the day. Soon i was spat out the back of the group. When I reach the top of the hill, I could see the group just ahead of me. But on the descend, they pulled away. After the descend, I was joined by a Cannasia guy and Specialized. We worked together for awhile before the Cannasia guy got dropped. I continued working with Bhimshi, Specialized KynKyny from India.

As if things weren't bad enough after the crash yesterday and getting dropped today, shit things happened again. On one of the junction, we were waiting for the marshals to guide us but they didn't. So we continued going straight and descended for another 2km before hitting a dead end at a jetty. The both of us were dumbfounded. I could hear Bhimshi cursing and swearing. We quickly u-turned and grinded back up the 2km climb. On the way up we saw the race organiser Titaree driving down looking for us. I could see from her look that she felt sorry. Oh well.. The wrong way had taken us a good 5-10mins. By the time we reached the top, the 30-39 cat just passed us and we quickly tagged along. After that it was just suffering and more suffering. I wasn't even competing anymore, I was trying to survive. Anyway, I finished the stage in 28th place, almost 30mins behind the 1st. Matt did not manage to finish the race and is out of GC contention. I hope he wasn't the Confero guy who crashed badly.

 I couldn't quite believe how badly this race has turned out for me. I thought this race would suit me. Maybe I'm burnt out from the exams and training, or maybe I'm just not quite cut out to be a cyclist. My motivation from the build-up up till the race was good. But as soon as the race started it seems like i have lost it. Anyway there are still 2 stages to go. Tomorrow will be another tough stage with lots of climbs but it'll be short. I still have a chance to redeem myself. I might try to go on the attack tomorrow. We shall see...

ToF Stage 2

ToF Stage 2 Today's stage ended up as what I had predicted, lots of people trying their luck but ending in a bunch sprint. But the route to the end of the stage wasn't quite what I had wanted and expected. Right from the start, I was going through a hard time getting my chain up to the big ring. The front derailluer was obviously not working. It gave me a huge scare really as I was thinking whether to stop and manually change it myself. But after 5mins of attempting, somehow it managed to move up finally. And I didn't dared touch it from then on. After sorting my chain out, i had a sudden urge to pee. This time I really had to stop. By the time I finished peeing, the whole convoy was gone and the road was open to traffic again. I had to chase hard and zig zag across the vehicles before finally getting back to the bunch. After the rolling start, there were many attacks and the pace went up and down. After much attempts, a group of 6 managed to get away and the pack settled into a steady pace.

It pretty much was for the remaining race until the 90km mark when the break was eventually caught. Throughout the race I kept reminding myself to hydrate and eat. The weather in Thailand was really hot up to 38deg celcius. I am hoping this would be a slight advantage for me over the rest of the pack, that is made up of mostly Caucasians, in the next few days. Team DirectAsia.com, Mavericks, Cannasia and Specialized were the teams doing most of the work today. After the break was caught, the pack came to life again as many attacks started happening. These were tense moments as the group was swinging from every direction, even using up the lanes which were open to traffic. Fredrick of Thanyapura managed to get away solo amidst the chaos. He was very active earlier on too. He looked very strong for a small guy and is lying 15th in GC after a good time trial on first stage! He would eventually be caught in the last 10km but good try from him. I would be watching out for him in the hills as I'm sure he can climb very well.

Then in the last 15km, disaster for me as I went down hard after hitting a bump while drinking from the bottle. I slided on the hot tarmac for a good 5m at around 43km/h before coming to a halt. My jersey and bib were torn and I had some nasty road rashes. But I really felt sorry for the guy who went down with me as he broke his collarbone. It could have been really worse for me too. I quickly got up, checked myself and my bike, had quick words with the guy and then jumped on my bike. The chase was really tough as the pack, which was cruising at a high speed by now, had opened up a huge gap on me. A support vehicle which was stucked earlier, accelerated pass me as I flagged for it to slow down. I was disgusted really. I thought these guys would be passionate about bike racing and would be willing to help riders get back to the bunch. Unfortunately, not vehicle number 6. Then a police bike came round me to check if I'm okay. I told him to go in front of me but I think he didn't quite get me. I went to the back of his bike anyway and then he get the idea. But clearly he hasn't done motor pacing before. Either his pace was super fast I was struggling, or super slow I had to come round him. After about 5-8km of mad chasing I managed to reach the tail end of the convoy. I slowly moved up vehicle by vehicle and to my relief I was back in the pack. I really didn't want to lose any more time, especially on a stage like this.

Last few hundred metres

I was thinking of a podium at first but was really just content with finishing in the pack now. I quickly recovered a little. In the last 5km it was utter chaos again. Lots of fighting for positions against the strong headwind. Then a crash happened in the middle of the pack. It took out quite a number of riders. I was glad I wasn't involved again this time as going down again would really put a huge knock on my morale. I tried to hang on and sprinted in the last 300m. I was about 5th then but I went out too early against the wind. In the last 100m, few riders overtook me and I finished 12th eventually. I could only imagine what I could achieve if I hadn't crash and timed my sprint a little better.

Crossing the line

Tomorrow is the all important stage. It is sad that I had to race it in pain. But I will try my best to stick with the best and hopefully gain a few GC spots. On a side note, Raymond is having his usual room service supper. Tonight he is having Tom yam soup and basil rice. Smells delicious! But I do not want to lower my power to weight ratio.. :P

ToF Stage 1 & Pre Stage 2

Stage 1 (Prologue): 7km ITT Well, the race finally got under way. The course for this time trial was nice, a long straight road out and back, with a short slope at the start/finish line area in the middle. I did a nice 2 laps warm up before the first guy went off. I figured it was tailwind from the start, and strong headwind after the U- turn. If everything goes according to plan I should be taking roughly 10mins to complete the course, considering I normally clock around 12-13mins for a 20mins interval. It is not too long, but also not that short. I should stick to a zone somewhere between threshold and VO2. 

After my 2 laps warm up

We went off in 30secs intervals, when it was my turn to go, I sprinted off on my drops. Immediately, I was struggling with some gearing problems but managed to get it sorted out in the first 200m. Soon I got back to my saddle and settled into a nice rhythm. I looked at my Garmin and it showed 51km/h. For a moment I thought my Garmin gps wasn't getting a good signal. But then I started looking at the surrounding and it feels that I was really going very fast!  Perhaps faster than what I should be going. So I eased off a little knowing its tailwind and will be headwind coming up. I was right. After the turn, the wind blasted straight at my face. I couldn't manage to get my speed up to over 40km/h. It was tough. Not long, Matt from Team DirectAsia.com overtook me. I tried to pace him over the next 1km but the gap increased as he rode away from me. Demoralised, I kept pushing on at my own pace with my throat running dry and even struggled to swallow my saliva. On the last 500m I increased my effort and on my drops, I sprinted with all I could up the finishing slope. My legs were burning with lactic as I crossed the line with a time of 10mins 38secs. The fastest time of the day was 9mins 20secs by Matt of Confero Mavericks team. So I am now 1mins 18secs behind the race leader, 30th out of a total of 40 riders who started in my cat this morning.

After the race I took a look at my Garmin and noticed my average power over the course. I did not managed to hit the wattage that I had aimed for, 15watts short, but I certainly did it above my threshold power. Perhaps I could have pushed a little harder, but it was near my best efforts. It was almost the best that I could have done, but apparently it wasn't good enough. I was quite surprised by the level of the field to be honest. Maybe a clip on acrobars could have helped a little but nothing more than 10secs. So disappointed as I was, there are still 4 more days and 4 more chances to go. This race is not over yet.

Tomorrow's stage will be a pancake flat stage covering 120km. Some of the big teams will definitely send some riders to go into breaks and force the leader and his team to do some work. Some more ambitious might try to gain time by forcing a break to work. There are also time bonuses for finishing the stage in top 3 positions, so it'll be interesting especially when the GC now is only separated by few seconds. Tomorrow will probably be a day for me to conserve my legs for Stages 3 and 4, since I have nothing to lose anyway. I might have a go at the sprint finish if I have a chance. Will also need to watch out for splits or potential GC contenders slipping away.  That's all for now. Time to get some good rest! Goodnight...

Pre Tour of Friendship

Sitting down on my bed of the race hotel room, I still couldn't quite believe I'm going to race the tour of friendship this year. After missing out on the pass few editions due to school exams, and almost not being able to come this year because of management reason, here I am ready to start the first stage prologue, which is a 7km individual time trial, tomorrow.

The journey here wasn't at all pleasant as we couldn't find the pick up at the airport where the organisers had arranged. Instead, Raymond and I took a cab which cost us a total of 1500 baht. By the time we reached our hotel it was already 2am. We decided to order room service as we were feeling hungry. We finally got to sleep at 3plus. Hopefully this doesn't really screw up our biological clock too much for the next few days. Woke up quite early today as the sun was shining in straight at my face. We went down for breakfast and saw Dirk, Robert, Boi and a few others. We decided to go for an "easy" ride at 9.30am for a small loop around the hotel. The easy ride turned out to be a fast ride. Clearly everyone was in great shape for this race and were all impatient to show it off. After that Dirk, Raymond and I went to Platinum mall for lunch. It wasn't a very good choice as the journey took us 2hrs and 400baht, just for a meal. Race briefing in the evening started 1.5hrs late and we wasted our time waiting. Hopefully this doesn't happen too frequently in the next few days. There are quite a number of big teams in the open category and I will be racing alone against them.

Though preparations for this race was shared between my preparation for school exams, I feel that I've done what I could and I am definitely feeling good for this race. I am giving nothing short of a 100% for the next few days. I have talked the my coach Adrian few days ago and he had given me the motivation and encouragement that I need. If I want to go serious into cycling, I would need to start showing some results. And this is the kind of race that I should already be doing well in. So he and I have both agreed that I should be going for the overall win. It might seem like a daunting task, but I am certainly up for the challenge! Whatever happens so be it. But 1st is what I'm going for! To do that I would need to race smartly and ride safely. I believe I can, and I will not let the past few months of efforts and sacrifice to wasted. The time has come for me to prove myself....

Canyon Ultimate CF SLX for Tour of Friendship 2012

With Tour of Friendship starting of in 5 days time, I have got my bike all set up and ready to go. The whole racing set up weighs 6.84kg, keeping within the UCI regulation by just 400gms. I am using a compact crank 52/36t and a 12-27t cassette set up for the brutal climbs in Thailand. Here's a look at the full specifications and a sneak peek:

Full Specifications

Complete bike specifications

Frame: Canyon Ultimate CF SLX, 52cm
Fork: Canyon Ultimate CF SLX
Stem: Ritchey, 110mm x -17°
Handlebar: FSA Compact Wing Pro, 40cm (c-c)
Tape: Deda bartape(White)
Front brake: Sram Force Brakes
Rear brake: Sram Force Brakes
Brake levers: Sram Force Levers
Front derailleur: Sram Force Front Dee
Rear derailleur: Sram Force Rear Dee
Shift levers: Sram Force Shifters
Cassette: Shimano Ultegra, 12-27t
Chain: Shimano Ultegra Chain
Crankset: Quarq Sram powermeter crank, 172.5mm, 52/36t
Bottom bracket: Sram Force BB (English thread)
Pedals: Shimano
Wheelset: Soul Carbon Wheels (40mm)
Skewers: KCNC Ti skewers
Front tire: Continental GP4000 tubular, 22mm
Rear tire: Continental GP4000 tubular, 22mm
Saddle: Fizik Arione Ti rail (White)
Seatpost: Ritchey Logic Carbon Seatpost
Bottle cages: Elite Custom Race Bottle Cages (2)
Computer: Garmin 500
Other accessories: Chain watcher

Canyon Ultimate CF SLX

Kerry Lau's bike for Tour of Friendship 2012

Garmin 500's ANT+ wireless computer

Quarq Sram powermeter Crank

Long rear dee cable to provide smoother shifter

Canyon's VCLS seat stay system provides the comfort

Elite bottle cages

Rictchey Logic seatpost and Fizik Arione saddle

Soul carbon race wheels

Clean drivetrain

Canyon's 3d forged dropout and light weight KCNC skewers

Scratch marks on shifters show signs of crash

Canyon's tapered seat tube

A cheap and worn out Shimano pedals does the job

Orange cable housing in line with DB2-Bikelabz team colour

Sram force brakes with yellow FSA carbon pads

Shah Alam Criterium

First race for my new machine!

I wanted to do this race initially but due to transport issues I had to back out. But few days before the race Ah Chai told me I could take a bus up with Terence if we want to race. He would arrange Shaharin to pick us up over there. So after some discussion with Terence, we decided to go ahead with his plan. We left on Friday morning 8am for Sunway Lagoon KL. The bus journey took about 5 and a half hours. It wasn't as bad as I thought. A good nap and before long, we arrived in Sunway Lagoon.

Ice cream for dessert!

Shaharin took awhile to get here so Terence and I left our bike bags at the Hotel concierge and went to the mall beside for lunch (might as well take it as a short holiday trip too!). After lunch we explored around the mall and then headed back to the hotel lobby before Shaharin came to pick us. We decided to stay in Concorde Hotel, 2km from race site, for the night as we thought Dirk was staying there (ended up some communication break down - Dirk and Serene stayed at Holiday Inn instead). There was a small shopping centre opposite the hotel where we had our dinner and got our necessities. It was an early night for both of us.

Our appetizer before dinner!

Main course at Nandos! Similar to Spanish Paella. Yum! :)

The next day the sky was grey and it was drizzling outside. We woke up at around 8.30am, washed up and went down for breakfast. I must say the breakfast was awesome! I swore I wanted to try everything there was. But after getting a phone call from Ah Chai I lost all my appetite. He asked where we were and Shararin was waiting for us to register. I finished half of what I took and hurried off to get changed. Once we were ready we cycled down to the race site under the rain. We saw Dirk and Serene there and were surprised to see them not in their jerseys. They had heard that the race would only be only 5-7 laps (3km each) and figured it wouldn't be worth doing. So they decided to leave for Genting instead. The guys at the registration counter didn't know what time our category will start and we were told by them that the number of laps would be a "surprise". This was the first time I've done a race that is so unorganised. Feeling cheated not only by the lack of race info but also the mad rush to register, and with so much time to spare, Terence and I took an hour spin around Shah Alam. And the rest of the day were spent waiting and waiting. Time passed really slowly. When we finally gathered at the startline, it was close to 5.30pm in the evening!

Us and Shaharin before race registration.

We found shelter under a bridge to chill....

If I look bored in this picture, that is because I am!

I looked around, it was a strong field of about 90 riders, including Adiq (Champion System), Mat Amin (Malaysian Champion) and his few other Terengganu Pro Asia boys, Police and Navy team, MSN riders, a few state teams and many more. By the time we lined up at the start, I was already feeling tired and drained from the Sun and rain while waiting. But I was determined to do a good race since I took the trouble to travel 12 hours and waited 8 hours for this race.

The circuit was a 3km loop around a lake. There are 3 major corners, 2 sharp and 1 gentle, all were built in bricks so are quite bumpy. The first sharp left corner after the start had many holes on the inner bend and rough broken bricks. I knew I would need to take the outer bend for this corner. Besides this and a few drain covers, the circuit was generally quite safe, so it means a fast race. As I predicted, the speed shot up right from the get go. There were many attacks raining down by the bigger teams. I had to admit, for the first 3 laps I was still in dreamland. Hanging around a little too far back. On the 4 or 5 lap, there was a split in the middle of the pack. The gap quickly went up to 50m. That was when I suddenly woke up. Thankfully we got back to the front group after some chasing by a few Malaysians. If the front group had gone away, I would really be kicking myself in the head. From there on, I constantly reminded myself to stay at the front and out of trouble. By then, Adiq and Mat Amin had gone away and the pack was chasing them. As the race progressed, I was feeling better and better. I wanted to have a go in the last 2 laps but hesitated too much. But I doubt I would last in the front for too long as the pack was going at a fast pace and I could see some teams were getting themselves ready for the sprint. Before the last corner going into the last lap, I moved up to the front 10 riders as I know there is where I needed to be for the last lap.

Entering the last lap, Panjang gave a huge attack, followed by another Malaysian. Without hesitation, I jumped onto their wheels. I did not look back but I supposed the whole pack would latch onto us as no one would allow us to get away, not in the last lap. After another 20secs, Panjang looked back and realised the whole pack was behind him, so he let go. To my disgust, the whole pack swung around us and immediately I went from 3rd wheel to something like 30++ wheel. I knew I had to start getting to the front again before it's too late. But by then the speed was way too fast (im pretty sure we were going at at least 55km/h). Slowly I managed to overtake one rider at a time but it wasn't going to be enough. When we entered the last corner, I was maybe in the 20th position or something like that. I must say, this was the first time Im actually in position to sprinting with the big guys. It was really fun and I enjoyed that feeling. In fact, I felt really good for the sprint and my Canyon bike really responded well to each of my pounding. I knew I had the legs to overtake some riders at the end but had no space to go around them. In the end, I finished 13th overall. Mat Amin had won in the breakaway ahead of Adiq. The average speed for the race was 44.8km/h according to my Garmin!

All in all, I think it was still a race worth doing despite the 12 hours bus travel, 8 hours of wait, for a race lasting only for 35mins. Terence and I had a great time and gained some valuable race experience. I am not really a rider for the criteriums but I feel I am slowly getting better at it with so many criterium races done so far this year. I also feel more confident that I am able to compete with some of the best Malaysian riders. Maybe I can't beat them now, but with time and commitment, I believe one day I will be the one on top of the podium!

Us before taking the bus back to Singapore. We had a great time!

Very cold! The aircon in the bus machiam FOC!