Letua 100

Beautiful scenery and nature along the way

This event was not supposed to be a race. But with such a nice rolling terrain, traffic marshals and a large field of riders, it was hard not to turn it into a race for some of us. I had no target for this event, and having only rode twice since the end of Tour of Friendship, I did not give myself any pressure to do well here. Dirk drove Ryan and I up in his fast Audi, and together with Shaharin from Malaysia, made up the team of DB2-Bikelabz. Ryan was the defending champion for this race, so i thought i would go on the attack so that he could sit in the pack and conserve for the finale. The race was 100km long, with some rolling at the start, then a flat section, followed by rolling again before hitting the final climb (about twice that of faber) within the University compound in the last 4km and then a quick descend to the finish.

The starting field was huge, approximately 1000 riders, and that made the 20km rolling start complicated as riders jostled at the front of the pack. It was very conjested and i found it hard to move up to the front. But i managed to stay at the front 50-100 riders. After the rolling start, we turned right and the road kicks up immediately. The pack started splitting up as riders from the front dropped back. I slowly moved up the pack. Then i saw Shaharin struggling as I passed him. I gave him a pushed back up and continued on to the front. On the twisting descend the pack slowed and before long I was near the front of the group. I saw Ryan at the front and no one wanted to go round him to work. So I pedalled hard to get to the front. As I passed Ryan on the right, I pedalled harder and within 10 secs, I got a gap of 50m. I kept going and soon passed a lone rider who had attacked earlier on the climb. He latched onto my wheel as i continued pulling for the next 5mins and opened a huge gap on the pack. By now, the pack was nowhere in sight. I thought the break might have worked and started asking to guy behind to work with me. He came round without complaints and we started working well together. Behind at the pack, as i got to know later from Ryan, that he had attacked the pack trying to breach to the 2 of us. In doing so, had brought the pack back to us. Im not too sure if that was a good move, but his intention was that the 2 of us would not go all the way so he wanted to bring some riders up to join us and we could work together in a bigger group.

After i got caught, I sat in the pack for awhile and quickly recovered. There were people trying to break again but none got away. Then, as the pack slowed down again, I immediately took advantage of it and attacked again. Quickly, I managed to pulled a big gap on the pack. I glanced back and i could see another guy trying to breach to me. It was the same guy who was with me earlier. He caught up and we started working together again. We managed to stay in front for another 10-15mins. But the pack managed to catch up to us with P2K at the front. After that, I went on with 2 other attacks which didnt get as far as my first 2 attempts. I began to concede that I wasnt able to get away today. The pack didn't go hard, but whenever there was a break, people would chase them down. Unfortunately, on the flat section, Ryan punctured. Both his front and rear had flatted. He should be the freshest in the team but was gone. From there on I just sat in the pack and conserved for the final. I kept eating and drinking from my one remaining bottle as the other had dropped out earlier after i hit a bump on the road.

On the final few rolling hills, i tried to go hard at the front but my thighs started cramping up. I knew the earlier attacks had taken quite a bit out of me. So i eased off and went back to the pack. I knew my chances are slim now as there are many other riders in the pack who were fresher than me. Heading into the University for the final climb in the last 4km, everyone was cautiously watching out for each other. Then we hit the climb... I was about 10-15th wheel. The guys at the front went hard from the start and the front splitted. About 5-6 guys were ahead and I was stuck at the back. So i went to the front immediately and tried to breach the gap. I managed to reach them nearing the top as the gradient kicks up to about 10-12%.  I took a quick scan and figured I was 6th when we reached the top. On the descend, everyone went hard as the finish line was just at the bottom. The roads were narrow and twisty with riders still climbing up in opposite direction. It was chaotic. I was going full gas down that i misjudged a corner. It was way tighter and i had underestimated it. I jammed my brakes hard and it locked out. My wheels skidded on the road. I lost control of the bike and wasnt able to corner at that speed. So i went straight, passing the cones. Good thing there wasnt anyone coming up at that time otherwise i would have collided with them. I was praying and getting ready to fly off the curb. Somehow, my bike came to a stop just before the curb as Shaiful was shouting "Slow! Slow! Slow!" at the side as he watched on. I quickly turned and accelerated back down. To my horror, I went the wrong direction again! I cant believe my luck lately. This is the 3rd time i've gone on the wrong direction in a race, twice happening this year. I saw a few riders ahead of me also turning back. I quickly u-turned and sprinted back to the right way as the finish was just 50-100m away. In the end i finished in 8th place.

This was my first time doing Letua 100 and i didnt regret coming up for it. The route was interesting especially the last climb before the finish which had suited me, only thing was that the descend was a bit chaotic and dangerous. Nonetheless, it was still a good training race and exposure. Next weekend there will be another race up at Kulaijaya. It will be another good training race with a bigger team going up this time. Hopefully, we will get a good result there.

ToF Stage 5

Today's stage would be the last chance for any rider to have a crack. After a few unsuccessful attacks, Darren Reid from Specialized intentionally allowed a split in the pack after another attack went. With 2 riders at the front, he told his guys not to follow and they eased off, opening up a gap. There were 7 guys up ahead, with none of the GC riders in it. It was a very difficult decision to make for me at that time. I really believed it was going to be a sprint finish today and with all the GC riders in my group, i would expect the group to come back together in the later stage. If I go in the break, i could end up tired for the sprint if we were caught. So it was a risk that i took, to stay with the GC riders and conserve as much energy for the final sprint.

The group pulled ahead quickly and opened up a steady gap of 2-3mins. Behind, my pack was very active, there were many attacks from the GC riders and the pace was very unsteady. None was allowed to get away. Soon the GC riders accepted the fact that they can't get away and their teammates started going to the front to control the pace. Team DirectAsia.com, Thanyapura, Cannasia and Confero were all contributing to the pace setting. Even the yellow jersey Fredrick himself was involved. Team DirectAsia.com was doing the main bulk of the pulling with Damian Barrett and Dave Cristenson pulling hard at the front. I was starting to believe that my gamble was paying off. The pace for a good 1hr was quite hard even by following at the back. But at an intermediate checkpoint, the head marshal announced that the gap was now 4mins. 4mins! How could it be possible that the gap had went up when we were chasing hard?! After hearing the time gap i could feel that the teams were a little demoralised and were starting to accept the fact that the break will stay away. But they kept pulling anyway. In the last 10km the gap still remained somewhat the same. It was impossible to catch them now and we have to be content with fighting for a 8th spot instead.

My predictions were right, it would be a bunch sprint unless a big group gets away. Today, I made the wrong gamble. As the group began setting up for the sprint, some riders tried to attack. It was near impossible to stay away as the pace was quite fast and the headwind was very strong. I kept myself on the left side of the group as there was a slight crosswind from the right. I managed to conserve a lot of strength by doing so. In the last 1km or so, Dave Cristenson took advantaged as the pace slowed down and atacked hard. He opened up a 20-30m gap. I kept my patience this time and stayed near the front. In the last 200m, the Specialized riders started going hard at the front. I went with them. I was now 4th wheel. There wasn't any space on the left to sprint. So in the last 100m, I came round them on the right and finished ahead of them. Dave managed to stay ahead for the last km. So i finished in 9th place, behind the 7 man break and Dave. I can only knock myself in the head and imagine what would happen if the break was caught. I could and should have gotten a podium spot. Such is the luck I have in this whole tour...

ToF Stage 4

ToF Stage 4 Last night I woke up a few times because of the pain on my hips and leg. In the end I removed the blanket and had to sleep on one side. This morning when I woke up, my whole body was feeling so stiff. My wounds were also a little swollen. Having wounds really isn't very enjoyable. I wasn't able to get any massage after each day. All I could do was watch Raymond get his. I also couldn't really do any proper stretching as I was limited by my wounds.  But I got up anyway got ready for the stage.

Today was the perfect day for me to breakaway. I'm way down in GC and everyone was tired. They would certainly let me go. But I should really kick myself in the head. When Matt Kinch went from the start I hesitated too much. I thought the pack would chase him down and then I would go on the next counter attack. But the first attack happened to be the break of the day. The pack didn't really chase after that. Matt DNF on stage 3 so is out of GC battle, so no reason for the pack to chase. I really should have went in the break with him. That way I could have had a shot at stage win or a podium. Anyway he would go on solo for the next 80km and win the stage. The gap went up to as much as 6mins 48secs at mid way before the pack started to speed up on the second half of the race and slowly ate away the lead. In the end the gap between him and the first finisher, which happen to be Fredrick again, was only 23secs.

The organisers took away the big climb in the middle of the race. So it was only left with the hill top finish on top of a dam. It was a 4km climb to the top, about slightly more than twice that of Faber. When I looked at the stages for this year's ToF, this was actually the stage that I have targeted. So I really wanted to do well today. But half way through the stage I wasn't feeling too good and my left arm was feeling stiff and numb. I couldn't really squeeze my bottle and had to shift my left shifter with my right hand. Going up the last climb I started somewhere further back. Then the split happened and I had to chase hard to get back to the select group of riders. By the time I did so, Fredrick attacked and the pace went up again. The pack split and I was a little further back. I continued at my own pace keeping them in sight. In the end I finished 12th on the stage, 7secs behind Damian Barrett of team DirectAsia.com. After today's stage, I'm lying 26th on GC.

Tomorrow's last stage would be some small rolling roads before a pancake flat 10km to the finish, which ends the same place as the second stage. The roads would be wide with strong headwind. There is no point in trying to break anymore as the possibility of a bunch sprint is very likely, unless a big group gets away. But that is very unlikely too. Tomorrow is my last chance to get something out of this tour. I need to stay out of trouble and plan my sprint better.