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.