What a way to kick off a cycling series even if there were only 2 participants.
Taking advantage of the 2-day Chinese New Year holiday, we organised an evening ride that will take us to some of the more popular riding routes. The plan was to remain fairly flexible both on timing, distance and speed. Unfortunately, some of the riders had other commitments and that left us with just 2 roadies.
The route was simple. Meet Francis at his place, and ride towards Pasir Ris, Changi Village, Changi Coast Road, East Coast Parkway, and decide what we want to do after reaching Fort Road. Stops were planned every 20km (or so) to refuel and rest the hopefully tired legs.
The first section was a 20km route from Paya Lebar Road to Changi Village via Old Tampines Road, Pasir Ris Dr 3, and Loyang Ave. The section was fraught with somewhat difficult terrain that we eventually conquered with our relatively fresh legs. And we managed it with pretty good average speed of almost 28kph. The terrain forces great variance in the speed that ultimately ranged from 18kph pushing towards Loyang Ave, and over 50kph reaping the hard work invested earlier.
The most memorable hills must be along Old Tampines Road and just before turning towards Loyang Ave. Old Tampines Road, Pasir Ris Dr 3, and Loyang Ave all looked a little more hilly than they did in a car.
The reward for that hard 20km riding was an extended break at a 24hr Changi Village Coffee Shop. The stop took over an hour -- longer than our ride so far. We also made a mental note _not_ to stop here in future.
The next section is another 20km of super flat riding from Changi Village to our next stop at Playground@Big Splash. This rides through perhaps the most popular cycling route of Changi Coast Road and East Coast Park. The aim for this section is to push a consistent pace. With the long rest, we managed to maintain a speed of 29-31kph along Changi Cost Road. East Coast Park presented some challenges of being dark and my head lamp decided to run out of charge there. We slowed down to 26kph using safety as an excuse over our tiring legs.
Mr Teh Tarik waved us into Playground@Big Splash. This proved to be a much more efficient pitstop. Drinks with food are both done within 15mins and we moved off just as a team of fixie riders rolled into the joint.
The final section was venturing into uncharted waters. We wanted to do Nicoll Highway but there wasn't much plan after that. So Nicoll Highway came and gone, and we shot past Shenton Way. Shenton Way is always so quiet in the wee hours of the morning. We pushed on into Pasir Panjang Road and turned towards Lower Delta Road. By then, energy level was already low so we made no attempts at Mt Faber. At the moment, I'm just not confident to attempt Mt Faber without a granny.
We started heading home via Scotts Road, Moulmein Road, and finally MacPherson Road. The route was carefully chosen to avoid any major hills. I finally broke away from Francis as he headed home along Paya Lebar Road. With the little energy left, I bumped up the speed to 31kph, attacked Siglap hill and barely made it home.
A total of 80km was clocked in the evening's adventure lasting till 3:30am. Not too bad for the inaugural midnight ride.
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