POWERBAR MERDEKA RIDE FOR PRIDE PART 1

THE TALE OF TWO FOOLS

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Some months ago, 2 fools challenged each other to a very very long ride. They weren't taking about a 200km ride or some inter-state ride over multiple days. They were talking about riding from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru....in one day, yes...in ONE day!!!
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It was all crap talk at first while we waited for our swimming session at Chin Woo, KL. Then, more fools joined in and the head fool started collecting RM100 from each of the other fools as funding for the ride come Merdeka Day 2007. Some of the other fools, who weren't going to ride, also chipped in.

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ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER

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Soon news about the ride broke into the cycling and triathlon community BUT many thot it was undoable and perhaps insane until Li Shen roped in Powerbar to become our main sponsor. Word spread and riders from other teams wanted to join us. They are the LeTua boys, 3 from Klang Pacers, my good friend Ironman Hairul Azwar (from team CSC) , IronBoy Barry Lee and Ironman Randy Tan. Ironman Simon Cross would have joined us if not for his recent bout of pneumonia.

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THE TRAINING (team chin woo)

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Our longest training ride was from KL to Melaka and back (around 270km). Some of us did that twice. We were so committed that a thunderstorm at dawn did not stop us from training. That was during our 1st Melaka ride. It rained dogs and cats when we gathered at the Cheras-Kajang Highway at 7.00 a.m. that morning BUT we rode off anyway and we were soon rewarded with a baking hot sun in the afternoon for most part of the return leg.

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Apart from that, we have done numerous 200km ride from UIA in Gombak to Raub and back. We even went up to the Gap, Fraser's Hill on one occassion. Then, there were the long and flat rides from Cheras - LDP (outside Cyberjaya) - Banting - Morib - Sepang - Lukut - Sepang - Cheras. In between that, some of us even found time to do some triathlons including the 1/2 Ironman distance at Desaru.