Prologue. Chasing the Icelandic Aurora.

Fighting the wind & impending snow...

All my eyes could see was raging waves crumbling with splashes against the dark cliffs of Dyrhólaey Cape down below on our right.  In the distant left, a dark mist was fast-approaching our location from inland.  Like wolves out on a rampage, the tearing wind howled just outside our ears.
My index finger, totally frozen and void of sensation, struggled to change the aperture on the camera, while my left hand fiddled with the wired cable release.  Beside me, my fellow teammates Derek and Kai Sing were frantically trying to snap a last shot before the snow storm approached.   From the corner of my eye I could see several figures a certain distance away, equally urgent in their movements. 

Metasprint Aquathlon - The Way of the Samurai.

Aquathlon ~ the first of the Metasprint series of three races. 16 Feb 2014.

Crazy as can be

Some time back, roughly around 2-3 months ago, Gerard, in one of his many crazy spells, suddenly triggered an interest in Triathlons.  It was not long after our Tour de Bintan, when spirits were high, and every one was on the roll.
And naively a few of us signed up for the Metasprint series of three races: the Aquathlon, the Duathlon and the last, the Triathlon.

Tour de Bintan 2013... what an epic ride.

Tour de Bintan 2013, a memory of pain and elation.

 

Preparation

It was many months before November 2013.  Didn't know who was the smart guy who initiated the whole gang to sign up for Tour de Bintan 2013.
The majority of us had only been cycling seriously on road bikes for slightly less than a year.

"Tour de Bintan?" asked someone. "That one is quite tough isn't it?"
"Yeah. But this tour is the closest thing you can come to an UCI organised and sanctioned event," replied the smart Alec. "Come, let's go!"

Months after months passed. And our usual Eastern Loop and Western Loop and the occasional Round island rides became a little more intensive, as many of us woke up to the notion that TdBintan was just rounding the corner.
And we started doing the Kulai Loop in Malaysia, and the 6 Bridges of Barelang in Batam, and some hills workouts back in Singapore hoping that if we were to suffer then, we would suffer lesser in Bintan.

The Revenge on Barelang ~ completing the Unfinished Business

We had some Unfinished Business here on the Six Bridges of Barelang...

It was 18th April 2013.  A Friday.  There was some unfinished business down south of Singapore.
Hahaha.. yes yes, indeed.  For a few of us, we'd some uncompleted mission that urgently needed to be finished off.  For some others, it was a last true non-Mandai-miniature-hill training before Tour De Bintan, whereas for some others, it was purely a personal accomplishment to attain on this day.

So on that morning, we gathered at around 7am at the Cruise Centre at Harbourfront, all decked proudly in our stylo Pink Panther jerseys...

Ascending Fraser's Hill with the JoyRiders - A ride of the Power Meters

Fraser's Hill 19-21 July 2013

Cycling overseas could be rather addictive.
After we did Pengerang, Cameron Highlands, OCBC Kuala Lumpur, Kuantan 160km, we still had plenty of courage to do Fraser''s Hill with the JoyRiders.

The 6 bridges of Barelang

Barelang - A Lesson of 'Failing to Conserve' for me.
The photos in this post are all courtesy of Richard Ng, Vincent Loh & Gerard Tan. T hanks to all of you good men for such lovely documentation!!

"Guys, Kaye and his gang of cyclists are going to organize a trip to ride the Six Bridges of Barelang," said Gerard one day. "Let's go with them."
"Yah, this Barelang must do one," noted Richard.
"Let's Go!"

The Mickey mice ready for check in

Most of us hadn't cycled with Kaye, Kee Chong Tat and their gang of riders. But we'd heard that they were a powerful bunch of cyclists who were unfazed by any terrain.
We had also heard so much about the Six Bridges of Barelang. Many of us had visited Batam, but not many had taken the Barelang Highway. This Barelang Highway was constructed to link up all the Riau islands with six bridges, a couple of them which were spectacular sights in their own rights. The word Barelang was actually taken by combining the names of all the islands that were linked up, the very first one being Batam island, thus the 'Ba' in Barelang.

Cameron Highlands with JoyRiders.. A tour of courageous naiveness.

A cycling trip to the mountains... 1-3 March 2013

Francis made a birthday cake to belatedly celebrate
Gerard's birthday on board the coach!
Photo: Joyce Leong's camera

Serene and I are total newbies when it comes to road bikes, having only been cycling on the road bikes for a few months.  And certainly, attempting to cycle up mountains like Cameron Highlands was not within our radars.  But we both signed up after urging from some of our 'good' friends. It was really a blind leap of faith.