Singapore 100km night race

Friday 5:30am: Land at Changi airport, Singapore, grab my bike which made it in one piece, breeze through customs, buy a cup of morning coffee & I was in a taxi by 6am on my way to Gillies house.

I have never met or even spoken to Gillie & Rina. Only a couple of emails. Both have been very generous & accommodated me for the 4 days I have been staying in Singapore. Thank you Gillie & Rina !

10:30am: Bike is built & the guys have organised a pre-race recce ride on the course. It was that hot & humid I broke out in a lather of sweat just putting my shoes on! "This is going to be great"

Course description: 10kms, some wide trails, lots of tight twisting single track, some rough, technical climbs with rough down hills. Overall a tough trail with potential to be even better with more riders & work. The final km or so of single track into the transition area was just awesome.

During the casual ride I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the local riders & some from the Philipines. The Phillipino riders dominated the race results in solo & teams.

Saturday (RACE DAY): So the race is due to start at 5pm. Cut off time 2pm. Distance to finish 100kms. Solo riders about 95. Weather: looks like it could rain a little.

I spotted Tinker Juarez kicking back so I walked over to say Gday. A really down to earth, genuine, nice guy. We just talked cycling shit for a bit then I had to go for a warm up ride.

Warm up ride: This is an interesting concept as I am sweating my butt off just putting my helmet on. As I was rolling around I pulled up beside some dude on a Twenty-9 full carbon hardtail. "Hey Gary, that is a sweet looking ride!" Gary Fisher replied with an evil kind of laugh & mentioned that it still needed to be pedalled & he was completely unprepared for the race.

As Gary & I rolled up to the start line it was already thick of starters. I looked at him & said we needed to get up to the front of the start. A few "maaf / excuse mes" later we were up the front. Phew.

Mountain biking has such a passionate following in this area. The race atmosphere, energy & smiles in the staring peloton was one of the best I had experienced. I felt honoured to be a part of this race with so many passionate mountain bikers!

3hrs into the race: A really bad arsed electrical storm smashed the course. Within minutes of the rain starting there were water rapids on the trails. Lightening strikes came in rapid succession & so close there was more than mud in my nix.

3hrs:30min: Race cancelled :o(( I managed to be part way around my 7th lap. I told Tinker I was about to put in an attack & that he was saved by the storm hehehe... He has been sick for a couple of weeks & still smashed out some awesome lap times.

Summary: Even with the race being cut short due to safety concerns (which I agree was a very sensible decision) it has been well worth the time & small amount of effort to participate. I would love to be a part of this race & festival again next year.

I will have a few photos once I get back to Oz.

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What did you do on Thursday night

Late night shopping? Not bloody likely! Not for Rach, Mark & I.

The three of us headed out for a xc ride. 71kms & 2300 metres of climbing! My Scott Scale20 was getting the forks serviced in preparation for the up & coming races. The next horse in the stable was the Ventana single speed.

There was some hike-a-bike. We saw two sugar gliders, a few possums, many Tawny Frog Mouthed birds, Rach was a bit of an animal at times & Mark pretended to be a gravel dwelling snake after a dive into the dirt as a result of something catching his front wheel on a fast decent.

Marks Ay Up lights were ripped from his helmet mount, the cable was ripped out of the back of the lights. We picked them up, popped them back into the mount, plugged the cable back in & you wouldnt have know he had just crashed. The lights werent even scratched.

Summary: Get some lights, push your pedals & not a trolley!

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