Great feat of motivation and pushing my physical limits shout out to the group where everyone is super supportive of each other and especially to Leila for arranging the adventure. The original plan is to follow this route:
It looks intimidating and to be perfectly honest, I haven’t cycled longer than 25 km. But, hey! I’m up for the challenge. So leggo!
Here’s how it went down:
Meeting the group @ 6am:
T- 5mins: There were 12 of us in total. Meeting point City Scoot (details below) where we rented our mountain bikes and helmets.
6:12 – We ride off. Here’s us in a groufie pre-ride (in clockwise: that’s Paul, Jamie, Me, Ian, Arnout, Prasan, Leila, Tony, Meryl, Olivia, Hugh, and Bettina. 
So we rode down south passing through Tanjong Pagar, to WEst Coast Hi-way passing through Harbourfront, Haw Par Villa where we meet Paul’s friend: Richie.
Before leaving, I realized, I need to turn on the location on my newly installed Strava App. I only turned my apple watch Outdoor Cycling to track.
8am: We stopped at Fair Price Hub at Joo Koon to grab breakfast. Most of us just hydrated, ate energy bar while waited for some. I put on my morning shade, the sun is up and starting to prick our skin so I put on another layer of sunscreen and pull up my arm sleeves. This time around, I got my STRAVA app.
10:00am, we had a hiccup: Merryl’s own bike had tyre issue:
We stopped exactly in front of Bollywood Veggies in Neo Tiew Road near Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Kranji. Olivia (such and angel) said she’ll just take the bike back and have lunch at the vegan restaurant, her back aches as well sho she can’t continue. I used Olivia’s bike as Meryl’s gear is similar to what Im using (5 gear shift) and Olivia’s using a Shimano (3 gear on the left and 7 on the right) which is similar to my 3 other road folding road bikes that I used to own back in Manila.
Just shortly after, around 5minutes, the chain on Merryl’s then bike got intertwined and Richie sorted it out. We went to meet the rest of the group and continue our journey to North East.
11:15am at Woodlands interchange, another hiccup, Leila’s tire went flat. She had to walk 15minutes to the next bike repair shop. Meanwhile, half of the group lost which I am a part of missed our turn and went the wrong way so we had to ride back then once reunited, we all went to fetch her. I had papaya snack and coconut water.
1:30pm at Punggol and Sengkang, Ian pulled a muscle and just fell off his bike. Luckily, Richie and Paul is riding back. I immediately took a snap and send to our GC to alert the rest and head to see Ian. We sat him near the grass area and the rest of the group arrived with 100plus drinks. Ian is unbreakable!
At this point, the morale is pretty low. We don’t know if we’re still going to finish. The sun is unforgivingly hot (around 35 degree celsius) and we’re riding in a hi-way trying to find a park connector going to East.
We stopped an HDB area nearby to re-group, have a snack, energize. Everyone is just committed to finishing the journey that we passed on having an actual meal for lunch.
Around 2 or 3pm, we cycled through Bedok Reservoir Lake to East Coast Park which is such a treat to be under tree shades and magnificent park view. Here’s me strolling and smiling away the ache:
Around 3:30 reached Garden’s by the Bay. That was our final break and then we head back to the city.
4:55pm – officially arrived at City Scoot. High five. Cheers. Ok, take a victory group photo! 🙂
Selfie of my chao da (burnt) face. W O R T H I T ! Such an achievement. At the end of the adventure, 100km+ and 11hrs later – I was so exhausted but the sense of fulfillment is just amazing!
If I were to chart our entire journey, it will look like this:
Tips:
1. GET A PROPER SLEEP! Like 8-hour sleeop. Idk, I feel like I was so excited, I only clocked 3hrs of sleep. I felt my body couldn’t keep up with me at some point… especially going up on bridges. There were 3 that I just have to go off and push.
2. Mentally prepare yourself. I watched YouTube videos. Research on Google. I geeked out.
3. Stretching does true wonders. Before, during breaks, and After. I slept 12hours after.
4. Running to build your stamina. Actually, do a ride prior. I would have but it was a last weekend/minute sort of plan – in between
5. Wear proper gear. Light, dri-fit top, bandana that I wrapped around my wrist for me to easily wipe my face/sweat, flexible shoes (I used running shoes with fly-knit at the back of my sole and enough room for my toes) and most importantly: padded bike shorts. I got mine from Decathlon and honestly, every cent is worth it.
P.s. Thanks Coach Fai for the advise.
6. Pack correct things. For long rides, you want to go as light as possible. When the wind is going against you, you want as little traction as you can so you can pull yourself and head forward.
7. Stay in the group so you can conserve energy and don’t play catch up. It will easily tire you out.
8. Zoning out by plugging your earphones is advisable for long never ending roads.
9. Enjoy the journey. Conversations makes it a whole lot bearable.
10. Ride the correct saddle height. This will improve your peddling and avoid knee, back, hamstring, and legs injury.
Things I packed:
- 800mL water mixed with small amount of salt
- sunscreen
- arm sleeves
- polarize sunglass/sun shade
- snacks: 4x energy bar and 2 small snack
- hand sanitizer
- extra top for change
- waterproof case for my phone
- id and some cash
- powerbank
City Scoot Singapore: 1 North Bridge Road, #B1-55/56, High Street Centre, Singapore
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cityscootsingapore/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/cityscootsingapore
Google Map right here
**Not sponsored, haha!
Some analytics for nerds:
We burn 3,633 calories and rode for 113.13KM. That’s insane! 10/10 will recommend.
