by Chua Pei Chong
NOTE: I did not write this, am just posting on behalf of Chua (Pei Chong), lest you might think that I am little thick skinned and very biased. So here goes your ride report for the Short Ride for the night bash at Sepang! Thanks once again Chua! :)
-Stan-
When KLMBH announced that the June bash will be a night ride, I got excited as I have never been into the trails at night. As such, I was happy to drive 140km for a mere short ride of 11km in the double tracks. I would have loved to do the long ride (24-25km) but unfortunately, I had a constraint of time.
The turnout was exceptionally great and from my estimation, about 150 -200 riders must have turned up that night. Just as Stan “Supreme King” Ng concluded his briefing, a majority of the riders entered the trail for the Long Ride, led by Olivier Falcoz.
Only a handful of us stayed back for the Short Ride briefing, approximately 20 riders. Most of the riders who did the Short Ride were kids and their dads, newbies and some who had to complete the ride early and help out Lloyd Laughlin with the star-lit-night BBQ.
The start of the ride was on tarmac and it was still bright and no ride lights were used yet. It was basically the highest climb of the ride with an elevation of 76m. Just as we reached the top of the hill, we continued the ride through some undulating and rolling trail. The descending part of the trail was friendly, which were handled pretty well by some of the kids. A few took it with pride and even stopped to look back at some adult newbies behind them. As we completed a distance of 5.1km, we were greeted with a view and scenery of the well-lit KLIA runway and terminals. Some of us stopped for photo shoots. As the ride continued, it was getting dark and most of the riders switched on their high lumens trail lights and entered the oil palm plantation. Throughout the ride, we encountered 2 Checks and with the experience led by Alex and Jason (who had done multiple Bash rides), they managed to find the paper trails and continued to lead the pack. When total darkness fell in the trails, the feeling of having the ride light shining through the palm oil trees was a nice experience to behold. I wish we had not rode so fast and enjoy the coolness of the night and perhaps, brought with us a Thermos filled with hot coffee to sip. However, just as someone uttered the sentence “… jangan pandang belakang….”, we could see some high cadence started to kick in and even Nino Schurter would have been left behind!
It was a well-planned route for the Short Ride. We came out from the trails and descended the tarmac and headed back to our cars. As we arrived and signed off, Lloyd had prepared some well barbecued sausage in the trays for us to savior. Very good ride, KLMBH, and we look forward towards the next night ride!
