PCC Centrepoint - Batu Arang Ride

My first long ride on the new bike. I was tempted to ride from home, adding 30km to a 108km route, but decided against it just in case my set-up was uncomfortable.

Riders today (whose names I know) - Adeline, Lisa (fast runner), Rafiq, Shu Hwuey, Don, Adzim - Cervelo, Jeffrey - new Bianchi Liquigas, PK & son, Patrick & Jason, Gert-Jan Theunisse (see photo), Azam, Dennis - Cervelo Soloist.

Gert-Jan Theunisse - spotted in Batu Arang with a Merida bike and Discovery jersey

After receiving masses of praise for having a super-new-shiny-lightweight-carbon-mean machine, we set off. After an easy first 7km or so I went for a blast down the hill towards the Industrial areas before reaching the Sungai Buloh Road. I then settled into a pattern of time-trialling a bit on the front, getting used to my aero-position and weird saddle, then taking a rest, getting dropped, then catching up again. Eventually we reached Ijok Petronas and re-fuelled.

Another long straight road after that provided another aero-position front-running opportunity but once the hills started I dropped back a bit before working my way through the backmarkers and into Batu Arang for wan tan mee soup - lovely!

Out of B. Arang I didn't stay with the small lead group on the climb and ended up all alone on the road back to KL. Soon I caught Dennis and the pair of us sped along at a fair rate until we waited for the rest to guide us through a complicated route back to Centrepoint.

108km in 3h50mins-ish I think. My average was 29kph+ but the slow last sector lowered it to about 28kph. Not bad though as I did little if any drafting, and to reach my Desaru target I only need to do 90km @ 26kph.