Cycling Event Report : Monster Climb Challenge 2016

Love hills? Then this event could be for you! The Monster Climb Challenge 2016, organized by Cleaner & Greener Sports, was held in Penang Island on 8^th May 2016 (Mother’s Day).

It was a challenging road cycling event with 3 steep hills (dubbed monster climbs) over a total ride distance of 66km, with a cutoff time of 4 hours before anyone could be entitled to a finisher medal. Certainly not an event for the faint-hearted.

Back at the starting point after finishing the race. The main sponsors of the event is Giant and Lenovo.

I originally signed up for this event on account of How How who was so eager to try out the 2^nd edition of this challenge in Penang. Yours truly on the other hand had a very unreasonable phobia of cycling downhill, especially steep and winding downhills. This event was going to be more than a tough challenge for me, as I would also have to overcome this fear.

Yukiko and the Dark Prince sharing a cosy moment at our homestay on Race Eve

Coupled with the above, I was also worried how to transport Yukiko (my beloved bike) all the way from KL to Penang given that How How’s car nor my car had a bike rack.

I fretted and fretted about this right until the day we had to depart to Penang. Fortunately, How How’s friend, Hannix was kind enough to loan us his rear bike rack so we were able to transport both our bike’s in How How’s car.

Training-wise, I made sure every weekend was spent scaling hill and dale with How How closely watching my back, until I got used to the uphill and downhill bits. We tried to simulate our training ground as close as possible to the race route and distance. I also tested my fueling strategy on those training days.

Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau where the race kit collection and Start Point would be

Fast forward to the weekend of the race, we arrived past noon on race eve at Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau to collect our race kits (I don’t know why cyclists tend to call race kits / packs as goodie bags, they are not goodie bags to me since the event is not free). It was a good thing we reached earlier as the race kit collection counter was very slow and in the end, a long queue formed behind us.

The event jersey

The Early Bird Dri-fit T-shirt

There was only one counter managing the collection with the rest of the volunteers waiting to take orders on what jersey and / or t-shirt size to pack into the race kit bag. Why they could not prepack the race kit for each participant before the race kit collection, is beyond my understanding. 

The organisers needed to learn from Bentong-Raub Golden Ride organizers who were super-efficient in the race kit collection. Not only that, this time, there was no bib nor a bike tag. Each participant was only given a numbered sticker to be stuck to the left hand side of their helmets. This was not the norm but we did not think much of it and shortly after collecting our race kits, we headed off to recce the entire route.

Route Recce : View from the Bao Sheng Durian Farm

As a result, we ended up eating a very late lunch consisting of a roadside stall Malay burger halfway through the recce activity and only checked in to our homestay in the evening which had some hiccups leading to a late check-in, but that’s a story for another day.

Route Recce : View of the Teluk Bahang Dam

We had a very late dinner of pasta in Gurney Paragon and then retired for the night. It was a fitful sleep but I guess sufficient enough to feel fine the next morning.

The Start of the Race

The drive to the race flag off point at Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau took a little more than 20 minutes. We arrived later than expected and quickly setup our bikes followed by toilet duties before the start.

I met up with my Penang friend – Michael Soo and his friends, Chee Yong and Kong Leong, before the start of the event. They did not sign up for the event but would be coming along to join in the fun and the route.

We started at the back of the pack

Seeing that majority of the crowd had already filled up the front and middle sections of the starting pen, we decided to position ourselves at the back of the crowd and let them start first. I was also wary of riders who might crash or bump into me in the mad rush to leave the start area, so this arrangement was fine.

There was a big hooha just before the start as each rider had to have a bike sticker for the 1^st waterstation / checkpoint i.e. at the flag off location itself. Although I found it a little ridiculous why the organizers designated the starting point as the 1^st waterstation / checkpoint, this was besides the point. The emcee was frantically calling out to the name of the volunteer who was holding the stickers for the riders and this volunteer seemed to have gone missing!

The hooha died down after the volunteer materialized and distributed the stickers to the remaining riders who had yet to have them including yours truly and How How. But there was already the initial feeling of poor organization in the air.

Cycling along the flat part of the route (Photo courtesy of i-Sports Wear)

The route was mostly flat for the first 16 km, so we managed to hit an average cadence of 32km/h, trying our best to overtake as many cyclists as possible from the back. However, it was all too soon until the start of the first climb loomed in sight and it was here that we started to overtake even more cyclists. The weather was superbly clear and the fresh air helped in the climb up to the 1^st summit to Teluk Bahang.

Cruising down the hill slopes of the 2nd summit
(photo courtesy of Michael Soo's friend)

This climb felt alright and some of the downhill slopes felt like Fraser’s Hill slopes. The roads were narrow, winding and steep and next to the cliff although the road surface was in much better condition than Fraser’s. I was glad for all the training practice on steep downhills the weeks prior to this event.

Also, some of the downhill road bends were not only steep but were ‘L’-shaped, meaning they curved at a 90  degree angle, if you know what I mean. If one was not careful or to miscalculate one’s curving angle, one could accidentally lose control, hit a divider and worst still, send oneself sailing off the side of the cliff! I am not exaggerating! And yes, I spotted one or two road bends which were even ‘U’ shaped. What a long cornering in the road!

Even though we had done the route recce the day before via car, so we knew what we were up against, I was still a little unprepared for this. It felt different going down these slopes in a car versus a bicycle!

I sent a quick prayer up to God and my late mum and steeled myself for the downhills, applying all my knowledge of what I had read in the past on cycling downhill, and focusing every part of my body into the ride, moving as one with Yukiko, trying to keep up with the high speed momentum as best as I could without injuring or killing myself.

Thank God, I reached Teluk Bahang Dam safely and then it was rolling all the way to the 2^nd waterstation / check point to refuel and collect our 2^nd checkpoint sticker.

After a quick refuel, we u-turned and headed back up the steep Teluk Bahang Dam road and onward up again towards the very summit we had climbed and came back down earlier on. From the opposite direction, we could see many riders still struggling to recover from the steep climb as they came downhill towards the 2^nd waterstation / checkpoint.

We rolled on and this time, I was better prepared for the uphill climb and the downhills. Halfway through, we saw Michael Soo and his friends who gave us a shout of encouragement and took some nice photos for us on the way. They then followed us down to the foot of the mountain and we started rolling towards the 3^rd waterstation / checkpoint as fast as our tired legs could take us. Average cadence was above 100 and our hearts were pumping like crazy to get moving as fast as we could to make the 4 hour cutoff time.

To our dismay, disappointment and horror and in my case, also worry, we did not come across any 3^rd waterstation / checkpoint. We even thought that we had overshot and taken the wrong route. 

Here, I would like to highlight that there were no route markers on the flats (only markers on the hill slopes) and there was a lack of traffic marshals and volunteers to direct the way. There were high chances for people to cheat or even get lost.

I also heard later from one of my friends that she was directed the wrong way and ended up back at Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau without getting to cycle the entire route, thus costing her a finisher medal!

Luckily for us, we were following the backs of several groups of riders whom we could see ahead and they appeared to know the way.

By the time we reached the third and final steep climb (what I dub as the ‘Tun Sardon Killer Climb’) some cyclists were already disillusioned by the fact there was no 3^rd waterstation to refuel and also get our 3^rd checkpoint sticker and some had even ran out of water at this point. There was simply no energy left in them to carry on cycling up this very steep monster of a hill!

Unfortunately, How How was one of them. I stopped and waited a few minutes for him. I could see him struggling up the start of the hill and could tell he was fading pretty fast. 

He stopped when he reached me and insisted I carry on without him. He felt there was still plenty of time till cutoff and he could make it even if he had to stop and push his bike up that 5km steep monkey of a hill. He told me later, he had to stop 3 times along the hill before finally making it to the summit of Anjung Indah. Kudos to him!

By the way, the hill gradient ranged between 8% to 17.9% and the road was also winding and with sharp corners that suddenly took on new surprising elevations around the bend at the same time. 

It was nothing we had ever practiced before and neither was there any such similar terrain to practice on back in KL. It was tough!!

After his repeated reassurance, I reluctantly decided to leave him behind and it took all of my might to muster up the will and focus to resume climbing up that hellish hill and make up for the lost time. 

I had also run out of all my water at this point. Keep on moving, do not stop, do not stop, do NOT give in to defeat! Not just yet, not now, not ever! I kept chanting in my mind. I began to overtake cyclists but I also had to be very mindful and careful of the high volume of traffic on my right as there was no road closure at all on this last climb. Speeding vehicles brushed past only inches away from me on the steep incline.

There was a point where the slope got so steep that my bike just stood still and it took all of me to focus and will my quads to push the pedals hard to get it moving again.

Sweat poured like little rivers down my forehead, my forearms, my torso, my thighs! Still, I willed myself to continue to pedal on. Focus, focus, Julia, the end is in sight! 2km to go, 1km to go, 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m and then 100m and finally, 50m! I could see the roof of Anjung Indah and the volunteers at the Finish Line at the summit. I pushed myself, “Move it Julia, you can do this, there are worst things than physical pain and if you could endure those, than what is this? C’mon Yukiko, steady on Old Girl, you and me, we can do this.” Somehow, talking to myself and my steed (yes, I treat Yukiko like a live horse), calmed me down as I pedaled up and onwards.

Finally, and I mean, FINALLY, I reached the finish line and had to stop abruptly and let my bib number be taken and the 4^th waterstation / checkpoint sticker stuck on my helmet. I was very surprised when a volunteer hung a position tag around my neck and announced, “Congratulations! You are number 9, Women Open Road Bike category”.

Sweat pouring down my face and shaking uncontrollably..
I found it hard to believe my luck! I can only bite my position card in shock!

Good grief, what a shock! My entire body started to go numb and shake uncontrollably. I attribute that partly to the tremendous stress and shock it went through just moments coming up that steep hill and also partly to hearing this news. I also started to see dark spots in front of me and felt light-headed and giddy in between my eyes. I steadied myself by holding on to my faithful Yukiko for support and took several deep breaths.

With Michael Soo and his cycling buddies - Chee Yong and Kong Leong

When I recovered sufficiently enough, I headed straight for the water station which was in a state of chaos with a torn box of water bottles at the side of the drain. I managed to somehow grab myself a bottle of water which I emptied immediately, followed by a tin of Sponsor, a sports drink from Thailand but new in Malaysia, from the makers of Red Bull. It tasted kind of salty but somehow managed to kick in my recovery instantly.

New sports drink by Red Bull named "Sponsor" which is the number 1 Sports Drink in Thailand

I observed that there was no refreshment at this final water station / finish point. Not even something simple like bananas or watermelon. I also noticed that the boxes of water were depleting at a high rate and only a few more boxes of water remained.

The clear lack of water and other forms of refuel at the finish point was not good and I could foresee this could spell severe trouble for the poor cyclists who had yet to reach the finish point after a very steep killer climb in this hot weather.

The Finish Point at the summit (Anjung Indah)

It was also apparent from the buzz of chatter around me then the organizers had decided not to include a 3^rd waterstation / checkpoint at the last minute without informing the participants, although it was clearly marked and documented in the event booklet given to all riders during race kit collection.

I waited for How How and our other friends before the ride back down to the Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau to receive my ranking medal on stage and to have our complimentary lunch. Meanwhile, Michael Soo, Chee Yong and Kong Leong had also reached the summit and we chatted for a while with an obligatory photo before I bid them good bye.

Terrence reached the finish line shortly on his mountain bike and was happy to get position #47 and receive his ranking medal. Terrence has turned into a very strong rider and has improved by leaps and bounds. How How reached the summit later and I could tell he was all tanked out.

Participants u-turning at the Finish Point on the summit to roll back to Kompleks Sukan Balik Pulau

After resting and some photo taking, we rolled back to the start point. There were also no markers along the way to guide us back to the start point so we could only rely on our senses and open our eyes to see if there were any cyclists who took part in the event that we could follow back.

My hard-earned 9th placing Ranking Medal, dedicated to my late mother

We were fortunate enough in this respect. However, we were in for a very long wait as the organizers were not punctual in starting the Lucky Draw and Prize-giving ceremony at 11:00am and delayed the whole thing by one hour! 

This caused a huge inconvenience to the participants as many had to leave early to check-out from their hotels by 12 noon. The organizers claimed that the reason for the delay was they had problems reconciling the results.

In the end, poor How How had to miss my receipt of my ranking medal on stage as he had to rush back to our homestay to pack our stuff into the car and drive back to the Kompleks Sukan while I had to wait for my ranking medal. We couldn’t even take a bath!

Top 10 winners of the Women Open, Road Bike category.
Yours truly is in the bright pink AGRR team jersey and shocking pink calf sleeves.

By the time the whole thing ended at 1:50pm and I had received my ranking medal finally on stage, we were knackered. Terrence kindly allowed us to shower in his homestay where he had made arrangements with the kind owner for a later-than-usual checkout time.

Now that I am safely back home and penning this report, I am thankful to God that I finished the ride safely without injury or incident. I am grateful and happy to have done well despite starting at the back of the pack and the fact that I was competing in a category which had no age distinction i.e. 14 years old to 99 years old women were all in one single category unlike the men. So I had competed alongside youngsters and came out ok.

Some friends commented that if I was better positioned in front before the start, I could have made it into the Top 5 instead of the Top 10. Nevertheless, I believe that what is yours, will be yours and what isn’t yours, will never be yours. Hence, I am satisfied with what I received and I dedicate my win to my late mother, seeing the event was held on Mother’s Day. I hope she would be proud of me.

My Finisher Medal at last!

Engraved ranking at the back.

I am also grateful to all the people who got me into cycling, namely Kenneth Yeoh and Team AGRR who fanned the cycling fire within me. And most of all, I am thankful to How How for always watching my back and the many hours spent accompanying me in training.

However, there are some things the organizer of this event could have done better and judging from the feedback on the event facebook page, I am sure participants shared the same opinion as me. I take some time to point out some of the shortcomings below:-

1)  Race kit collection should be more efficient. The race kits could have been pre-packed beforehand thus speeding up the collection. Also, having more counters open would avoid the long queue.

2)      Neither timing chip nor bib was given to participants and this opens up room for cheating and also affects timeliness of getting final results out quickly.

3)      Poor organization of checkpoint sticker handouts, especially at the start.

4)      No route markers on the long flat routes.

5)      Lack of traffic marshals along the way to direct riders caused some slower riders to get lost. I was also told by some slower riders that they saw some traffic marshals actually busy buying durian instead of doing their duty by directing riders and traffic!

6)      No road closure to traffic at the 3^rd and final hill climb of 5km put participants at risk as not only had we to try our best to climb and overtake slower riders with lack of water, but we also had to negotiate high volume of traffic within inches from us on our ride. I cannot imagine what would happen should a vehicle come close enough to hit a row of riders. This lack of consideration for the safety riders is a gross negligence and irresponsibility on the part of the organizers.

7)      Last minute removal of the 3^rd waterstation / checkpoint against what was stated in the event booklet caused a lot of riders to run out unexpectedly of water before they reached the 3^rd and final climb. 

8)      Not stocking enough water and light snacks at the Finish Point. Some riders even had to drink out of the pipe water in the toilet at the Finish Point to refresh themselves.

9)      Punctuality issue in starting the Prize-giving ceremony is a sign of lack of respect and consideration to tired and outstation participants.

I sincerely hope the event organizer is open to constructive criticism of their event and take the feedback given with an aim to improve next year if they plan to hold a 3^rd edition of this challenge. With better organization, this challenge would be an excellent one and the route is also interesting. 

Cheers and congrats to all those Monster Climbers who made it to the end on 8th May 2016

!

 

The beautiful view of Balik Pulau from Anjung Indah (Finish Point)