Group shot, left to right: me, Arthur, Nick, Noel, Kit, Viki, and Melissa.
Arthur got out of the jungle trail unscathed (Noel too).
'Can't say the same for me though; I stalled on an uphill, managed to unclip my left foot but toppled to the right.
'Tis but a scratch...I've got a golf ball-sized bruise on my right butt cheek too :-D
Mel still smiling despite bouncing off Arthur on a downhill. What a trooper!
Viki's always cool.
Kit checks if her rear wheel is still there after the numerous root jumps.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go! Go! Go! Go!"
A lousy shot of some of the muddy sections in the jungle trail. Next time I will take better pics, promise.
Nick decided to play Braveheart today: here, he points to the spot where he crashed for the 2nd time on his single-speed Voodoo, shod in
slicks.
Bravery comes at a price. His two XTR brake levers paid dearly as well.
Somehow Viki always makes it look so easy. While I was sweating up a storm, she stays cool as a cucumber. I suspect it has to do with her Oakley Iridium shades.
Or, maybe it is the #%*@!!! tools (Topeak Alien, kevlar emergency spoke, spare Shimano chain master pins, tire boot, tire patch kit, tire levers, spare brake pads, spare cleat bolt), tire pump, shock pump, camera, spare batteries, spare memory card, first aid kit, front light, rear light, back up head lamp, swiss army knife, compass, thermometer, emergency whistle, painkillers, energy bar, energy gel, pen, note pad, and 2 liters of water in my Camelbak, you
thunk?
The rest of the gang. This part is actually really easy and fun. It's too short, IMHO, though. Cloe, my Merlin MTB, is built for long, wide, fast, sweeping fire roads — such as those in Marin (
1), (
2), (
3), (
4) — and she shone here.
Group shot: the helmeted lynch mob.
Here am I being stomped for refusing to
own a cell phone submit to a digital leash. I was lying on a bed of
Mimosa too. Ouch.
11 l-o-n-g kilometers in the heat and humidity later:
Cycle Craft. The ride there from the Tampines track was warm and dusty. The only thing that kept me going was imagining CF Babe's complaints if she was riding with us.
BTW, Viki's bike next to mine is quite a sight.
Nick's empty bowl of supersized beef noodles.
Observe the power of Oakleys: Nick's fingers magically part to allow Arthur unobstructed vision in both eyes.
Mel's completely oblivious. LOL!
Daniel thinks we are all mad to roast under the sun when it's nice and cool in the shop.
Everyone got to wash their bike at the back of the shop.
Dinner at some
xiao long bao restaurant along Joo Chiat. The food is good; prices reasonable; and if you happen to be seated near the front door, you may enjoy some free entertainment when the vice squad comes along to bust some of our highly-skilled female foreign talents :-P
A non-cycling couple (whose names I can't recall).
Okay, I don't know what made me do this, but I think it's something in the tea.
Cute pic!
Taken by Nick. Empty — or rather,
emptied — food containers seem to be his motif :-P
If you have forgotten who Nick is, here's his sexy mug. Single-speed, rigid,
and on slicks on Tampines track!
For more gorgeous photos of
Nick (and other riders too), check out
Arthur's excellent blog.
According to my cyclocomputer, one lap of the Tampines track appears to cover 3.7 miles (5.92 km). There are no sustained climbs; apart from a couple of steep hardpack mud climbs in the jungle trail section, the rest consist of loose, gravelly short affairs. Total distance for the day: 28.3 miles (45.28 km).
