decathlon R series 9.1

Went bike shopping today and boy did I shop! My pocket is totally burnt now but I feel great! Heh.. Rode around town today and the bike feels really nice. A nice change from a TT bike, but I DID feel like fitting on aero bars at times today. =P

Anyway meet the latest member of the family:my decathlon R series 9.1

outside the most famous cycle store in Grenoble

going off with my new steed!

Decathlon R series 9.1 (second hand) : €500
Look KÉO pedals and cleats/covers: €58.50
Cateye Micro Wireless: €39.90
Two Specialized Carbon Pro bottle cages: €26
Zéfal bike pump: €12

Experience of riding with the wind in France: Priceless =)

carte bleue

Finally got my carte bleue, or my bank card today!

ok i blanked out all the numbers.. =P

So I immediately went out to get myself this:

the north face evolution triclimate jacket

So far its ok. It has a detachable fleece insulation inner layer so I can just wear that when it is not so cold and match it with the gore tex outer shell when winter comes. Cost 199 Euros though.. But well, I guess it is an investment! Will be getting my bike tomorrow.. I can't wait! =D

alpe d'huez

080907. A date that I will not be forgetting anytime soon, because its the day I finally climbed the Alpe d'Huez!

That's right, I biked up this very famous TdF mountain stage today. For the uninitiated, this particular mountain has hosted a stage finish every year from 1976, is one of the hors catégorie climbs, and is the battleground where many famous rivalries like Armstrong-Basso, Armstong-Ullrich have been fought. It features about 1100m of climbing and the average gradient is 8.1% - Not really suitable for your Sunday ECP cyclists!

But anyway I decided to give it a try, even though I still have not gotten a bike here. Piétér, a Belgian whom I met in school told me it was possible to rent bikes at Bourg d'Oisans, the foot of the Alpe d'Huez, so we made plans to bike up this weekend. But unfortunately he said that he had to attend a soirée on Friday night so the task was left to Cheuk Fong and me.

aerial view of Alpe d'Huez with the route outlined

profile of the climb

Met CF at 9 in the morning an we proceeded to take the TransIsère bus which would take us to Bourg d'Osians. On the bus we met another cyclist Tom who is a Australian but he was working at the moment in Austria so he took the opportunity to come to Grenoble just to climb the Alpe d'Huez. Boy I must be really lucky to be based in such a cycling paradise! =)

Reached Bourg d'Oisans and bidded farewell to Tom, who started riding almost immediately. Not for us, as we still had to locate a bike store for us to rent our bikes. Found this shop, which rented out entry level road bikes for 20 Euros per day. They even changed the pedals to Shimano SPDs so I could use my cycling shoes! I also bought a pair of CSC gloves as I heard that the descend would be nail-bitingly cold. Then we grabbed some lunch (which we brought along) and headed out.

The plan for the day was simple enough. Go Bourg d'Oisans, rent bike, bike up mountain, bike down mountain, return bike, go home. The first two were already accomplished without much difficulty, but how was item number 3 going to be? We soon found our answer as we found ourselves at the foot of Alpe d'Huez after 500m of cycling out of town. Almost immediately we were thrust into a 10% climb, with no chance of warming up whatsoever. In response, I shifted to the smallest chainring (luckily I rented a bike with a triple chainring) and tried to spin my way up as I read that the first two switchbacks would be the worst.

As this was my first time here and also my first time biking up the mountain, I did not know what to expect so I took it easy. I also stopped pretty frequently to snap pictures. Cheuk Fong, a debutant with zero experience on road bikes, gamely spun on all the way to the top sans helmet and SPDs!!! Take that man all you newbies! o_O

Ok some pictures from the bottom all the way to the top.

in the little village of Bourg d'Oisans

my steed for the day: a good ol' BH aluminium bike

all prepped and ready to set off!

cheuk fong too

all shagged out after the first two switchbacks!

view of Bourg d'Oisans just after 5mins of climbing!

there are signboards like this for all 21 switchbacks, and they act as a countdown from 21 all the way to 1!

more signs pointing out the way

a shot of the infamous hairpin switchbacks

another view from a little farther up

point of no return - at about switchback 10

reaching cloud level

got someone to take a photo for me.. also for me to take a break! =D

breathtaking scenery

almost there..

at the top! there was even a photographer at the top taking souvenir shots!

views of the village; there's a memorial with couple of bikes at the roundabout

l'arrivée, but its the fake one because..

the real TdF stage finish is here!

truly above the clouds; Bourg d'Oisans was actually overcast!

hell yeah!

podium finish

What goes up must come down. So after spending some time chatting with some other cyclists at the top we proceeded down. Frankly I do not know which was worse: Cycling up or going back down. The slopes were so steep that I had to keep my hands firmly gripped on the brakes on all times and maintain full concentration on the road at all times. It was also very cold going down and I was glad I had my jacket with me! Anyway both off us zipped down at speeds of about 60kmh, and yet people were still overtaking us! They seriously have nerves of steel.. =P

So anyway after getting down my fingers were totally frozen and I had to pry them off the handlebars. We were trying to make the 1550 bus back to Grenoble so we returned our bikes and headed for the bus stop tout suite. Luckily we got there in time and did not miss the bus (the next bus was at 1930). But by a cruel twist of fate I accidentally left my Northface jacket along with my newly-bought CSC gloves in the pocket at the bus stop! Damn.. I only realised it halfway through the journey and I knew by then it was too late to head back to look for it; It would have probably been taken by some person. Nevertheless I asked the bus driver to look out for it on the next journey but true enough when I called to ask him later on it was gone. So I guess I have to get another jacket. Sigh.. I loved that jacket! =( Bought it in Mongolia somemore..

Anyway that's about the end of my ride today. Will be buying a 2nd hand bike sometime next week and I definitely will be doing alot more of such rides around the area. Cycling is really the grand passion of the French (just look at all the graffiti of encouragement messages along the road) and the weather/scenery is just so amazing! À tout à l'heure! =)

mes coordinates

Bought a new phone, the Nokia 1600 yesterday. Suddenly the screen looks so small and the phone feels so primitive as compared to my 6110 Navigator! But its ok as I just wanted a simple phone to use here in France since their sim cards are incompatible with our locally-locked phones. I got the phone at a rather cheap price of 19 Euros with the purchase of a Orange Mobicard (pre-pard card) and just like any other Nokia phone, it has been quite the dependable workhorse. But best of all, it has a French T9 dictionary!!! =D

candybar retro

So now that I've got my mobile, here are my coordinates:

Address
Chambre 5206
Domaine Universitaire
Résidence Hector BERLIOZ
361 allée Hector Berlioz
38406 Saint Martin D'Heres
Grenoble FRANCE

Landline
+33476599765

Mobile
+33642205814

No more reasons not to send presents for Christmas now!!! =D

Desaru LD Tri 2007: Race Report

Finally have the time to write this! Heh.. =)

Drove up to Desaru with my parents on a rainy Friday morning. In the other car was Chris, JS and Keiko. This was going to be my third Desaru race, while it was JS's second and Chris' first. 3-2-1 start and yet a 2-3-1 finish. Heh. Read on to find out more about the race!

Reached Desaru after a one-and-a half hours drive from JB, no thanks to the weather and the heavy traffic along the way. Checked in into our respective rooms at the Pulai, then headed to Golden Beach Desaru, the official race hotel to register, attend the race briefing, and go for the carbo-loading dinner.

uncle chan up to his usual antics.. =D

my parents and me at the dinner

with the rest of the whole jinn gang

Desaru is one of my favourite races because it starts at such a late time (10am) such that I can sleep in on race day unlike other races where it is almost always necessary to wake up at an unearthly hour to make the start line. And so I woke up about 0800 and went about with my usual race prep. Chris was nice enough to come over to send my parents and Keiko over to the start line, while me and Jinseng just rode our bikes over.

Met many familiar faces (as usual) at the transition area. I was feeling extremely at ease because I knew I was doing this race for fun and not really wanting to push it. Just went about the usual transition area preparations and that was about it. The weather was sunny in contrast to yesterday's rain and I was happy. Little did I know what was to come..

prepping at the transition area

me and Chris

three of us plus Calvin the super Ironman

me with my parents again at the start line

The race started very punctually at 1000hrs. Unfortunately the waves were as bad, if not worse than last year's. To make things worse, there were no line buoys to guide the swimmers and so many of us swam way out of course. The fact that it was quite an uphill swim (no kidding) meant that it was quite difficult to sight the turning buoys and thus compounded our problems. Twice I swam too far right going out to sea and thus I had to swim back to the turning buoy! Finished the swim in 1 hour but I suppose I must have swam at least 2.4km! Although I was disappointed with my swim time I was glad to make it out of the water: I was definitely more confident with my bike and run leg! Mounted my bike in no time and proceeded with the bike course. Unfortunately there seemed to be something wrong with my bike: My wheel seemed to be in contact with something as there was a constant rubbing noise and vibration which I could feel all the time! It got to me so much that I stopped by the road after 30km to check out the problem. Unfortunately I could not spot anything and so I continued along, vibrations and all. Even more unfortunate was the fact that it started to rain after my first bike loop and it made cycling alot more difficult: It was impossible to see anything and the ground was slippery. At that moment I felt that my goggles would have been more suitable than my shades! =D

In any case the rain stopped after an hour and I finished the relatively monotonous 90km bike ride in exactly 3.00hours. A little disappointing, but I thought little of it in the bike to run transition.

Because it had rained earlier it was still cloudy in the afternoon and those were perfect conditions for a PB in the run leg. Thus unsurprisingly I managed a PB of 1hr 45 mins. Hence, my total time was quite exactly 5hr 45mins, a large improvement over last year's 6hrs 45mins. But I was very sick during the race last year and that does not make for a fair comparison. I think many others also did their PB this year.. Probably due to the lesser number of racers this year and the kind weather.

Kudos to the excellent race organisation again this year by uncle Chan.. Dam boleh lah! It was truly a fun and enjoyable race for all! =D

running out of transition

dunno WTH ah pui trying to do also..

FINISH!

me and my ever surpportive parents again

with the rest of the finishers sans ah pui.. Haha..

keiko and jinseng

For videos of the race kindly provided by IMIM Clifford, click here, here and here.

And so after the race we went for the highlight of the trip: Seafood dinner! Drove down to Renggit and as expected, it had been colonised by the Singapore triathletes, at least for a day. So so that ends my race report on Deraru LD Tri 2007; I'll leave you with some parting shots of the food! =D

remmants of some leftover food and lobster

up close and personal with mr Lobster

civilisation

FINALLY!!! I HAVE CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET IN MY ROOM!!! CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE POP THE CHAMPAGNE??!!! =D =D =D

JE SUIS CONTENTE!!!

salut september

Finally September has rolled in.. That means I've enjoyed about 4 months of vacation, and still counting! =D

I'm at McDo's again.. Its about 2100 here. Came over to meet up with the rest of the Singaporeans who just arrived here today, and to get some supper.

Had a good weekend, and although I didn't go anywhere of much importance, I took the chance to décontracter a little, chill out, and prepare for the week ahead.

Went to the movies on Saturday. Amazingly Planet Terror (or Planète Terreur) was screening at the cinemas here! Was super excited when I saw the movie listings in the papers here, and had made plans to watch the movie earlier in the week. Letch was nice to go with me to catch the movie, even with her repeated complains. Haha.. So on Saturday morning we met up and went to St. Bruno to check out the marché asiatique first. Nothing much interesting, so we went to eat pho at a Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Letch's mentor. It was bloody good. Best meal since I got here. Me and Andi just couldn't stop chomping on the chilli and belachan! Haha. After lunch we parted ways and while Andi went to McDo's to surf net, me and Letch went to the theatre. Hmm the cinemas in Europe are very different from those in Singapore: It is all free seating, and they do not screen any commercials. Anyway the movie started on time and I was excited as anything when the opening song came on. Malheureusement the dialogue was in French! Damn.. =( It was difficult to understand all the dialogue but at least the action sequences made up for it. I have to watch the English version again next time though.. =D

Today I woke up early for a run. Weather was super good and I followed the same route as last week. Then I did my laundry and went to another marché near the foot of la bastille with the rest. I helped Letch buy a second-hand bike for 24 Euros. Then we had a picque-nique at the park near my place. Ming brought along some friends from Rabot so that added to the cultural diversity. Had a nice time tossing frisbees and basically soaking up fun in the sun. =)

Ok about all for this week. There's going to be 10km run race in Grenoble next Sunday. Should I go for that or should I head for Lausanne for some travelling?