Ride for Sight – 500km from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore

During the last weekend in September, 40 riders went from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur by coach and ‘plane, then cycled back to Singapore over the weekend, taking  a small detour over some hills on the way.

The first day included several good hills, the longest being a climb of approximately 9km, and 176km in total. The second day was flatter but even longer. We covered 220km with a few rolling hills in the first 40km. On third and last day of the ride we covered ‘only’ 107km (including an extra loop of the NTU campus – just for fun) and arrived at the Standard Chartered MBFC office at about 3pm. We averaged just under 30kmph for the whole 500km at 29.7kmph.

The worst part wasn’t the hills, or the heat, or the thunderstorms, or the long days in the saddle, or even the difficulty in finding a cold beer in rural Malaysia (which was tricky), it was the bright pink jerseys.  Anything for a good cause, I guess.  We had a great bunch of riders of all standards split into five groups. Group 1 (photo attached)  were a great team to ride with. Although we possessed a questionable sense of fashion, according to some of the guys, we were "universally recognised as being unequalled in terms of riding talent, charm and good looks"... ahem! Really? See for yourself... photo below

One of the more experienced cyclists in our group pointed out that my seat was too high near to the end of the first day, and that was why I had some pain the back of my knee. I lowered my seat but the damage had been done already. I had a tendonitis in the back of my left knee.

Throughout the second day, the pain was worse. Another friend in my group gave me some painkillers, which helped. I could not suck up the idea of admitting I wasn’t tough enough, so I carried on cycling through. At the end of the second day, I could not really walk properly because I couldn’t straighten my left leg. This meant that I was walking on my toes of me left foot all the time and my calf was getting tighter and tighter.

On arriving at MBFC on Sunday, I had cycled a total of 5,000.17km in 2013, which is over my target of 5,000km by a whisker.

Many generous souls helped to push my individual fundraising over my target of USD 4,000 - I’ve raised USD 5,669.64 which is more than 40% over the initial target!

In total, and including bank matching, the group of cyclists who pedalled from KL to Singapore raised over USD 270,000 for Seeing is Believing.