My 2013 Shimano Highway Challenge

 When the event came up on the net, I must have been one of those who quickly registered; this evidenced by my double digit bib number! What attracted me to join this event is the exclusiveness of the highway, purely for the participants! Some may have complained regarding the entry fee which is expensive. I thought it was fair based on the exclusive usage of the highway.

 I had a torrid time reaching the collection site as I was from Sungai Buloh after rounds on Saturday morning. I never thought that MRR2 would still be as crap on a Saturday school holiday afternoon! Haha I was stuck in the massive traffic jam for 2 hours before reaching the venue. The one thing that got me pissed off is i had to make a u turn at the next toll stop as i was from the other side! Haha a lot of swearing came and went! The collection booth was simple yet effective. I did see a 3K Ultegra Di2 upgrade which i a way, i do regret for not taking the offer! haha The event jersey was nice however a size smaller.. Arrgghh.. need to slim down to be able to wear it in a good fashion, otherwise looking like hahaha

I was up really early, by 4am i was wide awake.As usual, set up my things but it was not possible to defecate! i did try and ten when it did not happen, hoped that it will sustain and maintain without giving me any problem. Using the KLIA highway and after that SKVE was definitely the smoothest ever flow to reach LEKAS. I arrived really early in the morning. 

However, it was a bit dark where we were supposed to park. I did not realize there was a bump and when i hit it my Pinarello made a jump to safety! Luckily there was nobody behind me otherwise i might have caused an accident. I was worried my Pina would have been injured and initially i thought i've broken my derraileur! It was still functioning and i only hoped that nothing wrong will happen during the race.

 Everybody was up and early. I just love event atmosphere:) THats why im addicted to these events! Of course, 15 minutes before the start my tummy kept on grumbling.. yup it was time! I am glad the toilet was functioning 100% and i was glad i decided to let it go hahaha otherwise it would have been really troublesome riding with letting go feeling all the way.. hahaha

 As usual, Kamal is my cycling comrade in such events. He was a bit late but luckily he managed to arrive at the starting line before the rolling start. Met up with few of my anaesthesia comrades; Dr Nordin from Mahkota Melaka and Salleh who is currently in KPJ Kajang. There were few others whom i met later after the race.Saw Elly my sister as well but at that time she was occupied by the fact that she had dropped her phone and sort of lost it.

 The rolling start started at 7:05. Rolling start means everybody will be following an escort bike and then being let go after a certain distance. For us, it was about 2.5km. This is definitely a safe way to ensure no mishaps or accidents at the start.

The route on paper was not too bad until the 30th kilometer. I started from the back but with a constant 30km/h i managed to catch up and bypassed quite a number of participants.The weather was perfect and the highway was cool as it can be.I did enjoy the start and felt quite strong, however I was cautious to not overdo it as i don't want to end up injured.
The 25km ish climb was what everybody was waiting for. The elevation wqas fair but stretched to about 2 km. It could have been painful but i enjoy climbing! Seriously! Im sure if I've conditioned my legs well than i welcome any KOM!

 Arrived comfortably within the 3 hours and of course we were delighted by the satay after the race!
I thought the organization was smooth and i did really enjoy the event. Kudos Shimano n Lekas!