Jelajah Tour: Stage 1

Stage 1 of Jelajah Malaysia saw the race head 162km to Bandar Penawar on the east coast. The stage was dead flat and with 180 fresh riders, everyone was keen for a breakaway. 

As usual, the race started fast, as I followed wheels at the front and hoped for a gap. I managed a small break with 3 others as the first sprint point approach. Well that's what I thought anyway. With 4.5km of neutral before the start of the race, I did not allow for the extra distance and the break was swallowed up before the sprint. 

Despite training in the Queensland summer, nothing could prepare me for racing in Malaysia's humidity and heat. Any effort caused my temperature to go up and I was constantly showering myself in water. During the race I drank 8 water bottles! The only respite was short sections where the skies would open up and pour rain for a few minutes. It was like entering a curtain of water and exiting only a few hundred metres later, back into the heat and humidity.

Several small breaks went and came back until there was 70km to go. Mart attacked to bridge a gap across to a small group. I think everyone assumed it would fail as there was a long way to go and the stronger teams of the sprinters came to the front. 

With 10km to go, the group was down to Mart and the very strong sprinter from team Tabritz. They maintained a small gap of 15sec. In the final kilometres, the chase was interrupted as the peleton turned a sharp right with many spearing off into the grass and some landing in a ditch.

With 1km to go, mart still had a gap and the Tabritz rider attacked. The peleton was bearing down on them at full speed with only 200m to go. Mart could not match the attack but clung on for 2nd place! 

Mart had clearly given it all and said that he lost two years of his life after the day's effort. In hindsight, the Tabritz rider winning was, in a way, a relief as they now had to control the race to protect the yellow jersey.

Man Down

Today saw us cross the border into Malaysia from Singapore. I have never done so without flying across in a plane so to do so in a bus was a new experience. You basically check out of one country, enter a neutral zone before checking into the next. It made me wonder if the neutral zone was one of those places where you can do anything you want and no one can stop you. Like international waters. I wanted to gamble, let off fire works and shoot with illegal firearms.

Anyways... After checking into the race hotel, we decided to go for a ride. The weather here is much like Brisbane in the middle of summer, in the middle of the day. A billion degrees, humid as a tropical jungle and it could rain at any moment. The Europeans on the team suffered in the sun, but so did I. It felt like my head was going to explode.

After 60km, we were 20km from the hotel. One rider, Clemens from Austria, managed to hit a pothole and puncture both of his tyres. With only one tube on us, we had to leave him behind to wait. The plan was to leave him by the side of the road, go back and get the team manager to pick him up. Meanwhile, if Clemens could get a taxi, he would call the manager to let him know.

Apon returning to the hotel, the team manager was in the managers meeting for the race and could not be contacted for 2hrs. We assumed that clemens would simply get a taxi and find his way back. 2hrs later and he still had not returned. We asked the manager if he had received a phone call only to discover that he was using a Malaysian SIM card and the number was different. Surely, Clemens had found a taxi by now.

3.5hrs since we saw him, the team presentations were begining and he still had not appeared. It was time to panic. The team manager tried to call and I went to the lobby to see if he contacted the hotel. As I got back to my room, he walked out of the elevator.

Stuck on the side of the road for 4hrs, he sought shelter at a service station but could not get a taxi. A local man who spotted him, kindly gave him a lift back. Clemens still had his wallet and both his kidneys, but boy was he sunburnt. Perfect preparation for the next day's race!

Overweight

After a long wait, I am finally heading over to Europe! But, on the way, I am stopping in Malaysia for a race. This meant that I had to pack everything I own into three bags and then carry it around for a week.

Most airlines usually only let you have 23kg of luggage. I am fortunate enough to fly with emirates who allow 30kg plus 7kg carry on and a laptop. This has not been a problem in the past as I have several tricks to make my bags appear lighter such as cramming everything into carry on. However, this time I had a little more luggage then I expected.

When I checked in, my bike and suitcase weighed in at 39kg. Sometimes, if you are lucky enough, they will just let it through but I think the entire company was having a bad day. How much extra would it coati to take these few extra kg's with me?? $70? Maybe $100?? Nope- an extra $30 per KG!!!! That is $270 for 9kg!!!

Instead, I chose to repack. I put on jeans over my shorts, two jumpers and filled my pockets. I put heavy items into my carry on and threw out non-essential clothing and an extra pair of shoes I had packed. I went back to check in and... Success!!!

So I repacked everything and went down to the security check. It was really not my day as the security guard decided to weigh my carry on bag and did not accept that my backpack was a laptop bag. All together, it came to14kg, meaning I had to get rid of about 5kg.

I put my jeans and jumpers back on (I was still sweating from the last time), stuffed my pockets and went back up to check in. Still 3kg over, I threw out a towel and another set of clothes (which I am pretty sure the guy took). He then told me, after throwing everything out, that I could only carry on one bag!!! I was pretty close to getting on my knees to beg before a nice lady came over and said 'You are lucky I'm so generous' and approved my bags.

I am now sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Malaysia. I just received my race pack which included two souvenir shirts and a hat. They are gonna go straight into the bin as I cannot fit another item in, no matter how light it is!!

Universal Language...

With riders from so many countries in the Champion System team, sometimes communication can be difficult. Not just when we are having a conversation, but when verbal signals are vital, such as whilst riding in a group.

If you yell out 'car back!' or 'stopping!' in the bunch, some riders will simply look around and wonder what the heck you are screaming about. This can cause problems when you are trying to get a huge bunch to proceed as safely as possible.

There is one term, however, that everyone seems to understand. Scream out 'Pisso!' and everyone will quickly dart to the side of the road for a nature stop. I don't know how or where everybody learnt this, but they all know what it means!?

The Hammer.

As a cyclist, you very rarely use your upper body and consequently, your upper body strength and physical appearance slowly withers away. When riding a bike, this causes no problems and is in fact, a benefit. Many professonal cyclists look like they have been living in a P.O.W. camp; as demonstrated below by the attractive Mr Michael Rasmussen...

When not riding, a diminished upper body can be a bit of a pain. My wife often comments that she can carry more grocery bags than me and when at work, my inability to lift heavy boxes is a source of ridicule for my work mates. (Don't tell them, but I actually use it to my advantage to avoid lifting heavy objects and hard manual labour!) One work mate in particular gifted me the name of 'T-Rex' in light of the dinosaurs' small arms, yet huge legs. Over the past few weeks, 'T-Rex' has been slowly catching on with the others and I was afraid it was going to become permanent. Until today...

With a few spare minutes until we started, I challenged this particular workmate to an arm wrestle, to put this weak upper body myth to rest. To be honest, i did not expect to win and I highly doubt anyone else did either. But I did. At first, everyone thought it was a trick, that I somehow cheated. So we arm wrestled again. And I won again.

This has now become a big source of ridicule for my work mate. As a consequence, he can no longer call me 'T-Rex', but must now refer to me as 'THE HAMMER' whenever he addresses me. Sweet victory.

After-Life

Whilst walking around Thaliand markets, we stumbled across an interesting shop. Everything inside was made of cardboard. They had wads of fake money, scaled down cardboard Mercedes Benz, cardboard suits, mobile phones and pretty much most physical possessions that you can think of. I thought it was some sort of novelty toy shop. Cardboard and paper toys that you could give to kids. As it turns out, I was extremely wrong.

As I was informed, it is all part of a Chinese funeral tradition. After a funeral, the Chinese find comfort from burning paper. Chinese believe that by burning paper they are providing material goods for the dead. Family members purchase paper replicas of money, a house, cattle, cars or anything that they want their loved ones to have in the after-life. By writing the name of the deceased on these items before burning them, Chinese believe the correct person then receives these items.

I started to wonder what my friends would burn for me to have in the after life??? What do my friends think I would want in the after life? Sadly, I couldn't find a paper bicycle.

Things to do...

With my time in australia and hence brisbane, coming to an end, there are a few things that I want to do before I no longer have the opportunity to do so. So I made a list.

1. Go to the beach... After looking at the weather for Switzerland (and given it's location) I doubt I will be able to get to a sunny beach for some time.

2. Visit some of my preferred restaurants in Brisbane... Some of these were unfortunately closed due to flood damage, however, my list includes Avanti in Bardon, Villa Maria in Coorparoo and my favorite local, Renu Thai in Toowong.

3. Do some of my favorite rides... Mt tambourine. Mt nebo. Mt Cotton/Ford Rd. And Mt Crosby. Unfortunately, I attempted Mt Crosby last week and was cut off by some flood water being released from upstream.

4. This goes against everything I believe in but; go on the Brisbane eye... It's cheesy and touristy, so why not. This will be shuffled to the back of the list though.

5. Check out some of the smaller places and restaurants in the city... Thanks to my new dependence on public transport this has not been difficult as it is the easiest place to get to and it is amazing how many nooks there are to explore in the city.

6. Go to the movies... Not only because I have some unused vouchers but because I will not get the opportunity to watch English speaking movies in a cinema for a while.

7. Go to Wet n Wild water park... I had never been there but I did recently and it turned out to be good fun despite the epic queues. (and the sun burn)

8. Buy an Aussie team shirt or something else Aussie to take overseas... For obvious reasons. Or I could do what a large portion of the population does and get the ever classy southern cross tattoo... or NOT.

9. Catch up with a huge list of people before I go... I have several rainchecks with people that I need to redeem.

10. PACK!.. I need to condense my possessions down to 3 bags and 30kg. I am currently about 5kg overweight which will equate to about $1000000 in excess baggage fees.

I doubt everything will get done, mainly because I am so lazy, but I will do my best. Sorry if I don't get to catch up with you before I go!!!

If anyone has any other suggestions for things that I should do before I go, please let me know!!!

Bachelorhood

My wife left me today. Not in a 'I've had enough and I'm leaving you!' way, but in a planned 'I'll meet you in Europe' kind of way.

After weeks of planning, I don't think my wife (or myself for that matter) ever really thought this day would come. The initial decision to move to Europe for the year. Deciding to go to Germany. Booking the tickets and organising a visa. Selling everything we own in our garage sale. Packing up what we had left and moving out. Cancelling cards and memberships and changing our mailing address. All of this was just a precursor for this big day. But she still wasn't ready.

All morning her phone has been ringing with family and loved ones wanting to wish her good luck. Each phone call just making her more upset about leaving and at the same time, making it all a bit more real. Thankfully, two friends of ours are joining her on this adventure, (Thanks Beck and Ben!!) meaning my wife doesn't have to go through anything alone. When you are stuck in a place where no one speaks your language it is always a lot easier when you have someone you kbnow with you. That way, if you get lost, miss a flight, catch the wrong train or don't know how to ask for directions, at least you can suffer together.

While my wife sets off on her trip, I have had a taste of my own medicine. Now I know what she feels like every time I travel somewhere and leave her behind. Sure, I've got all the time in the world now to train and do whatever I want. BUT... I am already bored. I just finished eating baked beans on toast for dinner and am about to sit down to season 2 of Modern Family after completing the entire first season!! I feel like I am back at university again, when I lived on 2 minute noodles and beer. I had no problem watching tv until 3am and waking up for lunch.

But this is no holiday. It will be about six weeks until I see my wife again and I hope she has as much fun as I do while travelling! Until then, I wonder if my Mum will help me with my cleaning???

Seven Eleven

In Australia, you only usually only go to a Seven-Eleven store for one of two reasons.

1. It's past 9pm, the supermarkets are closed and someone is sitting on the toilet waiting for you because you ran out of toilet paper or you desparately need some other essential such as milk or bread.

2. It's past 9pm, you stumble out of a bar after several drinks, all the other fast food restaurants are closed or not within staggering distance and you desparately need some grease in the form of a travellers pie or the risky 7-11 hot dog.

Other than these two examples, most Aussies avoid Seven Eleven stores. Not because they are inconvenient or open at inconvenient times, but generally because you can get the exact same items at half the price and further from the expirey date at the local supermarket.

In Aisa, it seems that Seven Eleven stores have totally the opposite reputation. They have absolutely everything you could need and at normal prices. From bakery goods to Octopus Cards (the Hong Kong equivalent of Brisbane's 'Go Card' that can be used to pay for just about everything, not just public transport) to sim cards to hot coffee to beer! You could pretty much do your weekly shopping at a Seven Eleven.

The other astonishing difference about Seven Eleven in Aisa, is the fact that they are almost literally on every street corner. In some cases, you can see a Seven Eleven store whist standing inside another! If one store doesn't have what you need, just walk a couple of hundred meters to the next one!

I can see the concept that Seven Eleven is trying to bring to Australia, but it is just not working. Lets face it, all that they need to keep on their shelves in Australia is milk, bread, toilet paper, pies, hotdogs and a range of confectionary and ice-creams. Seven Eleven is an emergency store only.

Human Viewing Gallery

When you travel domestically in Australia, you can get off the plane, collect your bags and walk out the door to get a taxi or meet loved ones.

Traveling internationally is a different story as leaving the airport is a more intense experience. You must have your immigration card completed, pass through the checkpoint and on to the luggage carousel where you may have to complete a customs card before passing through another screening process. After these ordeals you are free to exit out of, usually, a clouded glass exit that no one can see through from the outside.

You breathe a sigh of relief as you walk through the door, thankful that the ordeal is over and you were permitted to enter, only to be confronted by a wall of people wanting to be the first to spot their loved ones as they come out. Mixed amongst these are hotel and resort representatives holding signs with random names as they struggle to find the passengers they are supposed to collect.

If you are one of these passengers that is being picked up by a stranger, you have to walk slowly along the wall of people to read every sign carefully. I can't help but think that this is what zoo animals must feel like as I walk past all of the staring faces.

Mumbai airport was the worst example of this that I have experienced. I walked out to literally, hundreds of people yelling and shouting with the background noise of taxis and tuk tuks beeping for passengers to choose them over others. I walked past about 50m of signs and posters looking carefully for my name. I got to the end and regretfully didnt spot my name which meant I had to do the walk of shame in the opposite direction. After four trips up and down the gallery like I was on a fashion runway, I threw in the towel and called the race organizers who, as it turned out, were running late. So I pulled up a chair right in the middle of the zoo feeling as if a hundred eyes were on me.

I did nothing but stare at my iPhone screen for half an hour until the race organizers showed up and identified me within the viewing pen.