"The Langkawi Legendary Ride is aimed at solidifying Langkawi's image as a premier sports tourism destination of Asia If Le Tour De Langkawi cycling event involves professional cyclists, the Legendary Ride is designed for amateur athletes and it is more relaxed in its execution."
I signed up for the event at the end of July with the intent to try riding some overseas events nearer to Singapore as a start before venturing further away in future. Langkawi is about 90 minutes away from me via direct flight. Having discussed with my team, only Johnny was able to commit to the event as the others are busy elsewhere. The hotel, airport transfers, air tickets were quickly sorted and we were good to go.
Come Friday 8th September, we headed to Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 4 which houses the budget airlines service by AirAsia. I met Johnny and we proceeded to check in our bike bags as per standard procedure.
Driving up the departure hall ramp to dismount for my flight to Langkawi .
Thank you missus for sending me to the terminal in the comfort of our family car. See you Saturday!
Ascenders Team is all set to fly whether if its a hard case or a soft bag. .
The fun part began when my online check-in failed and I had to obtain a manual boarding pass on the spot which threw me from Row 26D to Row 4C instantly. Not bad actually for disembarking.
Bah! The relationship with technology has always been fickle.
My octane guzzling ride with a "pretty" livery on the fuselage being readied for flight out of Singapore Small quirks but I was fine with that especially with the extra elbow room with an empty seat on my left. The flight was largely uneventful until the wanton noodle meal I booked prior turned up. Aside for the pretty tasty wantons, the noodle was dehydrated and the thin piece of fiber on the top and base were actually cabbage slices which resembled tracing paper... oh well that is airline food for us.
Before we knew it, the flight had arrived at Langkawi and we dismounted from the aircraft followed by arrival procedures. 16 years apart from my last visit here and its pretty much same old how things work here at the airport. Our chartered van came and picked us up for the ride to Bay View Hotel at Kuah Town (1km away from the event start). We quickly dismounted out of our gear and headed to Maha Tower for the event kit collection.
Chop Chop Kali Pok - from disembarkment, hotel check-in and event kit collection all completed in a flash
With all the essential tasks completed, we decided to play tourist for the rest of the afternoon. So we booked a GRAB car to visit Dataran Lang where the famed Eagle symbol of Langkawi resides. After a sweaty and balmy ride in the hired car, we arrived at Dataran Lang.
When we told the driver about the warm cabin, she upped the fan speed, along with it the increased heat draft .... gorengkreta (fried ride)LOL. We settled for KFC as our early dinner and headed for the Eagle statue for photographs and tracked the sunsetting scene.
The scenary and landscapes are amazing with the sunset over the horizon. With that we grabbed our supplies for tomorrow and headed back to our hotel for an early rest via another GRAB car. This time it was well air-conditioned and comfortable. Good night! * ZzzzZ* On the next morning of Saturday 9th September, it was the event day proper. We got the number tags issued to us mounted on our bikes and headed to the race ground early. I spotted a place which should see us out of the holding pen safely and camped up in anticipation of the start. We were later told that the start will be postponed from 7:00am to 7:30am so the wait went on...
Photo credit: Langkawi Legendary Ride Facebook
At 7:30am, the flag off went on for the 101km group, comprised of both men and women across all available age categories and bicycle types (road bike and folding bicycle). Based on my many years of peloton racing experience, I picked a nice group out of he pen and quickly followed up to the lead group on the road. They were going really fast and I knew it wouldn't be long before I will have to give up and move to next group on the road which actually happened at the first climb of the day.
To preserve my somewhat patchy ability, I dropped to the third group of the day and stayed with them pretty until we were about to reach the exit from Datai Loop (55km?). That was when I felt a niggle on the legs and a strange thump on my rear wheel which turned out to be a brake pad rub... sigh disc brakes. Hopped off the bike to quickly solve the braking issue and in turn triggered a massive cramp from an odd leg stretch. However, I took care of it and then continued on from there to the finish on my very own for the entire journey.
Coming to the finish, I gave a final burst sprint and got up for a camera salute (still looking for a kind photograph for it) to cap off my eventful race. I immediately headed to the timing station for a result slip which showed that I have manged to clinch the 5th spot on the podum undrermy age category. That result sent me into an air of euphoria while I continued to look for Johnny at the finish who did not turn up until an hour later.
Apparently he was sent on the wrong way and rode the 68km route instead. So when he finished, he went on to ride the 30km loop to make up for the distance he originally signed up for (aka got his money's worth lol). Subsequently, I went on stage to collect my trophy from the VIP and took the customary photographs. It was one of my best moments in cycling memory to actually collect a trophy which was unprecedented.
Congratulations fellow gentlemen for your well-earned results; Photo credit: Langkawi Legendary Ride Facebook
Surprised 5th in the Men 50-59 years old category for the 101km group. My first ever podium trophy on an individual basis for cycling since I took up in 1996. That took me really long!
Langkawi Legendary Ride 2023 (LLR23) - Complete 101 KM Video
Here is my Fly12 front camera vlog of the entire race. My sincere apologies for the camera shake as Cycliq is not renown for doing too well in terms of video stabilization...
Alrighty, now with the fun and excitement behind us, it was time to head back and pack up for our flight home. Once the packing up was completed, we checked out of the hotel and boarded our chartered bus for the airport. The flight was delayed by an hour so we took time to have some Burger King treat (no human was harmed) while waiting for it to be ready.
An airport terminal that seems to send us back in time
When the aircraft was ready to take us to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for our transit flight with a two and a half hour interval, it started to rain as a symbol of our sadness that the fun was ending. Meanwhile the Board Pass chaos continued as I am thrown from 26E to 3E this time...
Time to head for home...
Upon disembarking at KLIA we went on a frenzied search for the elusive KFC/Merry Brown fried chicken, only to be disappointed that there was none. Johnny managed to get his craving satisfied as the Burger King outlet did sell fried chicken - hah!
With that accomplished we boarded our final flight back to Singapore and my seating arrangement this time got jumbled up from 26E to 2A which placed me next to a window which wasn't that bad for a 45 minutes flight.
Goodbye Kuala Lumpur, it was a brief moment with you.
Nothing beats the feeling of coming home to our loved ones
We were picked up by our respective spouses for home to end the trip proper. That my friends, concludes our Langkawi Legendary Ride/Race 2023 adventure and thank you for reading till this point. I will greatly appreciate that you can give it a like if you enjoyed reading this write up. Patrick