On November 25th, 2012 Siong Hing and his wife (Lynnette Ngo - also a PCG
athlete!) raced at the Cyclosportif Focus in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan,
Malaysia. In Siong’s post recap email
to me, the subject was...”the strangest race start”.
The strangest race start...
Siong started with, “What to say.... Except it was the strangest race
start. The holding pen was in a car park
that was very small AND the starting gate was large enough for only 5 bikes to
go through”. Unfortunately when Siong
arrived, they found the carpark (the staging area) already filled! So instead, they had to stage in the back
road outside the carpark, with an entrance to the carpark only wide enough for
2-3 bikes. He went on to comment,
“Looking into the carpark, we saw a mixture of racers and hybrid bike in the
mass start” Now this part had me
confused and I had to ask him to explain.
He explained that most races in his area are open to everyone with
hundreds or riders (around 800 for this event) all starting at the same
time. Apparently, unless you are one
of the few “invited teams or riders”, you start with the masses (including
recreational riders, going for a Sunday group spin on their Hybrid bikes!). Most of the time, when the gun goes off,
it’s a wide open starting line and in general you are able to maneuver your way
to the front. But, today was much more
challenging given where he had to start.
“When the gun went off, the racing riders were off never to be seen
again. My race plan ended even before
it started.” We finally cleared the
starting line 3-4 minutes after the starting gun and by then the group had
narrowed down to single file (see photo).
Now for the good part…
Since Siong didn't think it was possible to catch the lead peloton, he
said ”My teammates and I decided to ride for the 3 women on the team (including
the wife, Lynnette Ngo). As far as we
could see, the women were not in the fastest peloton and we had 160km to chase
the ones in front down. The strategy worked well. We managed to claim the 1st and 2nd spot in
the women's open beating the other mixed teams. Lynnette managed the 2nd place
in the woman's open event.” Siong said
he really had fun working as domestique for the women. Then in summary he added “The team was all
smiles and hugs at the end. I don't know how I could have planned it better.
Maybe if we slept overnight in the carpark or got invited slots” His finish sounded great, but I had to ask
about the women and men mixing and racing together and if that was OK with the
rules. He explained that “Yes its
common practice for the mass start Malaysian races. The lady that wins is
usually the one that is able to hang on to the men's peloton or has a team of
guys working for them.”
Congratulations on an excellent team effort!
