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Singapore Gentlemen's Race

By Adam Taylor-Campbell • 1st October 2012 11:51am • Posted in Events

In the early hours of Saturday 29th September, 76 cyclists competed in the first Asian edition of the Rapha Gentlemen's Race. A 165km team time-trial, the ride included border crossings into Malaysia (and back), a 5km hill climb with gradients in excess of 20% and a hair-raising descent. There was a strong local showing, with many of the competitors coming from Singapore. However, the event did attract some attention from overseas with competitors flying in to race from as far as Japan and England.

The climb called "Gunung Pulai" is infamous among hikers and mountain bikers in Malaysia and renowned for being an exceptionally arduous ascent with several sections at over 20% gradient. A friend and I rode it four months ago for the first time, and have been the only ones (that we're aware of) who have completed the climb without getting off and pushing our bikes. Many have tried, including those who raced last weekend; everyone who completed the climb to the race marker pushed their bikes to the very top.

For each rider who completed the climb, they gained a bonus point (the value of 40 minutes deducted from your finishing time), a lot of the teams sent all of their guys up the hill, gaining all 4 points and deducting more than 2 hours off the finishing time, climbing the hill was at their detriment on the way back (many were just exhausted and struggled over the last hot 40km (38ºC).

18 of the 19 teams successfully finished the race. Congratulations must go to all of the participants as it was a thoroughly brutal ride. Thanks go out to all of the organisers and supporters.

And of course, congratulations to the overall winners - The Confero Mavericks A-Team – a phenomenal effort with a winning time of 3hrs 16m achieved thanks to the devious bonus system described above.

The pre-race coffees were a huge success and the after-race beers were, as per usual, thoroughly appreciated.

  1. 3:16 - MAVERICKS "A"
  2. 4:19 - AGNESIA GCC
  3. 4:19 - FBCC BOUNTY HUNTERS
  4. 4:43 - RDR
  5. 5:22 - EQUIPE GOOD GOOD
  6. 5:26 - MAVERICKS "B"
  7. 5:52 - TEAM IR
  8. 5:57 - TEAM MIDPOINT
  9. 6:02 - BLACK ARROWS
  10. 6:24 - FATBOYS CC / ROTI PRATA EXPRESS
  11. 6:39 - FATBOYS CC #3
  12. 7:03 - RFC
  13. 8:09 - 6.15
  14. 8:10 - TEAM CHENG TNG
  15. 8:50 - BLUE BIRD FEATHER
  16. 9:08 - OLD STEELERS
  17. 9:40 - PGSK RIDERS
  18. 10:08 - WEEKEND WARRIORS
  19. DNF - TEAM RABAK

Comments

Kwang Liak Teo

2nd October 2012 07:04am

Sounds like fun.

Brian Johnsen

2nd October 2012 01:11pm

A thoroughly enjoyable day out and one to remember. Congratulations has to be given to Adam and crew for organising a flawless event. The climb up the famously brutal Gunung Pulai was truly epic - the feeling of having the whole team at the top after that massive effort was tremendous. And of course rolling home at 3:16 was icing on the cake. ;-)

Looking forward to the next one guys, keep up the great work.

Liam Winston

3rd October 2012 05:54am

Agree, definitely a fantastic morning of riding. Great to enjoy so many new roads, that are almost on our doorstep.

Appreciate it took some effort to recce the route and pull the event together. Thank you.

On Gunung Pulai, I had thought a couple of guys managed to ride it. One of Mavs was ahead of me, whilst I just managed to make it up without having to succumb to the push.

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