Bike Nirvana
Yet another cycling blog
Tagaytay: via Molito - Indang - Aguinaldo
December 28, 2016
Today, I'm set to do a personal milestone - a 100km ride. The plan is to take off at Molito in Alabang, take Daang-hari, then Open Canal to Indang and up to Tagaytay. Going back would be via Aguinaldo Highway then Daang-hari back to Molito. This is also the opportunity to do a shakedown of the newly-built Colnago V1-r.
There are only three of us in this ride as two other riders had committments that day.
I knew it's going to be difficult for me, but I just got to do it. Here we are at the first major stop and since I was behind, I was pedalling head down that I missed my companions signal for me to stop. Dan rode and caught me and we headed back to Total gas station for refreshments and rest.
Our next stop is at Petron in Indang , Cavite. Sorry, there are no bike photos but this one stole the shot.
We continued pedalling and when I reached Mendez I feel my legs failing as I started to get cramps on my thighs. I had stop many times to shrug it off but the major pain was felt at this point...
I finally had time to take a photo of the bike, as I rest my sore legs.
It was a major struggle for me and the pain would subside only to come back shortly. Nevertheless, I finally joined them for a nice lunch art Mar-Ben's Tapsilogan in Tagaytay.
at Mar-Ben's Tapsilogan, sorry no food photos but they're good!
At this point, my Edge 25 battery is about to give up so I ended the ride and synced with Garmin Connect. For the ride back, I used Strava on my phone to record the ride.
The ride back was still a struggle as my cramps still pestered me, it was not until we hit Aguinaldo highway (which mostly is downwards) that I was able to rest my legs and get much needed milage. I fell behind once more at the intersections where traffic was a nightmare. I just walked through the traffic and resumed pedalling when road is clear.
Dan called to check on me and I told him I am at SM Dasmarinas. He informed me that the road to Daang-hari is up ahead and I should not miss it.
At some mall that I forgot the name, there's a Jollibee take out window and I queued up to buy a burger and juice. I was already paid and being served when a pesky guard approached and started arguing that bikes are prohibited in the queue. Motherfucker.
It was a lonely ride at Daang-hari as my friends are waiting for me at Molito already. When I reached the fork to MCX, Carlo called and asked me if he should pick me up but I declined the offer and said I can make it. LOL. I regretted not taking the offer as the kilometers back to Molito is still "massive" in my current state, though the cramps subsided by my thigh muscles felt stiff.
Nevertheless, I made it to Molito and received congratulatory remarks from my co-riders and we headed to Yushoken for ramen.
I was so pissed to find out that my Strava recording actually stopped a few meters since we left Mar-Ben's so there's basically no recording of the ride/walk back. Here's the Strava ride from Molito to Tagaytay as recorded by the Garmin Edge 25 and the Relive video.
For the route back to Molito, here's a link of Dan's Strava.
Post-ride thoughts
I misplaced my Sidi gloves that I recently acquired so I rode with bare hands that resulted to this...
I will also put blame to the poor braking performance from the B1-r. This is the weakest pair of brakes I've ever owned. I plan to replace the brake pads with that from the Shimano Ultegra and see if it improves.
During the ride, I also lost the top cap of my Lezyne tools holder. Sigh.
I'm pissed that the 113 km ride reflected only 59 km in Strava. I didn't make it to Rapha 500, and I didn't get the Gran Fondo badge. It was personal milestone and a huge cycling experience so all is not lost.