LANGKAWI BOUND

So, here it is.. the toughest weekend of the year.. The weekend, when 13++ leTuangers will swim(3.8km), bike(180km) and run (42km) at the IronMan Langkawi..

We would like to wish:

1. Ish
2. AJ
3. Arif
4. Senn
5. Kam
6. Stupe
7. Azmar
8. Sofiyan
9. Abu
10. Yusran
11. Rashid
12. Kalam
13. Julie
    
14. Chan and the Sg Besi geng

Of course, this being leTuang, there'll be a bus load of support crew: SK, TSB, Foli, Luvis, Mac... not to mention those bringing their family, girlfriends, bibiks, supirs, etc...etc...

At press time, preparations for the race is still on-going for some: Kam still needs to pack his bike, Arif is deciding whether or not to check in his helmet, SK is polishing his camera lense, Ish is still learning how to swim!!

Then there are the boy-scouts.. Stupe is all set and ready (everything was booked and packed in 2008!) but Yusran is more advanced, he is already in Langkawi!!

We would also like to wish the IM 'virgins' the very best.. this includes Kam, Rashid and from Johor, Barath..

So.. that's it guys.. have a safe trip to Langkawi, have a great race and to those going to support, have fun!

See you next week with post race reports.. and dozens of pics!

LeTuang Leaving 4 Langkawi... Lock & Load!!!!

Bandit
(if I missed out any names, please inform me, I'll edit this post)

Weekend ride

Dear all,

1000&1 weekend activities, some of us were at Dataran for the last day of LTDL.. Some already went to watch the race at the Genting Stage on Friday.. a few actually RODE their bikes.. here's the ride report:

"Quite a hot morning but nice & clear day....started just after 0800hrs & just went up to Peres & back....nothing exotic but tiring for me (that's what happened after a few weeks not cycling!).
As usual I was last up at Peres & no.3 downhill!

Very honoured to have the presence of Nizar, Dr K, Bahari KTM, Bahri Junior, Jason, the LeTua bosses and of course Jaja..

Unfortunately the KopiTiam batu 18 is closed, so we adjourned to the gerai next to it, of course after buying about ten bungkus of Nasi Lemak....plus quite a lot of lauk & telur goreng.

Very nice ride with friends esp Zailan LeTua & friends.

TTFNafs...CK"

Le Tuang in action

Of course not the cyclist.. the photographers are the focal point. haha

Ride Like A Pro: Group Ride Rules!

Ride Like A Pro: Group Ride Rules!

by Simeon Green

Being strong is one thing, but knowing how to ride safely in a group is quite another. PEZ's own resident semi-pro Sim Green who rides for Bouygues Telecom's feeder team C.A.Castelsarrasin in southern France, offers some guidance as we prepare to get back on the roads.

There are a series of basic rules to follow in order to ride properly in a group, and yet it is often surprising how few people know these rules.

You might think this doesn't apply to you, after all, you are a Cat 1 and winner of the Thursday night or Saturday morning World Championships… so like I said, it's amazing how many people don't know how to ride in a group. If you are new to the sport, this will help for your next group ride, if you are old to the sport, this should be a useful recap of what you already know.

Rule 1: It's Not a Race a
A group ride is NOT a race. You are not to "Attack" off the front or try to show everyone how strong you are. That's what races are for.

Rule 2: Bar-to-Bar
This is probably THE most important rule. Whenever riding in a group you should be riding 2 by 2, side by side (with only a few centimeters between you, you should not be able to fit a bus between you and rider beside you) and be perfectly handlebar to handlebar.

Do not at any time sprint ahead and disrupt the flow. Even if there is a corner coming up, stay side by side and go through the corner like a well oiled machine. Riding with your bars ahead of the rider beside you is called "half-wheeling" and is a major faux pas. It's up to you to keep up with the speed of the slower rider next to you. And for goodness sake, please try to keep to the side of the road, there is no need to take over the whole lane and annoy car drivers.

As with everything, there is an exception to the rule. If there is an uneven number of riders in the group and you don't have anyone to ride along side, you should place yourself in between the two riders ahead of you, with your front wheel between their two rear wheels. This allows the riders behind you to remain bar to bar and to keep the group tightly together. The riders behind you should ride with their front wheels either side of your rear wheel. It's not acceptable to sit directly behind the rider ahead of you and leave a gap to your side.

Now, before you spark up and say that riding between the wheels of the riders preceding you is unsafe, let me point out, that if everyone is riding bar to bar as they should be, you are guaranteed the space of a handlebar's width within which to move, which should be ample. So even if the two riders ahead of you knock into each other, you should have plenty of space. This is a pretty safe place to be.

Rule 3: Peeling Off
When you are tired of riding at the front, and you feel it is time for you to go to the back, make sure the rider beside you knows you are tired and want to go back. Once you have both established that you are going back, check briefly that there isn't someone overlapping your back wheel, then both riders slowly and gradually move to the outside and let the group come through the middle. Do not suddenly veer off to the side, peel off in a steady and controlled manner.

Rule 4: Pulling Through
When the two riders ahead of you peel off, it is your job to come through to the front and pull the group along. If you do not want to ride at the front because you are tired or less fit than the rest of the group, it's too late to avoid it now. Once you are in second wheel, you MUST come through to the front. Do not speed up, and do not get out of the bar-to-bar formation. Maintaining a steady speed, squeeze through the gap and go to the front (Fig 3). When the two riders ahead of you peel off, don't slow down and look around as if you don't know why on earth they would be pulling off to the sides of the group. Maintain your speed and go straight through without hesitation.

Rule 5: Too Tired To Go To The Front If you do not want to go to the front, sit at the back and let the riders coming back from the front of the group slot in ahead of you. It is not acceptable to work your way up to the front of the group and then look around acting lost and confused, slowing down because you don't feel strong enough to be at the front. If for whatever reason you do find yourself at the front, go through and take what is known as a "token pull". You go to the front for a couple seconds, agree with the rider beside you that you are both peeling off, and go to the back.

Rule 6: Gaps There should be NO gaps in a group ride. As soon as you see a gap, fill it by riding into the space in a steady and controlled manner. There is no need to sprint into the space and then slam on the brakes, just gradually fill in any gaps as soon as you see them.

Rule 7: Moving About In A Group If you need to go to the back of the group, or need to move out away from the side of road because the road is damaged (for example), just steadily move in whatever direction you want to go in. The key to all group riding is to do things gradually and steadily. Even if there is a rider right next to you as you pull out to the side of the road, if you do it gradually, the other rider will naturally have time to move over with you. If you do anything sudden you will likely cause a crash. This is also very important when "peeling off" and "filling a gap".

Rule 8: Obstacles and Hand Signals: Now, this is a very important rule. I've recently seen in both the US and Australia that people in group rides have gotten into the habit of yelling. I'm not too sure where this habit has come from, so let's set a few records straight.

When you see a hole in the road, it is absolutely NOT acceptable to yell "HOLE" at the top of your voice, then weave around it at the last minute. It is also unacceptable to yell "SLOWING" when you slow down. If you can't see the riders in front of you are slowing down, then maybe you should stick to monopoly on a Sunday afternoon.

All obstacles should be warned of by a simple hand signal. This does not mean pointing at something for 5 minutes after you have passed it. When you see an obstacle in the road ahead of you, put your hand down and give a signal that lets the riders behind you know if which direction they should go to avoid it. Traditionally a quick wave of the hand will suffice.

If you only see the obstacle at the last minute, ride through it! Better to get a flat than to take down the whole group. On the subject of obstacles, please only point out those that are worth pointing out.

What obstacles are worth pointing out? I hear you cry. That's simple. An obstacle worth pointing out is one that will damage a bike or person behind you. Please don't point out manhole covers unless they are deeply set in the road, and don't point out leaves or small cracks in the road, and certainly don't point out obstacles in the next lane.

Rule 9: Yelling As I have said above, yelling is a big no-no. You don't see the Pros riding around Europe on their pre-season training camps yelling "CARRRRRRR… HOLE, GRAVELLLL… RED LIGHTTTTT". The problem is this: when you are more than two riders behind the person yelling, all you can actually yeah is a general "BLURRRRR" being yelled. So while everyone should be keeping their eyes peeled for general speed changes and obstacles, suddenly the majority of riders are looking around wondering what the obstacle is that has just been yelled out. No one actually knows if you have just yelled "HOLE" and have not pointed it out, meaning some riders are scanning the ground left right and center looking for an imaginary hole. Other riders are craning their necks thinking you yelled "CAR", while yet more riders are looking behind them thinking you yelled "George has a FLAAAT!" Yelling is strictly forbidden!

Rule 10: Slowing and Adjusting Speed
This is probably the biggest crash causer on group rides. For some reason, when someone slows down ahead of them, a lot of riders jump for their brakes and yank the heck out of them, almost skidding and taking everyone down with them. You should be riding ever so slightly to the side of the rider in front of you; so when they slow down, you either stop pedaling and start to slightly overlap your front wheel with their rear wheel, or you touch the brakes gradually, once again using the "wheel overlap" as a buffer zone so as not to slow down too suddenly for the riders behind you.

These may seem like a pointless bunch of snotty European old school rules, but they come from very simple principles of general safety for a group ride. So stick to them, and spread to the good word to your fellow new-comers to the sport. For any Pro rider worth his salt, these are not even thought of as "rules". They are instinctive and are a natural part of riding. This may by why some road riders can come across as rude and arrogant. Ride etiquette is so second nature to them, that in their eyes, the only reason anyone would break them, would be on purpose.

99 steps of a typical Ironman trip

To all LeTuangers doing Ironman Langkawi for the first time, here's a list of what to expect (taken from the slowtwitch forums:

1. Arrive in town.
2. Find over-priced accommodations you are staying a minimum of four nights at
3. Unpack bicycle, spread gear around room randomly.
4. Attempt to reassemble bicycle, realize you forgot to mark your seat and handlebar position before disassembly. Guess position and tell yourself it won’t make a big difference.
5. Drive bike course at slow speeds while making wrong turns. Annoy locals.
6. Find swim venue. Put wetsuit on, stand around for 15 minutes. Swim 10 minutes, take wetsuit off. Look around to see if you impressed anyone.
7. Walk around expo looking for free stuff.
8. Go to registration tent, stand in line, get bag, check bag for goodies.
9. Go back to hotel, arrange energy products into different piles. Stare at piles.
10. Spend 2 hours preparing for bike ride with race wheels and drink systems. Go for 30 minute ride. Go back to hotel.
11. Decide that this would be a great opportunity to learn how to rebuild your rear hub to fix the play in it. Disassemble hub.
12. Drive to house where your club mate, the bicycle mechanic, is staying. Show him the pieces of your rear wheel. Beg for help.
13. Go to swim start Friday morning. Look for tell-tale wrist-bands on other competitors; look condescendingly at all those swimming who aren’t participating in the race.
14. Go back to hotel, spend 4 hours attaching numbers to your bicycle, helmet, and race outfit. Panic that you don’t have 8 pieces of reflective tape for your run outfit, even though IMNA has never been known to enforce the rule.
15. Drive down to expo at the last minute, stand in line, pay $10 for a strip of reflective tape.
16. Drive back to hotel, place energy products into various bags.
17. Pack transition bags.
18. Unpack transition bags.
19. Repack transition bags.
20. Drive to Carbo-dinner. Stand in line, proceed through buffet with poor food selection, sit at crowded table, remember you paid an extra $20 each so your family could enjoy this food. Listen to IMNA personnel tell same jokes as last year. Realize that Dave Scott has apparently discovered the fountain of youth. Stand in line to leave.
21. Prep bike to drop off on Saturday, discover your tire has a slow leak. Drive to expo, stand in line, pay $80 for tubular tire. Get back to hotel, realize you don’t know how to glue on a tubular, drive back to expo and have them do it for you.
22. Drop bike off, spend time covering bike with various plastic bags because everyone else is doing it.
23. Drop off your transition bags, realize you forgot your salt tablets, drive back to hotel to get them.
24. Drive back to hotel again, arrange race gear for tomorrow morning.
25. Pack special needs bags.
26. Unpack special needs bags.
27. Repack special needs bags.
28. Realize there is nothing more you can do to get ready. Sit down and relax.
29. Panic.
30. Eat early dinner
31. Go to bed, lie there in a cold sweat.
32. Wake up at 2:00 am for 1000 calorie bottle of nasty-tasting concoction, “because Gordo does it”.
33. Lie awake listening to horrible weather move into town.
34. Wake up at 4:00 am, listen to spouse complain.
35. Get in car, drive to start. Stand in line to enter the transition area.
36. Check transition bags.
37. Stand in line to get body marked.
38. Check bike, stand in line to get tires pumped up.
39. Stand in line for porta-john.
40. Realize you left your water bottles with special nutrition needs in the fridge at the hotel. Drive back madly to get them.
41. Get back to start, wait in line for parking spot.
42. Stand in line for porta-john.
43. Get wetsuit on, stand in line to enter swim area.
44. Realize it’s too late for a warm up. Stand in line to enter water.
45. Stand in water with 2000 other people while sun comes up and national anthem is sung by local high school girl. Realize that few moments of your life have been this beautiful.
46. Gun goes off, 2000 people attempt to swim on top of you, realize that you are in mortal danger or drowning and few moments of your life have been this dangerous.
47. Get kicked in face, goggles come off, panic and tread water trying to get them back on while people hit you. Remember you paid good money to do this.
48. Exit swim, stand in line to get into transition.
49. Stand in line to get out of change tent. Get bike, stand in line to get out of transition.
50. Start bike, realize that there is no way 1000 people can pack onto a course within 20 minutes without massive drafting problems. Hope that poor bike handlers don’t crash in front of you.
51. Ride bike.
52. Panic that you’ve already fallen off your nutrition plan that your coach gave you.
53. Make up for lost calories and fluids in the next 15 minutes. Feel ill.
54. Ride bike.
55. Get saddle-sore.
56. Ride bike
57. Decide to piss while riding to save time.
58. Spend the next 30 minutes soft-pedaling, coasting, and practicing mental imagery trying to relax enough to let it go.
59. Give up, get off at aid station and spend 30 seconds in porta-john, get back on bike.
60. Ride bike, feel queasy and bloated, take 3 salt tablets at once to make sure you’re not low on electrolytes. Throw up.
61. Get off bike, sit in change tent wondering why you are doing this. Listen in disbelief to volunteer telling you you’re almost done. Proceed to marathon course.
62. Realize that you should have practiced the 1000 calorie drink at 2:00 am before race day.
63. Throw up, walk, jog, repeat for 26 miles.
64. Start gagging at the thought of another energy gel.
65. Sample the variety of food at aid stations. Discover Oreos, the food of the Gods.
66. Invent the form of locomotion called the ‘ironman shuffle’. Feel proud that your 12 minute mile is technically not walking.
67. Pass your spouse. Make them swear to never let you do another one of these.
68. See finishing chute. Sprint madly down the road high-fiving people and cheering while announcer screams your name. Realize it was all worth it.
69. Get to finishing chute, wait in line while a man takes his extended family over it with him.
70. Cross line, collapse into arms of patient voluneteers.
71. Spend next two hours in med tent realizing that you should have drunk more fluids when it got hot.
72. Go to massage tent, eat cold pizza and wander around in a daze while wearing an aluminum foil blanket.
73. Stick around finish line until midnight to share in “the ironman spirit”. Beat off 12-year-old to grab free socks thrown into crowd.
74. Look in disbelief at fresh and bouncy professional athletes dancing at the finish line.
75. Cheer last few athletes into the finish before midnight. Ask your spouse if you looked that bad. Be amazed that they spent 17 hours out there moving the whole time.
76. Go back to hotel, collapse in bed.
77. Wake up, go to bathroom, collapse back into bed. Repeat all night until the 6 IV’s the med tent gave you are through your system.
78. Wake up at 4:00 because your legs hurt so much.
79. Eat first breakfast.
80. Sit around until spouse wakes up, eat second breakfast.
81. Shuffle around town Monday morning wearing finishers T-shirt and medal. Smile knowingly at other fellow shufflers. Graciously accept congratulations from locals thankful you came to their town to spend money.
81. Eat third breakfast at all you can eat buffet.
82. Go to Official Finishers merchandise tent. Stand in line. Pick out $200 worth of clothing with prominent logos on it. Stand in line, pay $600 for clothes. Contemplate getting a tattoo to immortalize your achievement.
84. Fall prey to peer-pressure and marketing techniques. Cough up $450 to sign up for the race next year - since it will sell out today, and this is your only chance to sign up!
85. Proceed to IM Hawaii roll-down. Hold out hope that, even though you finished 80th in your age-group, this will be the year everyone leaves early and you get the last spot.
86. Eat first lunch.
87. Go back to hotel, stare at the disgusting, sticky, smelly mess that is your bicycle and race clothes. Start packing things up to fly home
88. Eat second lunch.
89. Go to awards dinner, stand in line. Get poor food from buffet, remember you spent $20 a head so your family could enjoy this magical moment with you.
90. Watch hastily-produced race video. Closely examine each frame hoping they caught a glimpse of you on the course. Be disappointed.
91. Watch age-group athletes get their awards. Wonder how many of them actually work for a living, and where you can get some of the performance enhancing drugs they appear to be on.
92. Realize that you have to go all the way up to women’s 70+ age group before you find an age-group your time would have won.
93. Listen to long, excruciatingly boring thank-you speeches from various professional athletes.
94. Stand in line to get out of awards dinner.
95. Go to Airport, stand in line. Deliver $5000 bike to Neanderthal-like baggage handler. Pray. Reluctantly take finishers medal off to pass through metal detector. Proudly tell TSA personnel what you did on your weekend.
96. Get home, contemplate unpacking disgusting bicycle, decide to leave it until tomorrow.
97. Eat Bon-Bons and watch TV. Contemplate unpacking your bicycle and training again, decide to leave it until tomorrow.
98. Repeat above step for 2-10 weeks. Step on scale. Look at your fat, disgusting self in a mirror and remember you signed up for next year’s race. Unpack bike, chip mold off of seat tube. Clear cobwebs from wheels. Show up at swim practice again.
99. Get ready to do it all again next year…

Good luck, guys, and more importantly, have fun. See y'all in Langkawi!

The Maiden Post

Hello..

A brain storming session during one of the leTuang led to the idea of setting up a blog.. hence here we are.. And what better time to create a blog then TODAY.. a day of UNION..

OK.. the main objective is create the blog..DONE..

Step 2- to properly set-up the blog.. links, color scheme, pics..
Step 3- to invite the contributors..
Step 4- to start BLOGGING...