To start with I was cycling at the front but started to worry as the 2 guys at the front weren't going to Genting and decided to drop back and save my energy. Up from Genting Sempah was good - I always feel that it is the hardest part of the climb - partly because of the heat I suppose and partly because of the initial shock. I went off strongly and on a wattage basis it was the strongest portion of the ride. I wasn't trying to go fast so much as maintain a good cadence and at 57 on this section it was 10% higher on the main climb.
After a nice rest at Gohtong and having been told that Tri bikes weren't great for climbing we set off again. I started last intending to conserve my strength but slowly worked my way up the field until I had Roger(?) and Terry in front of me. I over took Roger (?) just before the 'bend' and took a narrow line - avoiding the steepest part - and managed to stay seated. With a rebel yell I charged on up slowly trying to make the ground up on Terry. it didn't happen. I was almost holdijng him on the steeper sections - but on the flats (8%!) he slowly managed to draw away until I was by myself.
I thought that when I reached the hotels I was there and it was psychologically quite hard to keep going after I thought I only had a few hundred metres to go. Then I lost everyone and did a circuit of the top before meeting Chris and KK and making my way up to Starbucks.
After a nice cuppa we started the descebt. I was slightly terrified as I didn't have drops and in my hurry to get out of the house I'd left my gloves behind. Sweaty hands had a tendency to slide totall off! So I took it very cautiously down to the hairpins sticking behing Chris and a good chunk of traffic. I then stopped to take photos of the others as they came down - but after waiting for 5 minutes and no show (someone had had a puncture) I set off again and opened up.
Nice fast descent - slow because of the lack of gloves and cramping in my left hand - but fun - and great jumps on the speed bumps. A stop at Gohtong and then on down with the key aim being to beat Terry to the top of the last little hill which I did. He overtook me soon after being much better at high speed descents - but it was really useful following him down and I learnt a lot in the few minutes that I tried to keep up with him.
Great ride. From Gohtong to the turnoff to the Petrol station at the summit took 55:46 and was 9.494k with a height gain of 743m and an average grade of 7.8%. I put out an average of 212Watts with a heart rate of 162 and an average cadence of 52rpm.
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