NTU Bike Rally 2009

It was my first time participating in a long-distance cycling event. It was a 128km route, I joined it together with my brother and 2 cousins. Here's the route of the event:


We reached East Coast Park at about 6am. The sky was still dark, there were already many people there. Most of them had their personal bikes. As we were not avid cyclists, we rented the bikes from them. The total fee including bike rental was $40, which was worth it considering the food provided, and large number of manpower needed.

The event flagged off at 7am, the seasoned cyclists raced off on their speedbikes into the distance. My cousins and I remained in the middle of the pack. We reached the first checkpoint Labrador Park at about 810am, replenished on food and rested for about 15mins.

Next checkpoint was at NTU. Soyjoy energy bars, H2O drinks and bananas were provided. By then, my thighs started to ache a little, I continued after some stretching. My thighs were so numb I had some difficulties walking down the stairs, haha. After a 20min rest, we continued to our next checkpoint at Kranji Reservoir.

The toughest part of this leg was the seemly never-ending Lim Chu Kang stretch of road. We past by 3 cemetries and a chicken farm. By then, there were people resting on the grass patch along the road. There was a guy receiving medical attention, it looked like he fell from the bicycle and injured his arm. By this time, the sun was up and I began to feel the heat. I pedaled on and finally reached checkpoint 3!

On to checkpoint 4 at Yishun Stadium. I found this leg the toughest as there were many hills to climb along Mandai road. The temperature of the air was also beginning to rise. This was where the gears of the mountain bike came in very useful and allowed me to conquer the mild and steep slopes. Even the safety cyclist commented that the hills were killing him. Onwards to checkpoint 5 at Serangoon Stadium!

In this leg, we cycled through the upcoming Seletar Airhub. We passed by the Singapore Youth Flying Club and Seletar airport. Next was Jln Kayu were it's famous for the roti prata. The traffic here was heavy, and the narrow roads made it worse. I had to slow down to avoid getting hit by cars. Lorries were reversing from parking lots, and taxis trying to overtake dangerously. We cycled through Yio Chu Kang road, and finally reached Serangoon Stadium. The sky was turning cloudy, and rain was imminent. We took a 15min rest here, had a toilet break and ate some food. By now, the Soyjoy energy bar tasted bad as it was very dry. It tasted similar to the army's combat ration fruit bar. NSmen should know the taste.

Finally there was only 1 checkpoint remaining till the end of the bike rally! We cycled through Hougang and onto Tampines Road. Mid way through, the rain started to pour! We seeked shelther at a bus stop along the way, and was deciding whether to continue. My brother and cousin was keen to go on, thus we continued pedaling despite the heavy rain. We went past Ikea, Pasir Road and finally reached Loyang Point. From here it was still quite a long way to the Changi Beach checkpoint. We cycled past Changi Air Base, Changi Village and the SIA Training College. This stretch was challenging as well cause of the slopes. The poor visibility caused by the heavy rain made things worse. Till then, we had cycled for 9 hours!

We rested at Changi Beach for about 5 min, and continued on to the finish line at ECP. From then on, we travelled along the Park Connector Network (PCN). The cycling track beside the Changi Airport runway was great. It was a completely straight 4-5km road, we cycled and saw planes taking off. There was only a slight drizzle of rain then, and the air was cool. We finished the entire course at about 5.15pm, taking approximately 10h including the breaks taken at the checkpoints.

Many people had already left, and the stage area was empty. I'm sure more would've stayed if not for the rain which drenched all the participants. The event ground was also flooded. We decided to give the lucky draw a miss and went home after changing into dry clothes, where a soothing hot bath awaits us.

I think the entire event was well-organised with the routes clearly marked out, and many road marshallers along the way. However the checkpoints were lacking of energy drinks, probably because cyclists who reached earlier finished them. The only checkpoint which had H2O was at NTU, while the rest of the checkpoints had ice water and diluted Gatorade drinks. Food like buns and energy bars were aplenty though. Other than that, the entire event was very fun and challenging. I'm also very thankful we didn't encounter any accidents along the way. This is the most physically challenging activity I've taken part thus far. My next goal is to complete a half-marathon under 2h this year end.


NTU Bike Rally 2009 Finisher's Tee (left) and Event Tee


Back of the Event Tee