GO RECORD BREAKING NEWS
The Longest & Furthest ElliptiGO bicycle (‘GO’ for short) ride in Malaysia with a total distance of 160.8KM was completed on 1st February 2015 in 8 hours 35 minutes by yours truly.
The backdrop for this feat was the inaugural Rembau Century Ride which started and finished at Dataran Square in the heart of Seremban Town. The scorching heat, endless hills and head/cross-winds were extremely challenging which made the achievement even sweeter. I only discovered later that there were as many as 20 truckloads of cyclists who could not complete this gruelling race!
PRICELESS GO MOMENTS
1) My GO massacred all the steep hills of a route of which 70% was climbing!!
2) Countless numbers of cyclists gave me the thumbs-up while overtaking me on their roadies as a gesture of respect, and many more gave me great words of encouragement for even attempting this century ride on a bike that they have never seen before.
3) Every time one of the 6 sweeper trucks passed me, all the picked-up cyclists inside the truck were cheering me on to keep going to the finish line.
4) At the water stations, all the volunteers wanted to take a photo with my GO. While I was buying drinks from a village sundry shop, a group of young men eating at the next-door restaurant came outside to inspect the GO & ask questions.
5) As I was passing one village, some of the locals who were having breakfast in a coffee gave a loud and resounding cheer when I rode pass.
6) So many drivers & passengers in passing cars had cocked their heads in amazement and/or smiled in bemusement at the sight of me on the GO. Some passengers even took photos of me on their smartphones. There was one car with a young family inside who slowed down & asked for my permission before they took a snapshot. I can only imagine that there will be quite a few of these shots of my GO circulating on the social media now!
7) I was the very last rider, out of 1500 cyclists who had started, to complete this epic journey. Can I say that I was really the sweepers’s broom? Hahaha!!
In My GO-LDEN Years: Decades from today, when I’m too frail to hop on the GO anymore, I will already have forgotten about breaking my personal records. However, the sweet memories of seeing the smiling faces on that day will stay with me always…
If you want to follow me on my exciting ElliptiGO journey, please join ElliptiGO Gus FB group.