Words and photos by Epic Rider Michael Pryde
I was fortunate to be on a business trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the time of the UCI Tour de Langkawi and took the opportunity to attempt two of the famous climbs the pros would be tackling during the tour.

The teams were due to ride Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands on 26th and 27th January 2011 respectively and I was planning my ascent of each climb the day before the pros on each occasion.
The Cameron Highlands is one of Malaysia’s most extensive hill stations. It covers an area of 712 square kilometres. To the north, its boundary touches that of Kelantan; to the west, it shares part of its border with Perak. Situated at the northwestern tip of Pahang, the “Camerons” is approximately 85 kilometres from Ipoh or about 200 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur.
The British first developed the hill station in the 1920s. It has a population of more than 34,000 people comprising Malays, Chinese and Indians, as well as other ethnic groups. When the road was completed in 1931, the British and the locals moved in to settle on the slopes of the mountain. They were soon followed by tea planters and vegetable growers who found the fertile soil, good drainage and cool climate to be especially suitable for the growing of their crops.
Arriving in Kuala Lumpur International Airport the day before, I picked up my hire car and headed North along the E1 highway to Ipoh, the second largest city in Malaysia. There are two different routes to Cameron Highlands, a newer and more northerly ascent from Ipoh or the 1931 ascent, which I took for from Tapah. The tour riders were going to ride the ascent from Ipoh but a quick look at the profile and gauging my reduced fitness levels due to a bout of flu, I wisely chose to ride the easier of the two ascents.


I parked my car at the visitor’s centre located right off the highway exit in Tapah and under overcast conditions I made my gentle ascent to Tanah Rata, the largest town and resort area in the Cameron Highlands. Starting at 12 metres above sea level the climb would consist of twisting and winding roads through the dense jungle. To reach Tanah Rata at 1,436 metres elevation I had to ride 55 kilometres on a road that was in much need of some reparation. The road is frequently used by large trucks, which had inevitably left the surface with many potholes and deep ruts along the way.


Whilst the road was still pretty safe to ride along, it was important to pay attention to the road conditions and traffic that traversed the hillside throughout the morning. The ascent was actually surprisingly gentle and I was able to maintain a good average speed of above 20-25 km/hr, except for the final 7 kilometres where the road kicked up alongside the famous Cameron Highlands Tea Plantations.

By the time I reached the town of Ringlet at 42 kilometres and 1,000 metres above sea level it was drizzling, resulting in a rapid drop in temperature. Not wanting to stop and get cold, I quickly slipped on my waterproof jacket and pressed on ahead up to Tanah Rata. Ringlet seemed like a small and soulless town so whilst I was feeling the “bonk” from lack of food, I rode straight through the plateau township and up towards to tea plantations between Ringlet and Tanah Rata.
Once past Ringlet, the gradient continued to rise and it was necessary to shift my weight forward and out of the saddle from time to time in order to maintain the fast cadence I preferred. Once I have my “game head” on I usually hate stopping but the tea plantations were simply too amazing to ignore and I found myself stopping a number of times to take in the view and capture the moment with my camera. Even with the drizzle turning into light rain, the tea plantations were incredible.

After 55 km I reach Tanah Rata, soaked to the bone and feeling extremely hungry, it was time to find a good place to dry off and refuel. Thankfully Tanah Rata is quite a popular resort destination and a good choice of cafes and restaurants were available, but feeling absolutely famished from the long ride I made a split second decision and settled for first place that I saw, the Nepenthes where I had a spicy chicken fried rice. By the time I had refuelled, the rain was driving down hard making the descent potentially quite dangerous.


I had to make a choice of waiting for the rain stop or descend carefully back to the car where I had a full change of clothes waiting for me. With the temperature continuing to drop with the increasing intensity of the rain, waiting for the rain to stop did not seem like the greatest choice, so I wrapped up and descended in the rain back to the car.

Genting Highlands has been the Queen’s Stage at the Tour de Langkawi for a number of years and often determines the final outcome of the tour. Unfortunately, with the rain from the previous day still coming down hard, the descent from Genting would have been too dangerous to attempt and therefore with much disappointment, I was forced to put an end to any thoughts of riding the infamous climb to Genting Highlands.
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