Words and photos by Michael Pryde
The Ride
Cycling certainly doesn't come to mind when one thinks about Singapore. Known as a tropical island state with modern high-rise buildings housing multinational corporations I certainly wasn't prepared for what turned out to be quite an adventure.
I accepted a friendly invitation from one of the largest cycling clubs in South East Asia. ANZA Cycling is made up primarily of the many expatriates who call Singapore home. I was told stories of sizable group rides throughout the week including very large club rides on Saturday mornings. When they told me that they rode mainly in the morning, they forgot to mention it was "before dawn" that they gathered at the end of the famous Orchard Road.
Arriving in a dream like state just before 5:30am I was wondering what was installed for the 100+ km ride I was warned about. As riders appeared from the various roads that joined the junction of Orchard Rd and Orange Grove Rd, I was at least mildly confident that I would not be dropped during the ride - after all Singapore is "flat as a pancake". This place makes the Netherlands look like Alpe d'Huez.
The ride started promptly at 5:30am as promised and I was later told that the reason for such an unfriendly start time was due to the traffic which builds up throughout the morning and also the equatorial heat that Singapore is famous for.
The gentle roll out of the main shopping district eventually gathered pace and in many ways not knowing where we were headed was the perfect excuse for "sitting in" as we navigated the many stop signs and lights in the downtown district. Once outside of the city I was guided up a ramp onto an elevated road, which turned out to be one of the main highways. In most countries this would result in a ticket and a fine but this was business as usual for cyclists here.
The Group of 7 that made up the earlier ride quickly formed into a paceline with each rider doing their fare share of the work, clipping along at 35-40+ km/hr. Since many of the group were avid Triathletes they were all accustomed to keeping their head down and going full gas.
With only 7 riders I was beginning to think that the stories of large groups was an urban myth, but sure enough we began to roll through the main cycling areas where flashing white and red lights signaled the arrival of the many clubs that were out riding and I was completely surprised by the level of enthusiasm that people in Singapore had for cycling. Having traveled extensively I seldom see this scale of riding in South East Asia and it was clear to see that state of the cycling scene in Singapore was extremely healthy.
The morning ride culminated at the large cycling rendezvous point at an outdoor cooked food market commonly found in Asia. Singapore is a melting point of cultural diversity and the sheer number of riders at the market was a real eye opener with all manner of carbon fibre cycling "bling" on display. A few coffees and a sugar rich drink later a larger group rolled out on the second installment of my Singapore adventure.
Contrary to my earlier claims of a flat ride, Singapore actually has some nice undulating and rolling hills threaded between the lake and forests that we rode through and signaled the sprint point locations. To the uninitiated it seems like the bunch rode quite randomly with riders off the front from time to time, but it quickly transpired that these little undulations were also key sprint points for later bragging rights at the coffee shop.
The second part of the ride was to include a slight detour from the normal ANZA Saturday morning ride since the local NeilPryde dealer Entro @ East Point had a fleet of brand new NeilPryde bikes lined up for an exclusive ANZA Club demo.
After the demo the ride was to cruise gently back to Orchard Rd and finish at the Coffee Bean coffee shop where various clubs get back together to hang out. The tempo ride back into the city had to be negotiated with some caution since the morning rush hour traffic was at its peak but there was still one final sprint before the gentle descent to the much deserved breakfast blueberry muffin and hot coffee.
Armed with prior warning of the final sprint of the ride I was careful to stay close to the pointy end of the group heading into the city and the bottom of the final 200m climb. The locals had the jump on me at the foot of the hill and it was full gas to make up for lost ground. After digging deep I was able to pass a number of the ANZA group and ended the sprint in second wheel.
The ANZA Cycling Club, CycleWorx, Cannasia and the local OCBC sponsored semi-professional team are amongst the most traveled teams in the region with frequent participation in the Tour of Friendship (Thailand), Tour of East Taiwan and Tour of Bintan (Indonesia) as well as the growing number of Triathlon events throughout the year.
The camaraderie of the ANZA Club and the other clubs that I met was very welcoming and if I don't get the chance to ride with them again in Singapore in the near future I will no doubt be seeing many of them at the various races in the region.
Demo Day
Entro @ East Point (3 Kaki Bukit Road 3, East Point Terrace, Singapore 417823
Tel: +65 64819195,
Email: retail@entro.com.sg) hosted the NeilPryde Singapore Demo Day. With a fleet of Diablos and Alizes available for test riding the Demo Day coincided with Mike Pryde's ride with the local ANZA Cycling Club.
Mike Pryde and the Entro crew were on hand to give the ANZA riders advice on all the key design features and benefits of both models as well as setting riders up for an on the spot test ride in order to get a real world feel for the power and handling qualities of both bikes.
We would like to thank Bernard Chua and Mong Chye from Entro for supporting the event and making it a big success.
www.anzacycling.com
www.entro.com.sg
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