† Joshua's testimonial †: yewtee Criterium

10/6/2008

Soon after dear come back from malaysia which is yesterday, manage to spend a little time with her before going for my BB camp which is 15mins from now. We went to have dinner together despite being so tired after the trip. so sweet yea. SO love her. Must really cherish every time spent together!! Thank you for the goodies you bought for me in m'sia yea.. thanks thanks. going to miss each other for the next 4 days again. But you must cheer up k.. hope you enjoy your dance lesson today and I BE BACK!!!

8-6-2008

Community Mass Cycling cum Circuit Cycling Race @ Southwest District

In line with our government's support and promotion of healthy lifestyle through regular exercise, we are taking an opportunity to promote this called our "cohesive biking community" activities.

Yew Tee Constituency Sports Club is organising a Mass Cycling cum Circuit Cycling Race for the people in Singapore on 8th June 2008 at Brickland Road (Chua Chu Kang). We are expecting a combination of about 500 to 600 participants to turn up for this intended annual cycling event. This event which is jointly supported by Yew Tee CC and South West CDC is also part of the anchor event for the Southwest Community Sports Festival. We are honored to have Mr Gan Kim Yong, Acting Minister for Manpower as well as MP for Chua Chu Kang, as our Guest-of Honor (GOH).

Registration is now officially opened at Yew Tee CC and some designated CC. This is your event, do come and join us on that day. Give your utmost support to this meaningful event, the first ever cycling race in Singapore organised by government bodies.

For more info, kindly visit our website @ http://www.yewteecc.org.sg/ and/ or
SACA - Singapore Amateur Cycling Association website @
http://www.cycling.org.sg/

15 JoyRiders participants were @ the Yew Tee Criterium and we all had fun! It was also wonderful to see so many JoyRiders supporters who came to cheer especially those we came after their city duathlon! Thanks guys, we made more noise with more JoyRiders :)

Taking part in a criterium has never crossed my mind as it looked like it required good bike handling skills and power, 2 things which I need to work on.
However, when the Yew Tee Criterium came about, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to try, as the no. of participants were far fewer than usual and the atmosphere seemed less competitive.

As the day dew nearer, I got increasingly nervous as Criteriums were new to me. It's my first race after all you see. Thankfully, I had a good night's sleep and the weather was great for racing. Not too hot and no rain.

We thought the organisers did a fantastic job even though this is their first time doing this! The location was good with toilet potties and they even set up nice big tents for participants to hang out! The registration fee was $20 but we had a useful recycle bag, a dri fit t-shirt and a packet of high energy Electrolyte drink from Hammer and a bottle of water each. The best part was they had loads of lucky draws!
The highlight of the event for JoyRiders was Love to Sleep Kenneth who won the first prize for the LUCKY DRAW – a pair of Reynold wheels worth over $700. It was better than being first in his category although he did extremely well and kept up with the pack! Kenneth, Wandering Joshua(myself) got a pair of gloves and some energy drink? didn't really take a good look at it As they are in Snail queen house at the moment.
and newbie Adriel were in the the Junior category. The turnout was rather unexpected, with prominent names in the local
pelotons at the starting line. Ironically, albeit the worry-filled
mind, i thought it was an honour to ride with them.

The ride :
After the flagoff saw a series of attacks and sprints in an attempt
(of the faster cyclist) to drop off the slower ones (me). Lazy and
less aggressive as i am, sucked wheels mid way before getting a drop from the pack. Sprints up to
50km/h were launched by the passione and cycleworx rider, only to
turn back for a peek in dismay i was missing:) .
Ladies category - it was encouraging to see Hardcore Corinne, Bubble Sharon and Bunny on bike Chyrl coming out for their first race and mother snail was going to be there to watch her kids! Besides the four of them, they had Rebecca Peters who was racing under Mobile Edge and another unknown lady.
The JoyRiders girls kept very much together, chatting, smiling blah3 and each time they were near the finish line, can see that they were waiting for the bell to ring! It finally did but we were still having a nice recovery ride. It was not until we were near the spectators on the return lap back to the the U-turn and the finish line, there was a bit of action! Rebecca jumped into action, Chyrl and Sharon went charging and mother snail woke up! Wow,
Sports category – Alvin 'Bee' Hoon had a flat while Conman Pascal just took part to keep his tour of Egat flame burning but the truth is he wanted to show off his new hair style!

Master category – We had Mighty Johnson Disco Duck, Baby Larry and Record Holder Looi representing us! Looi would have won a medal if there was a category for 60 and above!

Larry and Johnson kept up with the pack and it was so exciting just watching them. Johnson was impressive and was 6^th @ the finished line! You should hear his story that he was boxed in otherwise the chances of being 3^rd is a possibility! Not bad for those who took part in the criterium race for the first time! Well done, guys!

Johnson was finally happy that he won a lucky draw too!

Elite category – Wan 'ton' was so nice, he took part because we needed more JoyRiders support! The Elite category was tough and the riders were seriously elite including our Wan!

We will surely miss him when he goes back to Australia this weekend but he will be back representing us for the Tour of Egat next year! :)

Youth B - Stanley Junior Wong Wei Han - 4^th and would have done better if there was less U-turn with longer distance! Well done, Wei Han!

Thanks again to HydroCarbon Stanley for his lorry transport and without Ping Pong Song Heng we would not have enough transport! Btw, Song Heng promised to start riding soon :)