Three Men in a boat, in a car, on bicycles Pt 2

My blogging and riding have been suffering lately as I have been spending more hours in a plane then on a bike. The last two weeks have found me in Dubai (UAE) twice and Singapore once.

In my last episode Phil, Simon and I were heading North from San Antonio to Wichita Falls to compete in the Hotter than Hell 100.

We were quite excited about the event as we had the credibility of an organised team (With our New MULE shirts) to offer some form of resemblance to a plan in riding together: Kenny,Dave,Sean,Simon,Cristian,Philip,Adam and myself.

This really worked out quite well with a really hot start. (Averaging over 21 mph for the first 60 miles) as we alternated the work in 2 minute pulls at the front.

The going was tough at times with a number of riders riding 5 or 6 abreast down the road oblivious to our pleads of wanting to pass.

The heat wasn't there this year which is fortunate as I lost a water bottle after traversing over a railway track earlier in the ride.

The team was great and especially helpful to myself who had written of my bike and my ribs only two weeks before the ride. The last twenty miles was tough but my fellow MULES pulled me through recording an average of just under 20mph for the 100 mile trek.

Then we decided to socialize!!!

Its a TWIN THING!!!

Singapore, Jet Lag & Fantastic Memories

For those of you who have experienced JET LAG!! You know its not much fun. Not only has it interupted my circadian rhythm but it has also effected my blog writting comitments which have decidely taken a "backseat" to some serious struggles with insomnia.

Last weekend I spent cycling with with my twin brother in North Yorkshire during a brief buisness stop over in England on the way to Singapore.

I was relieved that he blogged about our adventures because it gave me a "writting reprieve" which I sorely needed after some mamoth air time (Houston - London -8 hours followed by London -Singapore 12 hours)

My trip to Singapore was to conduct some Marine Audits on a vessel that my company are picking up for work in Australia and although my schedule and work load was pretty tight I did manage to arrange a small R & R window today to get a bike ride in before I start my journey back to Houston tonight. (Another 22 hours flying).

I was accompanied by a work mate of mine called John who although showed some keeness to join me on a ride did confess that it had been 12 years since had last rode. Of course I told him not to worry - "Its just like ridding a bike........

Singapore is one of my favorate places in the world. I lived here for two years in the 70's when my father was stationed in Singapore and my brother and I both spent the Summers learning to sail and hanging out at the "HMS Terror" Naval Base which I found an archived picture of along with records from the Royal Singapore Yacht Club recording a saliling race regatta my father had one at the time.

Singapore has changed considerably since then with the Island growing substantially with a number of huge land reclemation projects. One these projects included an area on the South East Coast called East Coast Park. which was planned to incorporate a number of healthy options for the Singapore people in the form of Health & Recreation.
There are a number of terrific trails that run along the coast and are individually allocated to Cyclists,Joggers,Roller Bladders and Pedestrians alike. This is the route that John & I took and acheived about 24 miles of cycling.

The Park had a number of bike rental places scattered along the beach and although the rental prices were reasonable, the quality and condition of the bikes was not so good with my gears sounding like an angry hog (That when the chain wasn't jumping off)

East Coast Park is one of the more well-known parks in the eastern part of Singapore which was evident by the amount of people using it. is around 20km long and is one of the largest parks in Singapore spaning from the Eastern to Southern coast, from Changi all the way to Marine Parade. We completed the stretch twice in just over 2 hours.

Another area that seen some great changes are the Singapore skyline with the new addition of the "Singapore Flyer" and this years first Formula 1 race track that covers some of the down town roads.