World On Board: Day 13: King of mountain Tour de Langkawi

Day 13: King of mountain Tour de Langkawi
Jeli to Titiwangsa

Distance : 49km
Time on board: many god damn hours climbing
Elevation : 1063m
Total Ascent : 1060m
Cumulative distance: 748km

Woke up real early at 5.45am so we can get early headstart to catch Tour de langkawi. 129 riders all over the world participating in this tour. Today, it happens their route will coincide with ours. We will climb 1000m through Route 4 and catch the pro cyclists at the top of the mountain pass.

1000m elevation over 40km. I and Thierry started real early but it was too dark for me to skate , so we settled for breakfast and waited for dawn. I was doing well in the initial climb and KC managed to catch up with us while Dave still struggling with climb. The roads were partly broken tarmac which make pushing uphill almost impossible. Too much rolling resistance could topple me while pushing. Therefore I walked when the tarmac were broken. By 11am, it is impossible to reach the top of pass at Titiwang, a rest stop and catch the racers. So we stopped mid way at a police Marshall point to wait for the racers to pass by. By 12.30pm, the racers came zooming through even it was uphill. Had some photo moments, skating with them haha. What odds of a race tour coincide with your tour.

After the traffic resumed, we continued our way to the top. By then there were backlog of vehicles on the roads. I continued my walk / skate slowly while KC and Thierry climbed. The weather really made a difference. In Taiwan, climbing 1000m ascent wasn't that hard due to cool climate. Here, in Malaysia tropical humid climate, I was sweating buckets. Have to conserve my loss of water by walking when gradient is too steep.

At 5.15pm, finally reached the top of mountain pass. There was a rest stop for drivers and restaurant as well. We camped at the shelter area for the night. Finally my Hennessy hammock come to use for this Malaysia leg