I bike.
Every last Saturday of November is our dreaded non-stop mountain bike coastal tour around the island of Cebu covering more or less, a 530 unforgiving kilometres of seemingly unending road. It’s the tour that every AMTA biker loves to compete and complete. We christened it “Insane tour” because the degree of difficulty one must endure spelled insanity. At the time it was conceived, the thought of it sent shivers to our spines, but still we pushed through. And it became an AMTA tradition.
Our starting point is our town Minglanilla then we bike north bound to Bogo, then to Tabuelan via San Remigio, then to Barili via Aloguinsan, then to Santander, and then straight back home. Either one can finish it in less than 24 hours, or just bike back home no matter how long it takes. The longest time recorded was 36 hours and the shortest was 21hours and 38 minutes.
We started to pedal at dawn, rain or whatever the weather may bring. One time in June 2003, our maiden Insane tour, we were met by typhoon Egay, and it accompanied us on our way throughout the tour. It was only at 8 pm after biking for 16 hours, covering almost 350kms and almost every single biker was shivering and freezing, when the tour director called off the tour. And in November before that year ended we decided to tour again. That was the birth of the traditional November Insane tour, a glimpse to insanity.
It all started in 2001 on a 4-day bike tour around Cebu, it was followed by a 2-day tour the next year. Our familiarity with the terrain and our longer endurance to pain gave us strong determination, gained confidence in us to explore the thought on the possibility of making it a one-day tour. It raised eyebrows of many members, and also rolled the eyes of some bikers from other teams too. It was preposterous, and gave the idea that we were out of our minds. The adjective insane appropriately described us then. We arrived at the threshold between sanity and insanity in biking, and in man’s normal thinking in general. There were so many variables to the equation to be considered, so many unknowns yet to be discovered out there.
A series of serious planning was to follow, and debates arose most of the times but still to adventure won. It was decided not only to try but to prove that it can be done.
Evolution began, a new kind of tour was conceptualized and new breed of bikers were soon to emerge. A different approached of mind setting in biking endurance was adapted. “Cebu in 24 hrs or less,” is written in the heart of some strong willed AMTA bikers, while others just merely wanted to bike and survive. Surviving requires more hard practice than luck, or to say precisely, luck favours those who practice hard.
The AMTA-tourers invented so many strategies and tactics, improvised when it flopped. Applying the new methods to next year tour and then improvised again when it failed out there, until a formula fitted to his style and strength was thought found. Some started fast when they were strong, some maintained speed. But then again, there is no fixed formula in touring. Environment is varied. The weather, practice, backup, health, age factor, breakdowns, the desired time of arrival and many other things made the tour unpredictable. Out there, anything can happen.
We always anticipated the coming November affair right after every November affair, truly becoming insane, this is the biggest and most exciting event of our biking life so far. This is where attitude is the most important component in biking. A true character of the biker emerged after the tour.
We learnt to focus, to be patient, to endured pain and fight boredom. But most of all, we expand our individual horizons thru friendship, thru shared hardship, and shared victory. Everyone has a story to tell after the tour.
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