Every passionate biker knows the 23 days of July, where the 21 segments of this tour cover almost 3500 kms., and is considered the most grueling and demanding sports event on this planet so far. It is a pure suffer- fest.
The Allied Mountain Trekkers and Adventurers (AMTA) have its own humble little version of suffer-fest called Insane Tour. It is a tour around the island of Cebu, in one (1) segment, in 24 hr or less covering 540 kms. It will be an understatement, or I may say disrespectful, when passionate bikers hearing this kind of tour react by only shrugging their shoulders without complimenting nice words.
Bikers considered Insane Tour’s unique sense of almost impossible demand in biking style to be sui generis, an original, the only one on its type.
This year is our 16th Insane Tour. I missed only one (1) tour, and succeeded much more than I failed. I have so many tours that I could get a doctorate degree on insanity biking. I am 59 years old though this figure cannot be translated into kph, is too much against ageism. One can find Insane Touring as an embarrassment to young bikers who don’t learn patience and power consumption.
I will be riding shotgun for my two young nephews, Samsam and Onin for their first glimpse to insanity. If they could finish this then they have the right to boast about it just like what I am doing now.
As its tradition, the two (2) Sundays preceding the tour is reserved for two (2) tours- (the round north and the round south) as preparations for the big one. This year’s tour is considered an “Accelerated Insane tour” as the participants are strongly organized, more experienced, and more determined to go faster thus making their tour time shorter. So I opted to add another
little tour, The “Transcentral Highway tour” (TCH), to insure the bikers their additional endurance.
This tour (TCH) is a class of itself when in full route called the “Fool on the hill”, but Aloguinsan road is omitted (for training purposes, and for the great respect to the Wall) cutting more or less
80 kms. to its original distance. But it is agony, still.
In every endeavor one needs luck to be successful. To complete the “Insane tour” one needs more than luck. One needs to train seriously subjecting his every muscle in his body to embrace suffering, to stretch its tolerance to pain. The muscles have memory. Every physical exertion of the body is doing great for that muscle memory, making it smarter. The more the muscle is fed with traumatic experience of pain and of suffering, the more it will remember to use that
memory continuing to accept and allow the pain thus prolonging its tolerance to suffering. And I
can say without hesitation that luck favors more to those who trained hard and suffered much.
“He who knows how to die before death comes will not die when death comes.”
-a Saint whose name I forgot.
Training all body parts, not just zeroing only the muscles of the knees and legs, including the
shy butt that has muscles as well is not only important but rather essential. The three (3) points of contact in biking are the hands on the cockpit, the soles on the pedals, and the precious silent butt on the saddle. The numbness of the hands, the burning feelings on the sole, and the soreness of the butt are crying and pleading for mercy. They all clamor for equality of TLC. Neglecting one is courting disaster.
After the muscles prep comes the mental conditioning. This varies as each biker has different level of mental aptitude. But setting a norm of mental levelness through focusing on the same goal, i.e. to join and finish the tour, is logical to battle the inequality. Some maybe intimated upon seeing others using high ends stuffs. It is not all about the bike. Not even those fancy jerseys. One only has to be concerned mostly with his attitude towards the tour. It builds character. How? By achieving what one perceives, mentally. Bike mentally the 540 kms. Being
physically present in the battlefield is war half won. The other half is determined how one fights, mentally.
The most of the suffering part is yet to come on November 25, 2017 but the fest or feast part had already begun since day 1 when this tour was opened. Agog riders were already having the time of their lives crisscrossing all roads and trails for training. There were so many meetings with their respective teams formulating strategies to ensure success. And feasting is always the center of activities, sometimes imitating a triathlon…. Eat, drink, and bike.
And here is the practice rides of the 2017 Insane Tour……
Atangi lang.
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