Director's Cut
From the Archive of my memory Saturday, November 14, 2015 Round North- The practice Bikers started to arrive early for logging in, for final instructions, and for sneak little bite. Pleasantries were made to everyone,afterwards there will be no time for serious talking on an early ride.
We started to departed AMTA Station 5:00 dawn with more or less 20 bikers (if my memory serves me right). From an ease pace of 16 km/hr, it kept on ascending until 25 km was attained. Bikers who have no front lights relied mostly to the blinking of the tail light of the front biker. And the latter knowing his responsibility shouted every now and then a series of commands, warning for potholes, parked car, pedestrians, obstacles, and danger. That, is an eternal ethics of the front man. Some who wanted to go fast when strong broke away as early as it was started. The lead pack was headed by Jingjing Canonigo.
I was excited about this tour because it was known that visitors will meet then accompany us. I was with the peloton the whole morning.I learned later that Dondon Merto quitted in Mambaling in less than 30 minutes of pedaling. He was in agony. A month ago in a traffic jam, even at a slower pace, he made a sudden fistful of brakes sending him over the cockpit and dislocating his collar bone.
My eagerness to meet the visitor bikers turned to desperation for the ambushed the lead pack, and took their fast pacing. I can't catch them until Tuburan, our traditional lunch oasis.
Luckily enough, they were there. I met two legendary bikers, Chino Bitamor with his loyal RB, and Rye Kido with his fixie. I concentrated to the fixie wonder. I was told the there two fixies who collided with each other. So Rye was the lone fixie doing the tour.
Up close and personal with a fixie biker, I still could not contend my amazement with this thing, and so with the biker.
How could this thing go on with what we are doing? Preposterous! I have my mtb with 27 gear combinations. This fixie has 1. I have my ever loyal brakes, front and rear.He has no brake, none at all. How could it compete us.Are these people courageous, or just plain insane? But the respect was already instilled in my being about this people. I watched him closely, but Rye warned us not to come closely to him.
Later at past 2 pm when we arrived at Balamban, Chino Bitamor announced that he was in a hurry and knew a short cut home, the dreaded wall of Transcentral. Is this man showing off to us, or again, was just plain insane. A short cut? Yeah, perhaps a short cut that will surely cut the appetite of fine biking.And he did turned left and climb. Of course he lives to tell the story with selfies, too, Off we go.
Again Rye was with the lead pack to face the media once and the Poog climb. I longed to see how he will do it but I was too far from him, yet. So that was not possible. As was too tired. As I approached media Once, I jogged atop my pedals. I was bonked.
In awhile, I was flying. Now I saw a familiar figure appearing in the curved road. The fixie biker was doing a 3 km walk uphill while I was doing 30 km/hr.
Of course I was riding a motorcycle up.What a joke to me.
We waited for Rye at the foot of the last big downhill. Eveybody was waiting, including Dondon who quitted early and just went to meet us.
We waited for him to see how downhill was to be managed with a no brake bike.
He came.
We saw.
We were conquered by a fixie biker.
He was a smoker. I asked him for a cigarette, it was perhaps a Mighty brown. It tasted like the odor of a car refreshener ( tree shape) hung in a car. It was awful. But the ride was epic.
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