November 19, 2017
Our tradition dictates that the Sunday prior to the D-day of AMTA Insane Tour is the dreaded Round South practice ride. As always all the practice rides in preparations for the “Insane Tour” is culminated with this yearly grueling ride, which seemingly is the crowning of thorns to those who wished to become tourmasters, or to those who wanted to do it again….and again. The normal 12 hr ride, which is a tour of its own class, is intended for the physical endurance and mental tolerance of the riders. Then after completion, all the punishing and strenuous activities must stop for a week to give time for the body to recuperate and heal those damaged muscles, and to relax the mind as well.
And here is my side of the story.
A tour not a race
As I mounted my bike after our prayer for protection and graces, I whispered to Allan (my wingman) that our Photon Panther team was in no way going to stop at the usual breakfast venue in Dumanjug. It will take so much time if we stop there, so many bikers to wait on. I planned to eat our breakfast somewhere along the road saving time for my team. And I’d like to live the Photon thing in our team which means “a particle of light whose characteristic is almost always moving”. Yeah, we are supposed to be almost always moving. If it can be helped, we don’t stop somewhere, we don’t stop at all until the finish line.
But eventually I scratched the idea immediately. My conscience was pinched, and it did not allow my scheme to be carried out. We were a team within a big team. Although I was leading my little flock with our own tactical maneuvers, as the Tour Director, I sensed that I still have a responsibility towards the big team. That was what I felt that time. So I opted that I stick to the whole regiment for awhile, then planned to separate after breakfast.
The Thunder Cats A, composed of Abski, Sandy, Dennis, and Bolantoy were side by side with the dynamic duo of Wild Cats Gaya and Carlo, were bringing the peloton to an attack mode, pushing hard and punishing those who can barely kept the fast pace- biking has always been a brutal sports. And it could have been more brutally faster had the two Thunder Cats mean bikers Ernie and Captain Dexter were present in the ride.
Photon panthers Billy, Etcham, and Samsam were also among those who sprinted towards the city of Carcar. They were not denying themselves to the early morning’s moment of temporary glory.
I, Allan, Arnie, and Nino were on a comfortable medium fast pace. I didn’t let the dawn adrenalin rush accelerate our pacing, not just yet or perhaps never at all. This had been a common error to biker to do an early start sprint just because he felt strong, and able to do it anyway. The human body needs gradual progression. There is a fee for abruptness called early bonking. This is a tour not a race. This cannot be done with frequent sprinting. Pacing should be the order of the day.
Nino was alright with the previous two mini tours (TCH and Round North) but his result on this tour was yet to be seen to be a factor on his upcoming Insane Tour. I did not want him to have the notion that a tour is supposed to be won by speed alone. What is speed without endurance? If one cannot sustain one’s speed then what is the point? It was much a long, long way to the finish line yet.
The Thunder Cats B composed of Captain Dondon, Allan P, Orville, and Christian were on our back, not far behind, normally pacing too.
Arriving at rotonda in Carcar City, we found the rest of the Photon Panther waiting for my instructions.
I saw the backs of 4 Dalaguete bikers who mounted without engaging an eye to eye contact with me and sped as soon as they saw us arrived. Later, I learned from Billy that they wanted to join the Insane Tour.
One biker from Carcar joined my team until Dumanjug, and soon will test his pedaling prowess with the Thunder Cats A after our breakfast.
On our way up on the road to Guadalupe, my climb was paced a minimum of 14kph. I was contented with myself doing a rare climbing speed thus making a developed climber in me, I usually biked a 6-8kph uphill. I wished I had another extra hand to pat my back, as my two were gripping the cockpit for more power.
I glanced at my back to look for my wingman Allan who was nowhere in sight. Dropping a friend is not a thing to be happy about but it is part of biking mystery I can never fathom until now. I smiled to myself thinking that he was dropped by me in the climb but that smile was soon lost as quickly as it came when he appeared at my side. I can never out climb him in the climb. He told me that he was side by side with Bimbo who was a slower paced biker than him at the start of the climb. He delegated his circumstantial task to Onyot to accompany Bimbo throughout the tour before he propelled himself towards us. Good thinking, and good riddance as well.
We soon reached our feeding zone at 8:30am and waited for the rest of the touring bikers except for Bimbo and Onyot who we predicted to be late to our waiting time.
Dondon called the attention of the guests bikers but forgot to introduce me to them. Breakfast was served and we ate in haste, of course.
We were ready to saddle when I saw Sandy who was almost on the act of donning his gloves. I left mine at home and was very uncomfortable when my hands became very sweaty. Stupidity came to me even at dawn. My ego was overpowered by my necessity. I asked Sandy to lend me his, as he has a very comfortable grip even without gloves. Of course he can’t refuse the pleading of an old biker.
I told the bikers that it was very important to pedal together with their respective teams for protection, strength, and camaraderie.
Bimbo and Onyot by this time were nowhere still but we started our second lap anyway.
Fully recharged the Thunder Cats A and B, the Wild cats, and those guests were joining forces in spearheading the tour. We could keep up with the fast pacing but we adamantly stayed with our chosen pace. The Photon Panther, though not in speedy mode but as long we were almost always moving, were alright.
Later we caught the peloton at Cawasan resting. And still we kept on moving. A brute feeling visited me again as I was grinning invisibly. I was beginning to love our pacing.
Then unbelievably, we caught the two Straycats Bimbo and Onyot refreshing a few kilometers before Badian proper. I was incredulous on what I saw. How did they overtake us without our knowing? My theory was that they did not eat when we ate in Dumanjug market located interiorly. They just kept on pedaling until hunger caught them at Badian. We just passed them by and gave them encouraging pleasantries.
Soon it was time for us Photon to refuel. With controlled haste, we stopped for bread and soft drinks.
Midway in our snacks, the two Stray Cats passed us by followed shortly by the merged forces of Captain Dondon, Abski’s, and Gaya’s. It was a comrade/opponent style of relationship.
Soon enough we caught all of them except for the two Stray Cats at Malabuyoc town proper, I saw some of them were out of gas.
The Altered State
The Photon kept onward, again, almost always moving. By then it started to rain lightly, enough to make lathers on the cycling shorts of Allan and Arnie. The two happened to be at the front when it happened, so everybody at the back saw it. The harder/faster they pedaled, the more lathers were produced. I felt for my cycling if mine was lathering too, thank God it was not. Allan told the group that that was probably the result of their laundry woman asking them so many bars of soap. Cycling shorts are made with thick soft materials serving as cushion that an improper rinsing may leave that part the storage of soap sediment. We laughed at this home laundry epic fail. It eased our uncomfortable situation for a time, at least.
Some incidents may seem trivial to many, but such is the stuff of our lives. What we did, saw, felt, thought, out there these little things or insignificant events mattered because these became a shared pain or joy to us. We don’t measure distance always by kilometers, but sometimes by moments which vary every moment. A kilometer seemed like eternity to end when we were tired and hungry. Even a tilted, dilapidated or defaced kilometer stone at the roadside can change one’s hopeful mode. A moment of flat tire can either be a blessing of rest or can be a frustration. It depends on how you wanted it to be. But sure enough, a downhill is a downhill, and everybody kept “whee-ing”, even on their minds. Long touring, or even spending too much time on the saddle can be a character builder, or can be a tantrums inciter.
We hoped to catch the Stray Cats before the town of Ginatilan but we could not find them. Second question: How fast were they moving that we can’t even see their backs? I wondered until arriving at Santander when I predicted they quit somewhere. It was preposterously impossible for them to bike that fast. And later after the tour, they admitted quitting somewhere in Malabuyoc. They instructed local boys to call our attentions to make us stop along the road where they took some coconuts. Truly I noticed some boys making noise and waving at us to stop but I thought they were just members of our local bike fans club everywhere encouraging us to go faster.
The boys from Dalaguete were our ever comrade/opponent by that time. We exchanged leadership in spearheading from time to time. They ate lunch somewhere in Bato while we pushed towards our usual lunch place in Santander to wait for the rest of the tourers.
We were a minute to our lunch venue when Bolantoy ,and the biker from Carcar were in tandem passed by our group. Bolantoy casually told us that he had to speed up onward for his Sunday laundry chores, it was 12:05nn. I chuckled. This guy is impossible.
We took our lunch then prepared for a long rest for the waiting of the rest of the bikers. My previous Gurkha biker Raffy along with his brother Sidro was on our tail since morning, and caught us up after our lunch. They started late for they were coming from Lapulapu City. They told us that the rest of the group we were waiting took their lunch at Bato. So quickly I changed plan and called to prepare to saddle immediately. There was no point of waiting for regrouping now. The fast pacing was beaten by the constancy of our normal-but-not-too-slow-pacing.
Our team and the biker from Dalaguete continued our friendly mode of changing leadership in going to Oslob until somebody at the back told me that Billy was far behind the small peloton and was not feeling well. We gave up the game to them. We decided to let Billy quit and ride in Oslob. It was decided but then when we arrived there, he said that he will continue the 104 kms homeward.
So we continued but Billy was getting slower and weaker. It was a wrong decision to prolong the agony. But I was thankful enough that he did not ride in Oslob for I did not decide to ride with him. I felt sorry too for my wrong decision not to accompany him. It was decided again that at Boljoon he must ride, and I will be with him for sure to home.
There we caught the bikers from Dalaguete resting again. And the rest of the Photon panther continued their journey without me and Billy. I entrusted to Allan our two nephews, Samsam and Nino who were beginners in touring business. That was 2:30pm.
Homebound at last
We were waiting for 30 minutes in Boljoon when the Thunder Cats A and the Wild Cats (Dexter, Abski, Sandy, Dennis, along with Gaya and Carlo) arrived. The leader of the Thunder Cat A, Captain Dexter did catch up with his group somewhere in Bato lunching. Another more or less 30 minutes, Dondon’s bonked team arrived. One of them had a situation needing a relief, asap.
I returned the gloves to its owner before my bus ride. We managed to be on a Ceres bus with the great help of Captain Gaya, who was almost on the center of the road to block the bus for our ride.
We arrived home 7:30pm while my Photon Panther team arrived 8:00pm.
Bolantoy arrived at 6:00pm.
Dexter’s team and Gaya’s arrived almost simultaneously with Photon as they were supping at Naga.
Captain Dondon and his cohorts, Orville, Allan, and Christian arrived at 11:00pm.
Noy Eli was reported that he started his tour at 6:00am at the station, biked alone, and arrived at 12:00 midnight.
This is an insane way to prepare for something insane. It just suits.
I hope that this writer has inspired readers to dust off their own untold stories as this is just one side, my side of the story.
The end.
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