The Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge
Stage 4 – From First to Last
Cory Wallace / 22.10.2011
Even days in paradise can get turned over like a bowl of cheerios and spill milk all over your pants. Stage 4 was supposed to be a straight forward 27 km stage on pavement up to the high point on the Island of Mount Raya. (823m). The first 13.5 km was over rolling hills before we hit the 13.5 km climb.As the stage was all paved most of us opted to jack our tires up to their maximum pressure to make sure the rolling resistance was kept to a minimum. My rims mentioned something about having a 45 psi max limit, but I figured there must be a 15 psi safety net on that and cranked mine up to 60 psi. This was against some good advice but I’d done this many times before without a problem. Today was different!
As Kris and I rolled to the start line, a bit behind schedule, we heard a bomb go off as my tire exploded off the rim and wrapped around my bike. I figured we were under attack until I heard my rim rolling over the concrete. Luckily nothing was damaged so I carefully began to remount the tire with a fresh tube in it while Kris rolled ahead to the start line to drop off our bag for the top of the mountain. Everything went smoothly in the tire change, and we were soon on the start line with the other 300 racers in the LIMBC and headed off on a mountain climb.
The pace was fast right off the start as everyone was battling for good position before we hit the base of the climb. 2km into the stage we came to a steep descent which I was leading with my Mongolian Bike Challenge rival Marzio Deho. This came to an abrupt halt when my rear tire hit a thorn and deflated instantly causing a very sketchy few moments as I slowed from 55 km/hr to 0 with 299 racers coming up from behind barreling around either side of me. Once all the traffic was gone it was game over as I waited for the broom wagon to come along and help me out as I had already used up my spare tube.
Once the tire was fixed, the next 50 minutes was spent racing for fun up the Mountain which turned out to be pretty rad with monkeys holding cigarette packages in the ditch and waterfalls coming out of the jungle. The top was pretty surreal as we had glimpses of the crystal blue ocean and golden beaches 800 meters below. The organizers had a picnic for all us riders as we waited for the last racer to get up the mountain before we headed back to town for the afternoon.See All Event Posts
