Cycling in Malaysia Part 2: Cameron Highlands

The most extensive hill station in Malaysia, Cameron Highlands offers the cyclist some of the best challenges in the region with climbs up to and beyond 1600m above sea level.

There are 4 approaches that offer different cycling experiences and scenery. The most well-frequented is the road from Tapah - if you're coming from the main Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh road, this is the default route. It's a nice ride, though busy at the weekends with holiday traffic. A 40km rise at a fairly gradual 3-4%, mostly shaded, with a popular waterfall stop in the middle where you can grab some fruit, drinks, or a meal. It'll bring you up to the main Cameron plateau at Ringlet. If you keep going you'll get another nice 12k of climbing at some much meatier gradients up to Tanah Rata.

Another well frequented road is the much faster and smoother - a lot of it dual carriageway - route up from Ipoh on the road that eventually takes you through to Gua Musang in Kelantan if you kept going. You don't. You turn right into the Cameron area and then you have a nice arduous 8km climb, a lot of it between 9-12%, up to Brinchang at 1600m before heading down through the town and on to Tanah Rata - approaching the opposite way from the above route.

Much less frequented - in fact almost desolate at times - is the road from Sungai Koyan. About 100km out from Ringlet this one climbs through some of the most scenic bits - vast, wide lanscapes but without much tree cover so it can be hot if you choose your time wrong.

The last (but not least) one is the monster route from Gua Musang. This route will have you climbing more that 3000m before it spits you out in Brinchang after 120km. The profile is like a saw tooth and a lot of the gradients are an unrelenting 10-12%.

Considered the toughest route in Malaysia, Equipe Nomad have included this in a couple of our ride packages including the 7-day tour through Cameron, but also part of our Extreme Cameron Weekend. It is extreme!

We also do some easier ones of course, and if you're looking for a good-but-not-life-changing challenge, then try our Cameron Weekend Ride that approaches through Tapah for an overnight at Tanah Rata., then next day down westwards through the scenic grandeur of the descent to Sungai Koyan.

Cameron Highlands have a great infrastructure of hotels, shops, restaurants etc. We like to stay at Tanah Rata where they have a lot of good restaurants and you can even get a good massage. Just what you need after long hours grinding up hills! Brinchang is an even bigger commercial centre, but for us a bit too big. Tanah Rata has more of a relaxed, holiday feel.

The temperature and (lack of) humidity are also a draw, and once you're above a certain altitude, everything cools down a little. Never too cold during the day (unless you hit some really bad weather), but at night it can get quite chilly at times. As with everywhere else in this part of the world, you usually won't hit rain if you aim to get your rides done before mid-afternoon - but not always....

Triathlon Training (for Lapsed Triathletes)

OK -  I know I'm going to get some stick for this.

When I was really into doing triathlons and training up to Ironman distances, it was fairly clear to me that the pros did the bulk of their endurance work on the bike. Since they can train 10 hours in a day or more, that would still leave a good chunk for the other stuff.

The rest of us muddle through trying to improve in all 3 disciplines as best we can with the time available. However, it's a fact that you can improve your 180km bike split by hours if you put the right training in, whereas with a well-structured swim program you might shave off only a few minutes, despite putting in a couple of hours in the pool daily. With the run too, once you have a steady cruise pace dialled in, you might improve your marathon time by 15-20 minutes, or a 10k time by 5-8min with a high volume of systematic training but mostly you're talking a massive time scale for minute improvements.

So it should be clear that to improve your overall triathlon time, it's the bike where you should put in the most hours.

These days I've somehow lost the tri bug to a certain extent. I started riding pure road bikes about 10 years back, and now focus virtually all my training time and energy on the bike, riding pretty much every day following a loosely-structured training plan. Yet I still enjoy doing triathlon races and usually plan a couple of short course events into my year as a test for my fitness. I'm just not that into running or swimming at the moment.

However, never one to accept the usual norms, I'm coming up with my own triathlon training plan for those who can swim and run, but just don't enjoy training it that much.

My idea is: since I spend a lot of time training power and endurance on my bike, that I've developed a high level of cardiovascular fitness already, and all I need to do for the swim and run is work on maintaining good form.

With a triathlon run the main thing is to be able to get a good cruise speed together and to be able to run off the bike effectively. My approach puts forward that with cardiovascular endurance, leg speed and power built on the bike, keeping your weight down and working on good form and a good cruise pace will get you through a short-course run nicely. For longer distances I would add core strength exercises.

Even in my hardest riding weeks I try to run a couple of times a week to keep my basic form together. Instead of trying to do a basic endurance run of 30 minutes or so, I do what amounts to relatively easy cruise intervals of 4 minutes keeping good form followed by 1 minute walking, repeated 6 times. The intervals don't have to be hard, but then they don't have to be super easy either. It's just about form. I don't even usually wear a heart rate monitor. The idea is that I get the biomechanical conditioning without the loss of form. Plus it's more fun, so easier to motivate myself to do it. If I'm aiming to do an Olympic distance race I'll just build up until I'm running maybe 12 of these a couple of times a week, and do a couple of "brick" runs off the bike of 3-5k to get my legs used to doing that again. No sweat...:p

Same with the swim. When I get in the pool these days I'll do a short warm up, followed by some drills, and then a couple of fastish cruise 50 meters keeping the form as good as possible, then an easy 100 to loosen up. Never much more than 6-800m overall. I might build these cruise 50s up to the point where I'm doing over 1000m overall, but not much more than that. My goal is to enjoy the swim in the race, rather than to do a great time.

Of course, I've worked a great deal on my swim and run form in the past, so it's not hard to get those coordinates punched into the system, but working on form is not massively tiring - just boring, so it could still work were I at a more basic stage.

I haven't tried this preparation method on anything longer yet, but I'm planning to take it up to half-ironman distance later this year.

The more I train like this, the more I feel that it could be a model for triathlon training at any level - with modifications of course.

It's a work in progress. Anyone have anything to offer?

Fulcrum Racing 3 Wheelset

I've had these wheels for around 7 years now. Bought them to go with my Felt F3 (which is another love story I'll write about elsewhere), and haven't cared to ride much else since - especially in the hilly rides which make up 100% of my riding when in Malaysia.

Not the top of the Fulcrum range, and already getting long in the tooth, I can't find anything that would replace them in my life...except maybe another pair. Good news since they are relatively inexpensive.

I love these wheels. They are super strong and, at just over 1.5kg, reasonably light. For me there has to be a trade-off between these 2 factors. I'm suspicious of wheels where the manufacturer puts a rider weight limit, Not that I'm particularly heavy, just that how can a wheel that won't take a 90kg guy pretend to be able to take the kind of torque anyone will put into it going up a 15% climb without flexing? Or from braking hard coming down the same hill? I'm still open to persuasion but please show me the wheelset lighter than this one that does what this one does.

They roll better than any other wheel I've ridden - by far. The sweet sound of a Campag freewheel buzzes away on fast descents that feel like I'm on rails - even on a relatively twitchy frame. I have never had to true them once, nor replace the bearings - which I've put a fair amount of mileage into.

I have never had a wheelset that plummets downhill with such gusto. I'm not sure what it is that does it. They say that mechanical drag is second only to aero drag when it comes to impeding speed - well these must have way less mechanical drag than most other wheels because they're not very aero. If I use the front one with my powertap 32-spoke wheel, it feels good and stable, but if I use both...woohoo!....literally on another level!

I've talked to several real wheel-geeks about these wheels and apparently the balance of weight rim-to-hub is perfect, which might help explain why they feel so good. I am also informed that they outshine all other wheels in the Fulcrum range for the above reason - but I haven't ridden the others so can't comment.

Of course I'm always looking around for something that can do it all: light, aero, stable, bomb-proof, great braking surface, but so far I haven't found anything that convinces me. The only thing these wheels lack is the aero aspect and perhaps a few grams knocked off somehow. Aero usually means carbon, which usually means problems in braking: reduced effectivity and/or overheating. Lighter usually means weaker.

Bottom line for climbing wheels for me is how confident I am in the fast and/or technical descents. With this wheel I can go full-gas down the scariest slopes, fully confident that they won't give out on me, and that I can control the speed if needed. For that I'll happily sacrifice a bit of free-aero-speed and a handicap of a gram or 2 in the ascent.

Road Test - Wheels

Cycling In Malaysia

When I first came to this part of the world 20 years back, the thing that attracted me most about living here was the constant warm weather. Though I was born in the UK, I have never liked the cold, and the wet, drizzly gloom of a British winter is really something I would be happy to never experience again.

For a cyclist/triathlete this also means no off season - no downtime. Awesome!

Now that I have to spend chunks of my time away from Malaysia, I appreciate even more what it has to offer - especially to a cyclist.

There is an amazing abundance of wild nature around us here, yet the roads are pretty good. The road system covers the whole peninsula with access to most of the hilly areas, and drivers are generally courteous and careful - outside of the urban areas. The food, which is some of the best and most varied in the world, is cheap and abundant, yet sanitation is excellent and it's also safe to eat most road-side offerings. Infrastructure is good. Petrol station kiosks sell isotonic drinks, and mobile networks cover most areas, with good internet connectivity and online information on pretty much everything. And English is widely spoken, which is very welcoming to visitors.

But really, the cycling is just awesome! We can put together routes as long, hard, scenic as you like, and even just your average out-and-back routes from urban hubs like Kuala Lumpur are mind-numbingy gorgeous.

Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage

Great book!

What makes this book stand out for me from all the other behind-the-scenes books on life in the peloton is mostly Kimmage's account of own inner turmoil and the completely frank and honest way that he relates his story. Nowhere else in the latest crop of confessions did I get such a clear presentation of the real options facing a professional bike racer, and the stark reality of the pressure on riders to come up with results or lose their job.

He talks of his own tough choices in a completely open way, and of his disillusionment and a growing frustration with the sport and it's management. From starry-eyed newcomer to jaded, battle weary domestique, we are spared no detail in the downward spiral. But what comes out of the pages more than anything else is a deep love for the sport and a yearning for the values he first discovered through his father as a boy.

Kimmage talks of the victims with great compassion. He sees much of the self destructive behaviour as a result of the choices made and the gradual erosion of self-respect. His scathing dismissal of the villains in his story is matched by the obvious affection he holds for both those who stood fast and those who crumbled - they all became victims in the end - and his sense of loss for the friendships that were cut short by his choice to tell the whole story.

This is the book that upset the apple-cart when it was first published, because the openness with which he talked of the use of drugs in the sport was considered a breach of the code of silence. The book turned the whole cycling world, including many of his closest friends against him.

In the recent edition I have, the last chapters are written years after the book was first published and talk about the books effect on the cycling world, and how it turned first it's fury towards him, and then it's back on him. These last chapters are now an essential part of the story since they document his journey back to a fragile but tangible belief in the sport's potential salvation.

But the best recommendation, as with all good books, is that I didn't want it to end.

Crank Length

Does anyone have anything to offer here?

I've been using 175mm cranks for a long time now. I even have a pair of 177.5mm on my TT bike. The science behind the longer crank length is leverage: the longer the lever, the more torque you can apply. However, a longer crank also means a longer dead spot in the pedal cycle, as well as a higher knee on the top part of the cycle which can reduce your ability to get a low position in the drops.

I'm trying to work on a lower position these days as I find my current position too upright, but with my current setup I feel I have less power when in the drops as my breathing is somewhat restricted. I'm on a fairly small frame for my size, so part of it should be addressed by lengthening my saddle-to-bars distance so that I'm more stretched out, but I'm also thinking of trying a 172.5 crank length to see if it helps alleviate the problem - I'll be higher up by 2.5mm, and my knee at the top of the cycle will relatively be 5mm lower. But will I lose power?

Experimenting in crank length means you have to consider forking out for the cost of a decent crankset that might not work for you anyway, so it's not that straightforward a thing to experiment with.

One decent article I've come across has a lot of interesting points but in the end I'm no closer to being able to decide.

http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/06/crank-length-which-one/

Fabian's Bike

Something I came across in my investigations into bike position - and particularly crank length.

I'd thought of Cancellara as possibly a rider that I could at least aspire to emulate - given that he's also not what you would call slightly built, and that he's good at everything I'd like to be good at except climbing long hills, and in that respect we're both limited by the same thing: weight.

It didn't help that much really since he's 3cm taller than me and weighs a few kg more, but it's great to have details of what he actually uses.

Fabian's Bike