After spending a couple of days in Penang, I felt ready to do an American century (100 miles). Actually, what forced me to do 100 miles was the fact that there weren't any hotels within 30 miles of Ipoh. And there were a couple of other factors that insured that I did 100 miles.
The first being a bend in Highway 1 that went out of the way northwards for 15 miles. An expressway actually undercuts this bend, but bicycles are prohibited. I would not have minded if this was in the beginning of the ride, but it happened in the last quarter.
The second factor was after meeting a Malaysian biker. He pulled me over on the road in his car (just before the bend) and wanted to go biking with me. Zam rallied home, got on his bike and met me by the time I finished the bend on Highway 1. From where he met me, Ipoh was only 15 km away, but at Zam's suggestion, we took a sideroad to avoid rush-hour traffic. This diversion added another 15 km to my ride!
All in all though, I would have to say I felt real good about the Century. This was the first Century since the AIDS ride back in 2001 and this was the first ride done with mountain bike tires.
180 kilomters, 10 hours and 1 liter of 100 Plus (Malaysia's version of Gatorade).
Food: roti with curry sauce, Indian chicken curry with green beans over saffron rice, Rock-salt chicken with rice noodles and steamed bean sprouts.
