Cyclists challenge longest biking route in Singapore

By Gloria Lee

As Singapore gets set to host the Youth Olympic Games in August, cyclists here geared up for a challenging race of their own – one that holds the record as the longest round island cycling route in Singapore.

A major national event organized annually by the Nanyang Technological University Sports Club, the Bike Rally 2010 offered participants the choice of the regular 128-kilometre route or an extended 168-kilometre route for endurance cyclists.

In landlocked Singapore, the extended route was warmly welcomed by the burgeoning cycling community. In fact, registration had to be closed early due to overwhelming responses.

“This is by far the longest cycling distance offered in Singapore, and we pride ourselves on being able to offer this unique feature,” said Colin Kwek, chairperson of the organizing committee.

The organizers had to limit the number of participants due to safety and operational concerns. A total of 673 avid and leisure cyclists turned up for the event. Among the participating cyclists were two former members of the Singapore Paralympics contingent.

The Guest-of-Honour for the event was Hri Kumar Nair, member of parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. A cycling enthusiast himself, Nair noted that cycling as a sport had recently picked up local momentum, especially since Tampines New Town opened up its footways to cyclists in December last year.

Cyclists engaged a route that started and ended at East Coast Park, with six checkpoints in between. Cyclists had to negotiate terrain in both the city and heartlands of Singapore, passing by famous landmarks such as the Esplanade and the Singapore Flyer.

Citing safety considerations and physical ability, the organizing committee determined the minimum requirement for participation to be 17 years of age. As the Bike Rally was originally organized to promote cycling as a healthy way of living, participants came from all age groups. In fact, the oldest participant was 64 years old.

A 17-year-old student from Temasek Polytechnic, Teh Jin Yu, was inspired to join the event because of the attractive lucky draw prizes that included hybrid bicycles, Nike products and Crumpler bags.

“I initially signed up because the prizes were good. But the experience turned out to be a fantastic one,” said Teh, who finished the race in eight hours.

The non-competitive race flagged off at 7:00 a.m., and the average cyclist took about seven hours to complete the race. The first cyclist came in at 1:30 p.m. while the last cyclist crossed the finishing point at 7:00 p.m.