Please welcome my first guest blogger!

Nathan: Started about 6 this morning, into town to sign in and wait for the start. 350 of us headed out on mass from Yayasan to The Empire. This was the first of 4 pit stops. As it was a "ride for all" with the slogan being "Burn fat not oil", the pace was very relaxed.
After stop at The Empire it was 40km down to Taman Sungai Basong for another drink stop. Approaching the turn off I got a flat in my front tire and had to walk it in to make a quick change. After this it was 15km to Bukit Basong to turn around and go back. On the way back we managed to fool the "officials" into upping the pace for a while before the whistled us back in again.

Once back at the Tmn Sng Basong pit stop we lost about half the field to the bus as they were transported back to The Empire. On the way back we worked out that the "officals" had not calibrated their speedometers so their idea of 25km/h was in fact closer to 21! At The Empire we hung around for about an hour as people sat around and counted daisies. From there back to the start where Linnea and Boel had given up the kiddie hash to see us home! Was good to see them and climb off the saddle!

All in all it was a good day and covered about 130km. The organizers had set a target speed and cut off times for getting away from the pit stops. Neither were managed and the day did tend to drag out a lot more than was needed. But I won a free water bottle so there was a bonus to a sore a**!