So much have been said and heard about this ‘famous’ Bukit Kiara trail. The excitement was already brewing even before I reached the destination the car park at Devi's Corner in Hartamas, Bukit Kiara. To make today's event an even more interesting outing food plus time trial? What is happening?

Good ole’ Boon Foo from Bike Pro have done a very good job getting everyone organized and to come for today’s BIG event! Months before this he has already started to talk about it and had worked very hard for today. And rewarded he was, with more than 40 riders turning up! Even from our group alone, we already had 18 riders to make up the massive attendance! Today is also one of the BASH rider’s last ride - Pat Brunson’s last ride in Malaysia or nicknamed as ‘PIGPEN'S LAST DANCE’

Together with 13 of our ‘not-so-keen-in-race’ riders, we had to give way to those who were in for the time trial. It was not until after 09:00am that we finally managed to start off on our ride. It was fun watching the ‘racers’ starting off a minute behind each other. While we waited eagerly for our turn to come, the only thoughts in our mind were: Why do they bother rushing in this time trial race? I guess they all forgot the one important thing that kept us all together: FUN! No stress! Or maybe this is their way of having fun?

Fools we were not as we only wanted to enjoy our weekend ride and safely! And time trial is no trial for me with the rest of my 13 riders. I personally do not believe in dashing madly on a mountain bike, trying to beat another’s record. Why break bones, crash and struggle when you can enjoy the ride more doing it at your own self set pace? And a very good thing too that we did not participate in this time-trial thing as we soon found out!

The route was very clearly marked out by the long blue paper strips thrown on the ground by the BASH. The trail was as follows: Pat's Engress, Boulder, Twin Peaks, Janie's Addiction, Pondok to Pondok Banana Ridge, Boner, Clenched Sphincter, Penchala.

Even before the first 2 minutes of the ride was up, all of us were already hard at work – pushing our bikes up the hill! It was a very tough ride even from the start. The first 2 kilometers was enough to ‘kill’ and rob all of us of our energy. There were a lot of tree roots and the worst obstacle must be the short tree stump sticking out of the ground. This made it impossible to ride fast and we had to be really careful here, as any mistakes would have us crashing down the slope!

This must be another trail apart from Sungai Buluh, where we cannot afford to stop for more than 5 minutes to catch a breather! The hungry mosquitoes were always there waiting for us!

At slightly over the 3-kilometer trail, we hit the tarmac road. Grins and smiles can be seen on all our faces. But this was another killjoy as we started going fast down this road. Right after the left turn, we were faced with the uphill ride again! There just seemed to be too many of these uphill rides in today’s trail!

For just 11 kilometers, now I was beginning to understand why they say that it will normally take an hour and a half to complete. There were just too many tricky and technical single tracks through this infamous Bukit Kiara.

Finally, I reached the top of a flat hill overlooking Kuala Lumpur city on my right. Straight ahead I could see an opening amongst the tall overgrown grass. And straight ahead I charged into it, the trail. It seemed almost immediately I was faced with the steep downhill ride. It was no easy task trying to ‘professionally’ manouver my way down this steep and slippery slope. All this while I was also on the look out for the blue strips of paper trail. Somehow they must have forgotten about placing the paper trail down this hill. And soon, I got the answer to my thoughts I am lost! Not wanting to have to push my mountain bike back up the hill, I decided to just carry on riding downhill.

Thank goodness I reached the tar road again, not after I managed to crash straight into a dangerous fencing that was sticking out in front of my downhill path! With the aid of my GPS, I headed towards the direction of where we had started. This took me through a recreational club and passing the horse ranch. From here, it was on-road cycling all the way back to the car!

At the end of the ride or time trial for some, true to his words, Boon Foo had the food all laid out and waiting for us. No need RM10 to join in the fun but only RM1.50 for an ice-canned drink!

This RM1.50 thing has given me an idea! Starting next week, we shall have ice-canned drinks for sale too! 100 plus or Isomax at RM1.50 and RM5 for a beer? Come on guys and gals; show your support to us. Help us to maintain ‘Bicycling Malaysia’ website, your website!