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Some of you might be wondering why the Empress mentioned about Pascal's Point ... Well, let me share with you the story ...
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Fraser Hills, Saturday morning - The weather was cold (at least for me) and foggy and roads were wet. All geared up to brave the "harsh" conditions, we had to cover 8 km from Clock Tower to the gap. I was the last man rolling down. It quickly got to me that my fingers were cold just immediately after I went by the guardhouse. Not worried a bit, I continued my descent. Reaching the 2.5km mark, I came out of a blind spot and suddenly appeared behind Marcus, Laundry Boy, Joyce, Wendy, Satomi, Choon Wei. As I was going too fast, I tried braking, but my fingers were just too cold and cramped up and I just could not brake.
I had a fraction of second to react. Either I took down Marcus by doing a sharp turn which would have been nasty or find a spot which could reduce my speed. It was a fraction of second!, indeed! I cut between Marcus and in front of Laundry Boy and headed straight onto the grass towards a pile of earth with some bamboos. Within nano seconds, the bike came to a stop and I did a somersault and disappeared from sight. As the French would say it, "plus de peur que de mal!" More dramatic than anything else! I did a flip over.
I was hanging on to the bamboos. The first reaction was to burst into laughter while I recalled what I just went through.
The accident created such a panic among the group coming down. Marcus shouted "Man down" and rushed to my rescue. By the time he reached me, I was already on my feet and back on safe ground by myself. It was so spectacular that they were surprised that I didn't get any injuries - in fact - only a superficial 1cm bamboo cut on my leg. Choon Wei and Marcus helped me to check on my bike and found out that the rear wheel went out of true - that meant the end of my ride on that day.
Laundry boy who saw all the action later told me that it seemed that I was so prepared to crash and did the right thing, i.e., braced, tugged in and did a roll over and he was not surprised to learn nothing was broken with me except my ego. I told him that I just had a split second and did what I had to do i.e., the best out of a worst case scenario.
A few photos taken, the spot was then declared Pascal's Point by the queen. They continued the descent while I waited for the coach. After passing the gap on the sweeping bus, another unlucky event happened. Wendy had a flat on her tubeless tyres. That was the end of her ride as well. {It just amazing that I wanted to bring spare wheels and already packed them and decided at the last seconds that I would not bring them with me}
And a while later, it was the empress - I swopped my front wheel with her and she continued her way down with Choon Wei. Marcus was the unlucky one as well with a rear tyre puncture. After becoming the de-facto mechanic, I helped him out to change his bicycle tube and he and Laundry boy decided to hope onto the bus until the carpark at the base of Fraser Hills.
To our surprise, the first group were waiting there. We had a fair bit of photos and drinks and that's where a new adventure started for Wendy and I. After Choon Wei's suggestion, we decided to go to Bike Boutique KL to get our wheel fixed. We managed to hope on a cab and on our way back the driver was reluctant to send us back to the top of Genting. Hence, both of us ended up taking the cable up - Imagine a bloke and a girl in cycling tights carrying two wheels in their hands waiting in the queue for the cable. It was an awesome ride up.
After being lost in the maze of the hotels at the top of Genting, we managed to meet the whole group again. And after lunch as we headed up Fraser, being highly over carboloaded and hydrated, both of us wanted to ride up the gap. As the driver was too anxious to meet the timing, he just didn't stop and we ended riding around the town itself with Murli. It was a nice 8 km ride and very enjoyable, discovering a new side of Fraser.
The next day, I was a bit reluctant to ride down with the cold weather but things got warmer and unleashed the packed energy downhill after we passed by the landslide. It was an awesome ride. Wendy and I managed to ride back up again and sped down the hills a second time and with no drama this time - Like two beasts who just got released ...
However, as we regrouped at the T-junction, we heard of the news that Murli was a bit jealous of me having my own point, decided to have his own wall by doing another stunt - I will let him tell you the story. We were all back safe to Singapore the same day.
And luckily, we didn't stay any longer in Fraser, otherwise we might got someone's Fall and just imagine if one of us actually fell into a Hole ...
Conman Pascal
