Genting Sempah - Bentong Ride 230711 Part 2

With Ah Pan at the hot springs

The Jetstream EX, she clocked 71km on her maiden flight

At a waterfall along the route

Taking shelter from the rain beneath a viaduct

After spending a few hours with Farmer Wong and Ah Pan, it was time to hit the road.
Ong and I made our way towards our first pit-stop, the Bentong Hot Springs.
We rode about 16km from Bentong town and along the way, we met the convoy of bicyclists who were on their way back from their ride.
What looked flat in Bentong was an optical illusion.
The road ahead was a long and winding undulating terrain and our climb towards Genting Sempah is ahead of us.
It took us about 45-minutes to get to the hot springs where we rested.
The water was not even lukewarm and its rather strange that the Pahang tourism office would pass this as an attraction.
There, we chat about cycling and got to know each other better.
From the hot springs, we made our way to Bukit Tinggi.
This is a climb from 115metres to 660metres. Although the gradient was not steep, its gradual and we were crunching our gears.
The SRAM Dual-drive II yielded 27-speeds on the Jetstream EX. 
No issues with getting the best combination out of the low gear and some training I did in Hulu Langat really helped in the climb.
Half-way towards Bukit Tinggi, I made a judgement call. 
We took shelter underneath a viaduct along the East Coast highway as it started to pour heavily.
About 40-minutes later, we started cycling in the light evening shower towards Bukit Tinggi which is about 6km away.
I checked the GPS and we were very near the BP petrol station.
There, we took a refreshment break and proceeded towards Bukit Tinggi village and had some coffee at a restaurant.
For a first-timer, Ong did very well with the climb.
I suggested that we push our bikes on the steep hills towards the Genting Sempah junction, about 900meters away.
When we got there, police patrol car pulled over.
We made small talk with a cop and his partner who was on routine crime prevention patrol.
From the Bukit Tinggi junction, its a 5km crunch towards our finish line in Genting Sempah.
I told Ong that there is really no need to kill ourselves as the final push is a gradual climb.
We finished the ride in about 40minutes from the Bukit Tinggi junction.
For Ong, its an achievement and as for me, I've finally added this route onto my records.


RIDE SUMMARY


Total distance - 71km
Average speed - 17.2km
Top speed - 49km
Total time - 9hrs:6min:48sec
Total time riding - 4hrs:39min:09sec
Max cadence - 179rpm
Average cadence - 56rpm
Elevation gain - 592meters
Elevation loss - 601meters