Gala day for Singapore cycling at OCBC Team Time Trial champs
May 7, 2019
The OCBC Cycle Singapore Team Time Trial Championship showed once again last Sunday why it is probably the premier event on the local road racing calendar as over 130 teams of riders flocked to the Tanah Merah Coastal Road circuit for their annual dose of collective suffering.
The four-person Quad racing division alone attracted 76 teams across seven different categories, which equates to 304 riders, a superb number for a local cycling event. The two-person Duo division attracted a further 60 teams, with many of the competitors in that set of races doubling up after a short rest from their Quad exploits … gluttons for punishment!
While the Tanah Merah Coastal Road circuit isn’t the most exciting course in the world, Singapore’s cyclists are very familiar with it, and it has loads of space for the officials, riders and supporters to set up their tents alongside the start/finish stretch, a big factor in the carnival atmosphere that prevailed on Sunday.
Just about every local cycling club and racing team were present including Allied World Treknology3, Anza Cycling, Ascenders Team, BikeLabz Racing, Cannasia, Cycleworx, CyclingTraining.CC, Fahrenheit Performance Development Team, the Greyhounds, Harabas, Integrated Riding, Loyang Lions Cycling Club, Matador Racing, NewMoon KH Cycle, Rapha CC, Specialized Roval Mavericks, Team Harding, Team Next Stage, TWC Racing, Treknology3, West Coast Riders, YBCO, 4T2, 30Forty Cycling. A healthy number of local triathlon clubs were in attendance too.
The OCBC Cycle Singapore Team Time Trial Championship showed once again last Sunday why it is probably the premier event on the local road racing calendar as over 130 teams of riders flocked to the Tanah Merah Coastal Road circuit for their annual dose of collective suffering.
The four-person Quad racing division alone attracted 76 teams across seven different categories, which equates to 304 riders, a superb number for a local cycling event. The two-person Duo division attracted a further 60 teams, with many of the competitors in that set of races doubling up after a short rest from their Quad exploits … gluttons for punishment!
While the Tanah Merah Coastal Road circuit isn’t the most exciting course in the world, Singapore’s cyclists are very familiar with it, and it has loads of space for the officials, riders and supporters to set up their tents alongside the start/finish stretch, a big factor in the carnival atmosphere that prevailed on Sunday.
Just about every local cycling club and racing team were present including Allied World Treknology3, Anza Cycling, Ascenders Team, BikeLabz Racing, Cannasia, Cycleworx, CyclingTraining.CC, Fahrenheit Performance Development Team, the Greyhounds, Harabas, Integrated Riding, Loyang Lions Cycling Club, Matador Racing, NewMoon KH Cycle, Rapha CC, Specialized Roval Mavericks, Team Harding, Team Next Stage, TWC Racing, Treknology3, West Coast Riders, YBCO, 4T2, 30Forty Cycling. A healthy number of local triathlon clubs were in attendance too.
As the OCBC Cycle Singapore TTT Championship is an officially sanctioned race of cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste International (UCI), rules pertaining to bikes and equipment are enforced, a state of affairs that means many of Singapore’s triathletes would be ineligible to compete as their fancy triathlon rigs are not compliant with the rules.
But realising it doesn’t make sense to alienate a substantial number of local cyclists, the Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF) and event organiser Cycosports have in recent years split the TTT champs into Elite and Sports classes. The UCI rules are strictly enforced for the former, but the Sports racers can ride any bike they want, including the super aerodynamic rigs that run afoul of the UCI rules.
The Sports cats aren’t just for those owning “illegal” triathlon bikes, they are also a place for riders who want to have a bit of fun racing with their friends without the perceived pressure the Elite tag can bring. Indeed, the riders taking part in the Sports categories on Sunday outnumbered the Elites in both in the Quads and Duos, meaning the day wouldn’t have been half the success it was if it had been an Elites-only affair.
But realising it doesn’t make sense to alienate a substantial number of local cyclists, the Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF) and event organiser Cycosports have in recent years split the TTT champs into Elite and Sports classes. The UCI rules are strictly enforced for the former, but the Sports racers can ride any bike they want, including the super aerodynamic rigs that run afoul of the UCI rules.
The Sports cats aren’t just for those owning “illegal” triathlon bikes, they are also a place for riders who want to have a bit of fun racing with their friends without the perceived pressure the Elite tag can bring. Indeed, the riders taking part in the Sports categories on Sunday outnumbered the Elites in both in the Quads and Duos, meaning the day wouldn’t have been half the success it was if it had been an Elites-only affair.
The racing began at 6:45am, just as the sun showed its face, with the first event on the program the Men’s Masters Sports Quad category, which attracted a whopping 25 teams. Ahead for all the Quad racers lay three laps of a roughly 10.75km circuit up and down the pancake-flat Tanah Merah Coastal Road, for a total distance of around 32.25km. The course is completely exposed to whatever weather conditions the day brings, and on Sunday it was a baking hot sun and strong, gusty winds that the riders had to contend with.
The rules for Quad races are fairly simple; the fastest team wins, with the clock stopping after the third rider of each quartet crosses the finishing line. This three-out-of-four rule provides a bit of leeway in the event of punctures, mechanical failures and riders simply being dropped. It doesn’t apply to the Mixed Quad races, though, where the time for all four riders counts.
The rules for Quad races are fairly simple; the fastest team wins, with the clock stopping after the third rider of each quartet crosses the finishing line. This three-out-of-four rule provides a bit of leeway in the event of punctures, mechanical failures and riders simply being dropped. It doesn’t apply to the Mixed Quad races, though, where the time for all four riders counts.
While the Sports categories might have had bigger participatory numbers, the Elite events were the de facto national championships and so featured a who’s who of Singapore’s best cyclists. The blue ribbon Men’s Elite Open Quad provided a cracker of a contest, where the top two teams were separated by less than seven seconds. Emerging as the champions was the star-studded squad from Cycleworx who, led by two-time reigning Singapore national champ and current pro rider Goh Choon Huat, recorded a time of 40 minutes and 37 seconds. The popular “Ah Huat” was joined by SEA Games gold medal hero Calvin Sim, SEA Games bronze medalist Elyas Yusoff and former national rider Ang Kee Meng. Their average speed was 47.6 kph!
Second place went to the quartet from Matador Racing of Romain Barber, Thomas Thrall, Ben Farnsworth and Colin Mitchell, who pushed the Cycleworx boys all the way, as the seven-second gap testifies. Rounding out the podium were the Specialized Roval Mavericks four of Bastian Dohling, Ben Arnott, Wilfred Diepeveen and Victor Michel.
The Women’s Elite Open Quad title went to Matador Racing in a time of 51:04. This gave Anna Symms, Carmela Pearson, Dionne Wang and Christina Liew a comfortable winning margin over the runner’s-up from Not My Boyfriend’s Team (Lizzie Hodges, Nicole Rondy, Laurence Buelens and Gaelle Mogabure). The Anza Cycling fouresome of Stephanie Lim, Nicolette Tan, Paulina Svoboda and Michelle Cordon rounded out the podium in third.
Second place went to the quartet from Matador Racing of Romain Barber, Thomas Thrall, Ben Farnsworth and Colin Mitchell, who pushed the Cycleworx boys all the way, as the seven-second gap testifies. Rounding out the podium were the Specialized Roval Mavericks four of Bastian Dohling, Ben Arnott, Wilfred Diepeveen and Victor Michel.
The Women’s Elite Open Quad title went to Matador Racing in a time of 51:04. This gave Anna Symms, Carmela Pearson, Dionne Wang and Christina Liew a comfortable winning margin over the runner’s-up from Not My Boyfriend’s Team (Lizzie Hodges, Nicole Rondy, Laurence Buelens and Gaelle Mogabure). The Anza Cycling fouresome of Stephanie Lim, Nicolette Tan, Paulina Svoboda and Michelle Cordon rounded out the podium in third.
The Men’s Elite Masters Quad race featured quite a few very fast but also a number of relatively young riders after the age limit for Masters was lowered to 30 from the traditional 35. The prevailing feeling within the community seems to be that if the age limit needed changing, it should have gone up to 40, not down to 30.
However, leading the winning 4T2 team to victory on Sunday was a real master, the 46-year-old time-trial strongman Mark Jansen. He and his 4T2 cohorts Dave Barr, Alex Wiseman and Anand Chandran put up a winning time of 43:04, which was 17 seconds faster than the runner’s-up Kelvin Khoo, Varian Tan, Woon Lip Teo and Jason Yeo of Cycleworx. Third place again went to the Specialized Roval Mavericks in the shape of Nick Swallow, Rick Dumpleton, Chris Taylor and Jonathan Hooper.
The Mixed Open Quad rounded out the Elite action, with the team from the Smashers successfully defending the title for BikeLabz Racing. The quartet of Brian Johnsen, Poon Chung Kiat, Lucas Lee and Chelsea Tan recorded a super-speedy split of 44:10, which would have been good enough for fifth in the Men’s Elite and third in the Men’s Masters races. The BikeLabz quartet certainly lived up to their name as they smashed the opposition, with the second placed team from TWC Racing (Ling Er Choo, Firoz Loh, Shu Hong Lim and Luqmanul Hakim) finishing over two minutes back. Rounding out the Elite Mixed podium was the 4T2 Pick n Mix team of Marc Tzivelekas, Stella He, Stefan Nilsson and Andrew Brown.
However, leading the winning 4T2 team to victory on Sunday was a real master, the 46-year-old time-trial strongman Mark Jansen. He and his 4T2 cohorts Dave Barr, Alex Wiseman and Anand Chandran put up a winning time of 43:04, which was 17 seconds faster than the runner’s-up Kelvin Khoo, Varian Tan, Woon Lip Teo and Jason Yeo of Cycleworx. Third place again went to the Specialized Roval Mavericks in the shape of Nick Swallow, Rick Dumpleton, Chris Taylor and Jonathan Hooper.
The Mixed Open Quad rounded out the Elite action, with the team from the Smashers successfully defending the title for BikeLabz Racing. The quartet of Brian Johnsen, Poon Chung Kiat, Lucas Lee and Chelsea Tan recorded a super-speedy split of 44:10, which would have been good enough for fifth in the Men’s Elite and third in the Men’s Masters races. The BikeLabz quartet certainly lived up to their name as they smashed the opposition, with the second placed team from TWC Racing (Ling Er Choo, Firoz Loh, Shu Hong Lim and Luqmanul Hakim) finishing over two minutes back. Rounding out the Elite Mixed podium was the 4T2 Pick n Mix team of Marc Tzivelekas, Stella He, Stefan Nilsson and Andrew Brown.
With the quads done and dusted by mid-morning, the Duos took centre stage. Ahead for all the pairs lay two laps of the circuit, for a total distance of roughly 21.5km. Both riders had to finish to record a time. The wind for the first part of the morning could be best described as a swirling cross winds, which meant there wasn’t too big a difference in the rolling speeds for both directions of the course. But the wind direction began to subtly switch as the day progressed, and by the time the pairs hit the course, they faced a punishing wall of headwind on the outward leg, but a roaring tailwind on the way back.
The Juniors rolled off first. They were separated into Junior B (for 13-16 year olds) and Junior A (for 17-18 year olds) … and never shall the two mix. The Junior B champs were the Integrated Riding pair of Lee Ashton and Jude Lee Pillai in an impressive time of 34:43. This gave them a 75-second winning margin over the runner’s-up Mohammed Ismail and Abdul Johari of the Harding Juniors, with Jake Reynolds and Luka Cherriman (Anza Cycling) in third.
The Junior A picture was a bit more complicated, though, as neither of the two fastest teams were eligible to win … because one rider from each of their pairs was too young! With the Junior races classified as part of the Elite side of the action, the strict UCI rules were enforced. These state that riders from Junior B can’t step up to Junior A, even if they are clearly fast enough. The riders affected were made aware of the situation before they started and so there was no finish-line disappointment for them. They were just glad to be at least allowed to complete the course under race conditions, but surely there has to be common sense applied in situations like this.
The Juniors rolled off first. They were separated into Junior B (for 13-16 year olds) and Junior A (for 17-18 year olds) … and never shall the two mix. The Junior B champs were the Integrated Riding pair of Lee Ashton and Jude Lee Pillai in an impressive time of 34:43. This gave them a 75-second winning margin over the runner’s-up Mohammed Ismail and Abdul Johari of the Harding Juniors, with Jake Reynolds and Luka Cherriman (Anza Cycling) in third.
The Junior A picture was a bit more complicated, though, as neither of the two fastest teams were eligible to win … because one rider from each of their pairs was too young! With the Junior races classified as part of the Elite side of the action, the strict UCI rules were enforced. These state that riders from Junior B can’t step up to Junior A, even if they are clearly fast enough. The riders affected were made aware of the situation before they started and so there was no finish-line disappointment for them. They were just glad to be at least allowed to complete the course under race conditions, but surely there has to be common sense applied in situations like this.
Singapore isn’t exactly beating away hordes of youngsters taking up competitive cycling. So if within the small pool of Junior riders that exists here there are friends and teammates that want to race with each other, they should be allowed to even if they fall on different sides of the dividing line. The younger riders are gaining no advantage by stepping up an age group, so what’s the problem?
The official winners of the Junior A race were Jared Wong and Henry Wong from the YBCO Bike Aid Racing Juniors with a time of 33:00. Second place went to Justin Lim and Jyvan Neo of Integrated Riding, with the all-female Cycleworx pair of
Elizabeth Liau and Ashely Jenna Lui in third.
More than half of the riders competing in the Men’s Elite Open Duo race had also taken part in a Quad race earlier, a state of affairs that would surely have given an advantage to the pairs that were riding on fresh legs. Not so.
The official winners of the Junior A race were Jared Wong and Henry Wong from the YBCO Bike Aid Racing Juniors with a time of 33:00. Second place went to Justin Lim and Jyvan Neo of Integrated Riding, with the all-female Cycleworx pair of
Elizabeth Liau and Ashely Jenna Lui in third.
More than half of the riders competing in the Men’s Elite Open Duo race had also taken part in a Quad race earlier, a state of affairs that would surely have given an advantage to the pairs that were riding on fresh legs. Not so.
Having just missed out on the gold medal in the Quad, the Matador Racing pair of Thomas Thrall and Romain Barber made amends by taking a clear victory in the Elite Duo. Their time of 27:46 represented an impressive average speed of 46.4 kph and was almost 40 seconds faster than the second-placed team of Bastian Dohling and Ben Arnott (Specialized Roval Mavericks), who had also raced and podiumed in the Elite Quad. Rounding out the podium were the Integrated Riding team of Andrew Philippou and Tom Webster.
The Men’s Elite Masters Duo field was also mostly made up of riders who had raced a quad earlier, and the title went to a pair of them; Ben Farnsworth and Michael Naert of Matador Racing. Their winning split of 28:54 gave them victory by 43 seconds from the fresh-legged twosome of Ganesan Elangovan and Gabriel Tan (Chindian BikeLabz). The final step on the podium went to Nick Swallow and Rick Dumpleton, the second bronze medal of the day for the Specialized Roval Mavericks riders.
The 2019 Women’s Elite Open Duo champions were Elaine Young and Ling Er Choo (Canyon Shero). Their time was a pretty decent 32:30 and both had raced a quad, but alas their win was uncontested. Maybe they sacred the opposition away. Still, it was a great day in terms of total female participatory numbers across all disciplines, with eight women’s quad teams, 19 mixed quad teams, 14 mixed duo teams and of course the Canyon girls in the Elite Duo.
The Men’s Elite Masters Duo field was also mostly made up of riders who had raced a quad earlier, and the title went to a pair of them; Ben Farnsworth and Michael Naert of Matador Racing. Their winning split of 28:54 gave them victory by 43 seconds from the fresh-legged twosome of Ganesan Elangovan and Gabriel Tan (Chindian BikeLabz). The final step on the podium went to Nick Swallow and Rick Dumpleton, the second bronze medal of the day for the Specialized Roval Mavericks riders.
The 2019 Women’s Elite Open Duo champions were Elaine Young and Ling Er Choo (Canyon Shero). Their time was a pretty decent 32:30 and both had raced a quad, but alas their win was uncontested. Maybe they sacred the opposition away. Still, it was a great day in terms of total female participatory numbers across all disciplines, with eight women’s quad teams, 19 mixed quad teams, 14 mixed duo teams and of course the Canyon girls in the Elite Duo.
Seven of those mixed duo teams were contesting the final Elite title of the day, and the prize for the Elite Mixed Duo again went to Matador Racing, with Colin Mitchell and Dione Wang teaming up to take the win. That meant two gold medals for Wang on the day and a gold and a silver for Mitchell. Their winning time was 32:11 which was 21 seconds faster than the runner’s-up Yiwei Luo and Brandon Tung. Isabelle Tan and Bin Chye Tan of team TBC rounded out the podium in third.
For the riders who rode in the Sports categories, we apologise that we have no room in this article to write a summary for each of your races. Full results of all the races can be found, though, by clicking on this link to the Cycosports website.
But we think one Sports team deserves a special mention, the Quadzilla foursome of Vanessa Lodge, Nathalie Anderson, Elaine Young and Elvia Suryadi that took the Women’s Sport Quad title with a mark of 49:26. While the ladies were admittedly all aboard super-sleek and “illegal” triathlon bikes, their time was over 90 seconds faster than that set by the winners in the Women’s Elite Quad race. This was the only category where the Sports champions went faster than their counterparts in the Elites.
For the riders who rode in the Sports categories, we apologise that we have no room in this article to write a summary for each of your races. Full results of all the races can be found, though, by clicking on this link to the Cycosports website.
But we think one Sports team deserves a special mention, the Quadzilla foursome of Vanessa Lodge, Nathalie Anderson, Elaine Young and Elvia Suryadi that took the Women’s Sport Quad title with a mark of 49:26. While the ladies were admittedly all aboard super-sleek and “illegal” triathlon bikes, their time was over 90 seconds faster than that set by the winners in the Women’s Elite Quad race. This was the only category where the Sports champions went faster than their counterparts in the Elites.
The 2019 OCBC Cycle TTT Championship was a resounding success and Cycosports, the SCF, the commissaries, the volunteers, and the police and paramedics should all receive a huge round of collective applause from the cycling community … but like most things in life, it wasn’t perfect.
Here is what we hope the organisers/cycling authorities will accept as some constructive feedback:
To get back on a more positive note, after a fairly barren year for road racing so far, the TTT champs are followed up immediately this coming weekend with 2019 OCBC Cycle, which in addition to the non-competitive mass-participation sportive events on the Sunday, also includes the hugely entertaining OCBC Speedway Challenge on Saturday. We'll be there to cover the Speedway Challenge, which sees 15 of Singapore's cycling clubs take each other in a team relay criterium format at the National Stadium. It's a highly recommended spectator event too. Go to www.ocbccycle.com for full details.
Thanks to the Singapore Cycling Federation for supplying most of the images that illustrate this article.
Here is what we hope the organisers/cycling authorities will accept as some constructive feedback:
- Tweak the Mixed Quad rules. It seems a bit unfair that all four riders have to finish in order to record a time whereas single-sex teams only need three riders over the line. The rule’s design is to make sure that the time for (the usually single) female member of each Mixed team is counted. But the rule could easily be three-out-of-four with the provision that one of the three has to be a woman. At least then the teams wouldn’t be punished if one of the men has a race-ending mechanical problem.
- Allow Junior B riders to team up with Junior A riders. Change the status of the Junior races from Elite to Sports if this is the only way round the UCI rules. We’re sure the kids wouldn’t mind, they just want to race and a fair chance to win.
- Consider changes to what constitutes a Masters team in terms of age. Raise the age limit to 40 or perhaps look to Australia for a great example of what could be done. There, they have Masters combined-age categories of 150+ and 190+. If the Aussies can bend the UCI rules, then why not here in Singapore too?
- The SCF and their commissaries do a fantastic job of officiating at the few races we have in Singapore, but perhaps on occasion a bit of flexibility and common sense with regard to the rules needs to be applied, not to mention consistency. In addition to the Juniors situation, how can it be that some bikes were passed as legal for the quad race on Sunday only to find out 90 minutes later that there was a problem with the same bikes for the duo races? The specific matter we’re pertaining to is minor, it concerns the pieces of masking tape that most riders with disc wheels use to cover the section cut out of the solid wheel to allow access to the inner tube valve, but it's annoying for riders to be told of an infraction as they enter the start pen. It seems a cover for this cutout (be that tape, a sticker or made from other materials) is legal if it has been supplied by the wheel manufacturer, but illegal if it’s just a plain bit of black tape. No matter how non-sensical this UCI rule might appear, the local commissaries are within their rights to enforce it … but why would they bother? There is no advantage to be gained from plain tape versus branded. And why was this rule suddenly enforced half way through the race day? This disc wheel cutout ruling definitely hasn't been enforced at SCF events in recent years either, although other unforeseen strange rulings have occured at national champs meetings, such as in 2017 when shoes covers were all of a sudden banned; they were allowed again this year.
To get back on a more positive note, after a fairly barren year for road racing so far, the TTT champs are followed up immediately this coming weekend with 2019 OCBC Cycle, which in addition to the non-competitive mass-participation sportive events on the Sunday, also includes the hugely entertaining OCBC Speedway Challenge on Saturday. We'll be there to cover the Speedway Challenge, which sees 15 of Singapore's cycling clubs take each other in a team relay criterium format at the National Stadium. It's a highly recommended spectator event too. Go to www.ocbccycle.com for full details.
Thanks to the Singapore Cycling Federation for supplying most of the images that illustrate this article.