AMTA Insane Tour 2018

November 24, 2018

Decision

I went to Manila on the 1st week of November 2018 for a work-related travel.

I spent a week there without biking.

When I got back to Cebu, It was 2 weeks before the Insane tour.

I decided to ride my bike to work as a form of practice.

On top of that, I also did a 120-km ride with my team to Aloguinsan on the weekend.

The following week, I spent additional 3 days of practice, riding my bike to work.

It's now or next year they say.

My speed and endurance is still there so I think I could make it this year.

Tour Day

Then the day of the tour came, I slept and woke up early.

I joined my team for breakfast at Joel Cabreana's house.

· From Left: Arven Cañares, Me, Jonathan Sabal, Dennis Selmar and Allien Kho

We went to the Starting line together at the AMTA Station except for Romel Gulfan who is waiting in Liloan since he lived there.

We greeted our fellow bikers, signed the waiver and secured our individual race numbers.

Gun Start

Some had their normal and comfortable pace while our team "Red Barchetta" and Team "Maseratti" spearheaded by Abner Ramirez went on to a very fast start of 30-35kph.

Romel joined us in Liloan but unfortunately haven’t kept up with our fast pace.
He then decided to ride alone but our support motorcycle will support him as well.

Alex Geraldez together with Jacob and Paulo joined us heading North with Dondon Merto leading the pack.

Dondon decided to stop riding somewhere in Danao since he would be driving Team Maseratti’s Support vehicle.

1st Quadrant

My team arrived first in Bogo at exactly 8:00AM later followed by Team Maseratti who had breakfast in less than 15 minutes while we enjoyed a 30-minute breakfast rest.

We continued pedaling after the sumptuous meal. We tried to keep up with Team Maseratti but to no avail. They're nowhere to be found. They're fast and took a great lead ahead.

2nd Quadrant

We are now on the 2nd quadrant of the tour and arrived in Tabuelan in no time and continued with our usual fast pace until I felt like quitting when my legs cramped before Tuburan.

Our team captain also felt the same and decided for a quick rest which consumed us quite a time.

The sun was up and our motorcycle support ran out of water supply.

We had our lunch in Asturias around 11:30AM and Romel was still somewhere near Tuburan. Our motorcycle backup waited for him to supply his lunch.

Our support vehicle which is lead by our fellow AMTA Biker Joel Cabreana is already waiting at Buanoy Balamban together with his family members as crew. We got there past 12 noon.

Seeing our backup vehicle ahead was a relief. We were confident and felt secured since we are equipped with all the supplies we need.
I felt another leg pain and the support crew provided me Alaxan FR that served as my band aid.

We arrived past 3:00PM in Aloguinsan proper and took another 30-minute break. We had ourselves some ice cream and bread. I almost quit at this moment.

Romel Gulfan was still in Toledo and was adopted by Alex Geraldez' Team Mustang together with Jacob and Paulo Canonigo.

After some leg massage and cold ice cream, we started to battle the hills of Aloguinsan and arrived in Mantalungon at exactly 4:00PM.

We're half-way there. Should we turn right and continue or turn left and go home?.

Master's Team and Support vehicle lead by Fred Canonigo was already in Mantalungon as well as Bryan Lastimoso waiting for his troops, Team Mustang.

Team Maseratti arrived in Mantalungon at 2:00PM, they were not that fast but they never stop for rest.

3rd Quadrant

This is my 3rd insane tour.

I arrived in Mantalungon during my 1st tour way back 2016 at 10:00PM and quit. My 2nd tour last 2017 was with the same time. This time is 6 hours earlier than my usual. I was amazed.

We climbed Mantalungon to Barili with less pain than usual. We enjoyed the downhill all the way to Barili proper and pedaled the long flats going to Dumanjug.

We had another stop at Ronda for some snacks. It's almost dinner.
We arrived in Moalboal at 6pm however our support vehicle missed our instructions and moved further to Badian for dinner. We had dinner there at 6:30pm.

We changed our lycras and jerseys as well as our socks.

Refueled and now freshen up.
Time to go.

From time to time I kept on texting everyone on my loop for our updates. My family and the AMTA family as well.

We aimed to arrived in Santander at 10:00 be able to meet our 24-hour calculation to finish the tour but we arrived few hours late than scheduled and expected.

I almost quit somewhere South. I am very sleepy. I ran out of energy gels and almost consumed my electrolytes capsule.

We stopped at Ginatilan for a coffee break then off we went.

4th Quadrant

We were surprised by the news that Sandy Erediano of Team Maseratti crossed the finish line at 1:39AM. He was the Champion again.

Rubas and Abski followed at 2:14AM.

This is a one-way road towards the finish line.

We might not make it by 4:00AM but at least arrived earlier than the rest.

We stopped again in Oslob for some refreshments and I make use of the time to use 7/11's toilet.

Allien offered me 1 of his energy gel and 1 sachet of black coffee. He instructed me to eat it raw whenever I'm sleepy. It worked so well.

We're speeding around 25-30kph. We can no longer feel the road elevation due to darkness.

We're all spent and took another rest at Argao around 3:00AM and arrived at Carcar by 4:00AM.

Our speed from Argao to Carcar was very fast and drained us so well upon arriving to a roadside bakeshop in Carcar proper that pushed us to for a quick rest again.

Allien's stomach was upset and decided to move ahead. The team agreed.

Our speed from Carcar going to Naga was ridiculously very slow. Around 15kph I think.

We battled kilometer per kilometer and it was hell of a struggle.

The FINISH LINE

Arriving at Naga proper was a great relief.

It was few minutes past 5:00AM.

I texted my brother Paul and AMTA President Sir Chu of our whereabouts and he decided to meet us in the finish line.

I lead the peloton and decided to increased the speed to 30kph so we could arrived around 5:30AM.

Allien crossed the finish line at 3rd place at 5:10AM