The two community ride categories at OCBC Cycle 2018 took place early yesterday morning at the Singapore Sports Hub. 

These had been the Sportive Ride, which is 40.8km long and the Straits Times Ride, which had a distance of 23km. A total of 6,500 riders took to the roads, beginning their rides on the Nicoll Highway and ending inside the iconic National Stadium.

Out of these, one in five participants took part on MoBikes, in a first of its kind collaboration with the bike sharing platform, to allow participants to use the bike rent-free over the weekend.

Photo credit: OCBC Cycle

One cyclist who took part on a MoBike, had been Honey Abangan, who said, “It’s my first time participating in the OCBC Cycle with my company. As the MoBike is such a convenient option for my colleagues and I who do not own a bicycle, it made the decision to participate much easier for us. It has been a wonderful experience so far and I am definitely coming back next year.”

As for me, I had taken part in the Sportive Ride, which had flagged off at 5.15am yesterday morning. I owned my own road bicycle, so I didn’t see the need to try out a MoBike for the ride. 

Despite having had only a couple of hours’ sleep last night due to soaking up the festivities at the STAR WARS™ RUN, I still made the effort to drag myself out of bed at about 3.15am, so that I would not miss the starting time.

Just after 4am, I hopped onto my bike and slowly cycled to the race site, reaching the Sports Hub just before 4.30am. The starting pen was already beginning to open and there was already a crowd congregating to get inside, so I quickly made my way straight to the Corral C, which was my assigned corral, and fortunately managed to snag a place near the front.

After some hype and ride safety reminders by the event emcees, the first wave, the elite wave, was flagged off punctually at 5.15am.

Photo credit: OCBC Cycle

The flag off party had included the event’s guests of honour, Lim Teck Yin, Chief Executive Officer at Sport Singapore, as well as Dr Hing Siong Chen, the President of Singapore Cycling Federation.

My wave had been eventually sent off at 5.38am. This wait had been still bearable and not too bad for me.

However another rider, Gino Delaere, 48 and working in asset management, had to wait an hour to flag off though. He said, “The one hour queue before I began my ride was not fun at all.”

William Mitchell, 25, an R&B engineer, also had some issues with the delay in flag off times. He said, “I think the organisers need more clarity on the flag off times. They have so many waves. When I arrived, Pen A was in the process of flagging off and I had to wait for all the other flag offs before mine. Knowing that you will be setting off half an hour later means that you do not need to wake up so early.”

The Sportive Ride route this year had been a bit different to last year’s edition. For 2018, the route passed iconic landmarks such as the F1 Pit Building, Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands, as well as having the chance to ride along the West Coast Highway past Harbourfront and the Pasir Panjang Terminal.

Most events do not really feature the West Coast Highway as part of their routes, be it running or cycling, so the opportunity to head to this part of Singapore was definitely quite exciting for me. I used the chance to soak in the sights and sounds of the western end of Singapore as I slowly rode.

However I thought the West Coast segment also, was a rather hilly and quite a loopy part of the route too, with riders being sent out and turning back several times along the way. So this meant that we had encountered the same scenery twice.

Agreed Gino, “There were a lot of turns, so we would go one way, turn, and then go back the other way. It would have been more amazing to continue to cycle and do one big loop rather than having so many turns; making turns can also be quite dangerous.”

And added Elmer Loberiano, 45, an equipment engineer, “The route had been great and I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of turns compared to last year though; it was a more technical ride. And the downhills, especially when we went down the flyover, was quite fun. The toughest part was when we had to ride through the tunnel against the wind.”

As the West Coast Highway segment had been the first part of the cycling route while we were still in complete darkness, this had still whizzed by all too quickly and before I knew it, we were back at the central area, en route to the East Coast Parkway.

Throughout the ride though, I felt that the volunteers were doing a great job, as there were people stationed at every u-turn point, corner and steep downhill slopes along the route, to warn riders that there was something ahead and that they needed to slow down. They used loudspeakers too to get their point across, to ensure that no rider missed out hearing the message. 

As well, bike mechanics, ambulances and medics were also deployed throughout; in fact, I spotted an ambulance making its way towards the Sports Hub about an hour before the event flag-off, when I had been riding to the venue.

Agreed Gino, “There were volunteers regularly throughout the route so you feel completely safe when something happens. There were always people around. It’s very well organised and you don’t need to worry about accidents or problems at all.”

For hydration, the route had a couple of hydration points, one at Pasir Panjang Terminal and the other at the Gardens by the Bay. For a short ride of 40km, I did not really need hydration but other riders who took the drinks, felt that the hydration was good.

Said Gino, “I did get one drink along the way, it was 100PLUS and was nice and cold.”

As I had continued my ride through the city, I thought that it was quite amazing to cycle along the roads and highways without having to worry about dangerous traffic for a change. Though I taken part in the OCBC Cycle event every year, this feeling of doing so, is always rather shiok. 

So I had chosen to take the ride easy rather than pushing hard, to simply enjoy myself, soak up everything, and take full advantage of the closed roads.

Agreed William, “The cycling was the best bit of the journey. We got to ride around quite a bit of Singapore without any traffic lights or cars on the road so we were able to completely ride by ourselves.

He added, “The route going past the F1 Pit Building and the pit straight were nice. I also enjoyed the first few corners and I got a good view of Singapore from the top of the Benjamin Sheares Bridge; it was nice to get the chance to go up there without worrying about anything.”

We had to do Sheares Bridge twice; once around the 30km point and then again a few kilometres later. I stopped to take a photo at the top of the Bridge, which had been one of the designated selfie points along the Sportive Ride route. 

I always love the view from the top, as it feels like it represents postcard-perfect Singapore, complete with the Singapore Flyer and the F1 Pit Building in the background.

It was also when I had been somewhere around the Sheares Bridge that the sun rose and the view from the top was stunning. Unfortunately I felt that my phone camera could not really do justice to the sheer colours and majesty of this lovely occurrence of nature, though.

Agreed Gino, “My most memorable moment was this sunrise. It was fantastic and a lot of people stopped to take pictures. I think I got some good ones. The fact that you begin riding when it is dark and gradually the sun rises, the whole process is amazing.”

After conquering the Sheares Bridge for the second time, we cycled past the Nicoll Highway; I was just in time to catch the flag off for the 23km Straits Times Ride and it was quite nice to see the eager and happy faces of the riders ready to begin their journey, clad in their red tee shirts, while mine was ending soon.

The last segment of the route brought us towards the Sports Hub and right into the National Stadium where we ended our ride on the track.

I always like this part of the ride because it always feels quite special to be riding into the iconic stadium, but it would be nice if the route had involved us riding around the complete 400m of the track instead of just a short segment of about 100m or so. 

The emcees had also greeted riders as they crossed the line into the stadium in a bid to create some event atmosphere, though it may have been nicer to have cheering spectators or cheerleaders to welcome us in, as well!

After completing the ride, I collected my finisher entitlements, which were a medal, cans of 100PLUS and a bottle of water and then after taking a few photos inside the stadium area, I headed outside to the race carnival to have a look around.

There were a few different booths present. Riders could refuel themselves with the apples and bananas that were being given out, or could take photos with the giant inflatable bikes or the cardboard cutouts of, for example, the Sports Hub, that were stationed around the carnival area.

Also, there was an official photo booth and a couple of cycling related games for riders to participate in.

As a media guest, I was also invited to the VIP lounge where there had been a catered buffet breakfast waiting for guests to replenish their energy post-ride. The food available had included items such as roti prata, rendang chicken and nasi lemak.

Snacks such as Twisties, Pringles and Chips Ahoy were available too, as well as coffee and tea, 100PLUS and mineral water in the lounge.

Before leaving the Sports Hub, I also decided to drop by the OCBC Cycle weekend market to see if there had been any good deals around from some of the top cycling and sports brands. Though I had picked up a couple of giveaways such as a digital luggage weighing scale, I did not make any purchases.

Overall though, I would say that I’d had a great time at OCBC Cycle 2018 and I am already looking forward to next year’s event.

Other riders also feel the same way; said Elmer, “As there are not many chances to ride on closed roads in Singapore, I always enjoy taking part in OCBC Cycle. This time round though I was going for timing so I didn’t really stop along the way.”

Added William, “Riding on closed roads is already very good. I am a great believer that bicycles can do a lot to help society here; anything to encourage more people to get on bikes, to improve accessibility and make people realise that they can cycle as a form of commuting in their daily lives.”

This year, the Sportive Ride had also played host to a new competitive category, the Corporate Chase, where a total of 23 teams from 18 companies vied for the top cash prize of $400 and the coveted Champions Jersey. With the teams lined up at the first wave of the Sportive Ride, The race format saw each team of four cyclists completing the 40.8km route to clock a combined net time, with the fastest team becoming champions.

Winning the inaugural Corporate Chase was the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), who had cruised to an easy victory. Their combined net time was 4:04:19.370 hours, which was more than 10 minutes faster than their nearest competitor, Micro Devices. Rounding off the top three was GlaxoSmithKline, finishing in 4:20:35.270 hours.

Said SCDF’s Mohammed Harith, “It feels awesome for our team to have finished first in the OCBC Cycle Corporate Chase. We have been preparing for a few months prior to this ride and all the hard work during the morning and night trainings have finally paid off. Everything went as planned during the ride and we are just happy to be able to finish it well. It is also an absolutely surreal experience to get to ride on the highways which are not usually open for cyclists.”

At OCBC Cycle, companies also played their part in giving back to the less fortunate through The Business Times Cycle of Hope, which saw 130 employees from seven companies take part in either The Straits Times Ride or the Sportive Ride. 

Half of their registration fee had been donated to one of the four beneficiaries – the Business Times Budding Artists Fund, the TODAY Enable Fund, SportsCares and the NUHS Fund Limited. In total, S$15,000 was raised.

And eight participants overcame their fear of cycling yesterday morning too, successfully completing the 23km Straits Times Ride. 

They had been part of OCBC Cycle’s Project Training Wheels, a programme which provides free cycling lessons to adults who do not know how to ride a bike. The participants had been nominated by their friends and family members and underwent three training sessions prior to the ride.

Josephine Poh was one of the participants. She said, “For someone who did not know how to balance on a bike initially, I am surprised that I completed a 23km journey at the Straits Times Ride. It feels amazing as I never thought I could cycle, and what more, at the largest cycling event in Singapore. It is such a rare opportunity to go up the Sheares Bridge without my car and I enjoyed the scenery as well as the breeze.”

Photo credit: OCBC Cycle

44 youths with special needs were also given the chance to demonstrate their newly acquired cycling skills from OCBC Cycle’s Teach a Special Needs Youth to Cycle initiative, which had taken place in conjunction with the Mighty Savers® Kids and Family Ride category, last Saturday evening.

These included 36 youths from the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore and SG Enable Pte Ltd. There were eight youths from Hong Kong’s Spastic Association of Hong Kong, too.

Said Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, patron of TODAY Enable Fund and guest of honour, “It is a joy to witness special needs youths from Singapore and Hong Kong realise their ability to cycle, alongside volunteers from OCBC and staff of TODAY. OCBC Cycle has provided an opportunity for them to learn a new skill and experience being part of a large community cycling event.”

Photo credit: OCBC Cycle

Altogether, close to 300 children aged between two to twelve years old had taken part in the Mighty Savers® Kids and Family Ride category, riding along the OCBC Speedway route with their parents in tow.

As a whole, the guests of honour at OCBC Cycle are heartened by the success of the 2018 edition of OCBC Cycle, in terms of the positive turnout of OCBC Cycle and the growing reputation of the cycling event.

And in fact, just like William, they too, are eager to see Singapore one day embracing cycling as a form of transport and commuting, just like in world renowned cycling cities such as Amsterdam, and others in the Netherlands.

Said Dr Hing, “As Singapore heads toward a car-lite society, bicycles and other transport modes are gaining popularity. Over the years, OCBC Cycle has promoted cycling in Singapore as a community sport by encouraging all levels of participation. As such, interest has grown exponentially in the past few years and I expect it to continue growing.”

His thoughts were echoed by Lim, who said, “I think the cycling community in Singapore is growing very quickly and an event such as the OCBC Cycle brings together and acknowledges the entire community.”