Malaysia

Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized

Hello Readers

I have not been neglecting you, I have been out of the country! Although I could have been blogging while on my trip, I wasn’t- for a variety of reasons but all closely linked to the central fact that I was basically just too tired to do so.  I guess I didn’t announce where I was going in my last post, so to fill you in I was racing the Jelajah Malaysia, April 19th-26th.

This race ended up being longer, harder, and hotter than I had anticipated, but as it was eight days long and covered over 1200km, it was excellent preperation for the events coming up here at home, and served as a quick and dirty way to get me right back on track following time off with my last injury.

However, it was HOT, as I believe I mentioned. Unrelentingly hot. 100-110 degrees with 90-95% humidity. HOT in other words. I don’t like the heat, in fact I loathe it and it cramps my style as well as my legs terribly. Actually I very rarely cramp, but the point is the legs don’t like it! In fact, the neccessity to better manage myself in hot weather was a deciding factor in why I moved down here to Georgia.

Faced with the conditions assaulting me each day upon leaving the air conditioned hotel cocoon, I had little choice but to man up and somehow get through it, and I must say that having done so, I think I am nearing a point where I can start performing at my best, if not better, in the hot races. One thing that really helped me with this was an awesome tip I got from Matty Rice. He claimed that keeping a jersey zipped up and constantly wet, preferably with cold water, is much cooler than keeping it open. The big man knows his stuff, and I hereby hand him my accolades and thanks on a nice cool silver platter. Managing your jersey in this way is akin to air conditioning for the core, as it cools air entering the jersey. Magic! Also, it saved me from exposing my unsightly and deathly pale British lineage present most prominently in the flesh and form of my chest. What a relief!

I would love to say that I have some great culture notes from the trip, but sadly I do not, having been bogged down in the mire of the stage race schedule. I began writing it out for you here, as I assume this might be interesting material, but in the aim of keeping entries shorter, I will save it for my next post. I will say, regarding the trip, that Malaysian people are some of the nicest and friendliest I have yet come across, and that this race was exceptional in its organization. For the next few days I will be getting my sleep back on track, eating a lot of nice healthy food to recoup some strength, and keeping the legs open with some long noodling around style rides.

Time for breakfast, catch you later!

Crane

Permalink | April 29th, 2009

2 Responses to “Malaysia”

  1. Todd Says:
    April 29th, 2009 at 9:36 am

    Matt, I saw the link to “stuff white people like,” and that is some of the craziest shit I’ve ever seen and I’m a brotha. It’s nice to see you have a sense of humor. Todd.

  2. Crazy fan in a cow hat Says:
    June 12th, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Ok – officially feeling neglected. Thank goodness Jelly Belly posted tons of videos recently so that we can all get our Matt Crane fix.

Leave a Reply