Terengganu Young Riders

The young riders with their support team and some of the Malakoff riders (white & green jerseys)

...and after I asked for riders under 18 only

I've gone on, and on, and on about the young riders from Terengganu. Finally managed to find the pix of these young people, although not all of them.

When we set off from Gombak there were a few young riders with us as well including Rahimi who I've posted on earlier.

Once in Temerloh, Ishak joined the ride with a few young riders who had cycled from Kemaman the day before. I don't have pix of this team - if anyone does please email to malakoff.cr@gmail.com or post a link in the comments.

In Kemaman another group of young people joined us, with their own support team of parents in tow. They had found out about the ride through Ishak and the Kemaman Teachers' Cycling Club.

So on the final day, the Malakoff Charity Ride, numbered more than 120 riders, and had a much expanded support team too.

All these riders are under 18 years, most are between 12 to 16 years.

Not all of them are from loaded families but they have the interest and the passion to ride.

You know that they have been training hard from their tans which have gone past golden brown to the burnt to a crisp level.

And surprise, surprise a number of them are girls, and they were as fast as the boys, and a lot faster than most of the men aside from the pros (no offense to any of the male riders). Anyway this was a ride and not a race, so placign doesn't matter.

But back to the young people. Terengganu seems to be the place for raising professional riders.

Is there a cycling academy in Terengganu? Would anyone be interested to set one up there? If the parents of the young riders are an indication, it should be easy to get support for such an academy.

Kemaman Teachers' Cycling Club

The Kemamam Teachers' Cycling Club is a cycling club whose members comprise of ...surprise teachers from Kemaman. I had the pleasure of sitting next to one of the members of the club during the charity dinner at SMK Chukai.

The cycling club has been around for some years now. It was started by a this group of teachers when they realised that they were getting larger round the middle, and were not as fit as they had been in the past. After researching lots of different options, they decided on cycling as it was suitable for all ages being a low impact exercise.

Soon they were hooked and were pedalling on weekends.

From Ishak, I also found out that the Kemaman Teachers' Cycling Club is also active in encouraging young people in schools to take up cycling as a sport. They must be a positive force for cycling if the number of young riders in Kemaman is a gauge.

Here's a picture of 11 of them who joined the Malakoff Charity Ride for the last leg Kemaman to Kuala Terengganu.

The chairman of the Kemaman Teachers' Cycling Club is En Said Ahmad Shauffi - he's the one in the styling red polka-dot jersey. Speaking for the club, Said Ahmad hopes that more will be done to help young Terengganu cyclist.

He told me that it's part of the Terengganu culture to ride. The kids there love to ride, they have the stamina and the speed and are not afraid of the sun or of long hours of practice and training. The parents are supportive too, because they have seen the success of riders like Haidar.

Over the two days that I was in Kemaman and Kuala Terengganu, I saw many more riders than what I would expect. By riders, I mean that they had their bike helmet, jerseys etc, not just on a bike running errands.

However, Said Ahmad said that the cost of road bikes is a major barrier to more young people taking up the sport.

The young cyclists who joined for the Kemaman to Kuala Terengganu leg proved that the cycling is a part of the Terengganu culture bit was very true. They were zooming ahead at like 50km. It could be the training, their youth or the huge amounts of fish and ulam in their diet but they rocked!

The oldest member and rider who was participating on the day was Mr.Heh, who at 63 years proved to be dynamite.

Word to live by courtesy of SMK Chukai

The Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Chukai is a sekolah bestari or school for gifted(?). Only high achieving student from primary school are admitted. Students need to get 4As or 5As, out of the possible 5As available.

The walls of the Dewan Mercu (Main Hall) are adorned with buntings of the most recent high achievers, as well as pithy sayings. I only managed to capture 2 of these but there are more on the walls.

'Kebanyakan pelajar gagal bukan kerana BODOH, tetapi mereka gagal kerana melakukan KERJA BODOH'.

I'm now quoting this at my kids - if it works in Kemamam, it can work in KL.

Here's the other:
'Semua "A" bukan senang tetapi bukan mustahil'.

Another thing that I've noticed while driving around Terengganu. This is a state where education is emphasized from the top down. There are huge billboards everywhere celebrating the high standards or Terengganu's young people and students, as well as encouraging them to work harder and smarter academically.

Go Terengganu!

Terengganu - Humor Central of Malaysia

Folks in Terengganu have a highly developed sense of humour. The billboards, signboards and posters are just so out there.

I didn't manage to get photos of two of my favorites

'Mak Cik Gemuk 69' - saw this on a stretch to Kuala Terengganu where there are lots of keropok lekor and batik shops. Did not make this up.

Another killer was 'Keegoisman membawa padah'.

Please send pix of these two signboards if you can get them to malakoff.cr@gmail.com.

What does this mean 'Bau Asap Eeh?' Does it mean smell the smoke?

There are pix of a few inspirational posters from the main hall of Sekolah Menengah Cukai that are truly words to live by.