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| Filinvest City, Alabang, Muntinlupa City |
After a month’s hiatus due to a very busy November, I’ve been on top of the pedal again on Saturday for bike ride. Too bad though, I missed all the happenings during a much-anticipated National Bike Month due to a hectic work schedule and sickness.
What did I miss? Well, I missed two succeeding bicycle expos on two consecutive weekends. First was the iCycle 2016: Ride Pilipinas at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, and second was the PhilBike Expo at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia. I had a terrible case of peptic acid disease for three weeks. I also missed National Bicycle Day on November 27 because I had to attend a godchild’s baptism.
But what did I do during those weeks I haven’t been behind Red’s handlebars?
A lot. Apparently, the Supreme Court had the guts to uphold the constitutionality of President Rodrigo Duterte’s order of burying former dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. And within 10 days of that, the Marcos family surreptitiously buried their patriarch at the heroes’ cemetery.
To cut to the chase, aside from a constantly aching tummy and a frantic work itinerary, what kept me mostly busy on the weekends was attending to anti-Marcos rallies in Luneta and EDSA. I felt it’s my duty to join the rallies and voice out my disgust over the unjust Supreme Court ruling and hasty (if not clandestine) Marcos burial. There is a sense of purpose in being able to attend these protest actions and join forces with people who share the same ideals as me.
And in attending these rallies, I was able to come across a number of fellow cyclists who share the same political stance and standards as myself (see photo).
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| Fellow cyclist John Edrian Atendido, with his folding bike at the #SiklabBayan anti-Marcos protest in EDSA corner White Plains last Nov. 30, 2016. |
Anyway, December’s here and it seems that my work schedule has started to become less frenetic. Which is why on Saturday, I went back to my usual playground in Filinvest Alabang for a trail ride.
I made my way to the place via my usual shortcut at Pilar Village in Las Piñas City and tried some of the trails that I haven’t tried before when I got there. I also discovered that there was an event there last Sunday — the 2nd Philippine Bicycle Demo.
The event is sort of a test drive festival just like the ones that Auto Focus has been conducting for three years now in the car industry. I brought together some of the best cycling brands in one venue: Specialized, BMC, Norco, Trek, Ibis, Colnago, Felt, Santa Cruz, Lynskey, Giant, Pinarello, Cervelo, Rocky Mountain, BH Bikes, Silverback, Brompton, KTIM, Bambike, Tern, among others.
All you need are two valid IDs, your own cycling gear (helmets, bike shoes, knee pads, pedals for certain bicycles) to be able to try out the bikes.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to come to this demo. I will explain in a while.
As I said earlier, I tried some the trials at Filinvest Bike Trail which I haven’t tried before, particularly the trails along Pacific Rim Extension near The Levels and CommerceCenter. There is one particular trail that goes up a steep hill where the Ayala Alabang water catchment is located. Up there is one of the best views of Filinvest City. I took a couple of pictures and time lapses before I biked downhill.
I made my way back to the Playground trail near The Palms and was thrilled by the number of mountain bikers that were on the same trail as me. I was also finally able to get the proper shifting combination for uphill sections of the trail which made pedaling easier.
I was so caught up in the thrill of the moment that I wasn’t thinking about safety anymore. As I was about to go down from the trail at Parkway Avenue, I preempted a left turn which I was supposed to make once I reached the sidewalk. I made the turn while still on the slope of the trail at a fast pace, causing me to fall and hit my knee on bare ground. I wasn’t wearing knee pads and so I instantly felt the stinging pain of hard ground grinding the skin off my knee.
It bled a lot, but I immediately poured water on it and tried to abate the bleeding by putting a clean towel on the wound. It was quite a big gash which stretched from the base of my left knee to the middle of left leg. I even tried trying the towel with a race tag from Giro de Luca 2016, which was the only long and adhesive material that I can get my hands on, and then made my way to nearby Festival Mall.
The towel and the race tag didn’t hold that quite long, and so I let the wound become exposed for a while as I made my way to Festival Mall. Once there, I quickly went inside an SM Savemore supermarket to buy first aid materials at Watsons to treat my wound. I cleaned it with Betadine solution and alcohol then dressed it with gauze.
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| My injured left leg, all cleaned and dress up. |
I rested for a few minutes before deciding that I should go back home because of my condition. My plan was to take the bike on a bus going to Las Piñas City, but the bus driver won’t let me. So I had no choice but to bike all the way back to our house in Cavite on the same route I used earlier.
My first bike ride after a month’s hiatus ended with my first serious bike injury. I’m just glad that it was only a gash on the knee and not a blow to the head or back. Looks like I’m gonna have to wait for this leg to heal first before going back on top of the wheels.
Always remember folks, safety first when biking!
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