Biking in the the Phillines, a different perspective.
 

I did 125 miles between Christmas - NY's - BTW its 2008 here, US has 3 more hrs to go.

Did a lot of scenic routes in the mountains. Since it is rainy season, it gets sloppy if the road is not paved. Crossed over a mountain were they were putting in concrete in the upper altitude (2400 feet).

We passed a few Military checkpoints but they are only operational in the evening.

Road hazards include: (Close to were I biked):

1) Here's were the construction started
2) sloppy road, woman surprised I- we were there?
3) beautiful but wild country.


This in this mornings headlines:
Philippine communists burn road building equipment: military
Communist insurgents raided a construction site in the Philippines, burning equipment being used to build a road in a rural area of the Philippines, a military official said Saturday.
The raid by the New People's Army (NPA) on December 26 followed a two-day Christmas truce on December 24 and 25.
About 20 NPA rebels burned a bunk house, a road compactor and a grader after the town mayor refused their extortion demands, said regional military spokesman Major Randolph Cabangbang.
He accused the rebels of extorting money 'at the expense of the people who would have benefitted from the project'.
The military earlier declared a unilateral three-week holiday ceasefire, starting on December 16 but the 6,000-strong Maoist guerrilla movement said their ceasefire would only last from December 24 to 25 and December 31 to January 1.
President Gloria Arroyo wants the NPA, which has been waging a low-level armed campaign since March 1969, to be defeated in key provinces around Manila when her six-year term ends in June 2010.

By the look of that "Road"- you need a cyclocross or treaded armadillos to ride that. Take it that the bikes are not Fragile C.F. then.

We have a few Gentle trails round here and I have occasionally taken the OCR on them but that is cycling to the extreme- taken the bikes being used. But have to admit that the OCR took the hills very well. Just a pity that I didn't.

It was a cross, my kona 'jake the snake' with gator skins.. I usually take 2 bikes, my lemond sarthe (triple) for good sections, Kona for rough.

I have a madone but don't ride it much. Most locals have carbon but heavy wheelsets. Fraid of wheel damage, not frame damage.
The road before this section is often compared to 'alps de huez' (sp?) in the local books. I barely made it on my triple. I don't know how them pro's do that:o