Last Sunday, there were two bike events held in Batam, they are Nongsa Challenge 2017 and Air Raja Island Fun Bike. Both are cycling events, but Nongsa Challenge is more on race event, while Air Raja Island Fun Bike is a cycling tour event that aims to introduce biking tourism on Air Raja Island.
Held by Local Government and Cycling Community
Air Raja Island Fun Bike is the result of work between local government of Air Raja Island, Mr Rizal Lesmana, S.Pd.lng.MM and and Rumah Sepeda Sukajadi Batam.
The people of Air Raja Island welcomed this event with great enthusiasm, because they also want Air Raja Island participate to become one of the tourism destination in Batam.
This event was actually held twice last week, on August 23rd as a pre-event and August 27th as the main event.
On the pre-event August 23rd, Teuku Wisnu (Indonesian Artist) also participate in cycling around Air Raja Island together with around 25 cyclist.
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Air Raja Island is still under Batam Government administrative, to be exact in Galang District. This island turns out to have interesting nature tourism potential. With its beautiful landscape contours and natural hills, Air Raja Island offers a challenging and fresh cycling track with lush trees along the way.
Trekking trails have been prepared in such a way for the participants Fun Bike. Starts from concrete trekking paths into the more challenging jungle path.
How to go to Air Raja Island
Air Raja Island located at southeast of Batam Island, about 15 minutes ride by speed boat from Punggur Port. To get here, we can go through Punggur Port or Piayu, but it is advisable to go through Punggur Port using pompong or speed boat.
The journey will take around 15 to 20 minutes using the pompong/speed boat and can take more time if using a large boat. Like last week, Enjoy Batam travel with cyclists by carrying hundreds of bicycles to the ship. By this boat, the journey takes about 40 minutes.
Air Raja Island Fun Bike
The event was opened with a Sekapur Sirih dance which is traditional dance from Melayu then followed by welcome speech from Galang Local Authority, Mr. Amri Amis, SPA and continue with committee chairman Mr Febrialin Razak. After that, the participants were headed to the start line located in front of the Air Raja authority office. Participant of Air Raja Island Fun Bike is about 120 cyclists from Batam, Singapore and even from Bangka Belitung Island.
Participant:
- The Real Mountain Bikers (RMB)
- Villa Muka Kuning Bikers (VMK Bikers)
- Gowes Bersama Sehat (GBS)
- BBC Garuda
- Bike To Work Batam
- Singapore Fatriders
- Bengkalis cyclist
- Pekanbaru cyclist
- BNI Batam
- BI Batam
First track is approximately 6 km consists of concrete paths with downhill and uphill along the path splitting Air Raja Island to the south coast of the island which is end up in first checkpoint. This path considered as a warming path with a track that is arguably still relaxing with a smooth concrete path and smooth to pass.
Continue from first checkpoint, cyclist then enter the most challenging path with enter the off-road track inside the forest. Next checkpoint located at the top of the hill at the west side of the island. From this hill, we can see Barelang Bridge on the other side.
Going to finish line, there is one steep downhill so must be extra careful. Excited for cycling? You must try to go out to Air Raja Island!
