Earlier this year, I asked my friend Mario if he had any rides planned for one Sunday morning, and he said he was going to Daang Reyna to join his cycling club VPx for training. I was welcome to come along.
Prior to that, it had been a while since I last visited Daang Reyna. This road on the outskirts of Muntinlupa – connecting Daang Hari road to Bacoor, Cavite with Victoria Avenue bound to San Pedro, Laguna – is perhaps best known for the glass-domed Palazzo Verde garden wedding venue (nee Fernbrook Gardens), but it is also a popular mecca for cyclists.
Daang Reyna is book-ended by a gasoline station, the Evia residential/commercial development, the three-way MCX entrance rotunda, and Palazzo Verde at one end, and a much smaller circular rotunda at the other, referred to as the “Lollipop.” A single lap going out and back is 4.7 km long, making it a more southerly alternative training spot to the SM Mall of Asia seaside road loop in Pasay City. Unlike that place, which is pancake-flat, Daang Reyna has a slight uphill grade going to the Lollipop, which becomes a slightly downhill false flat on the way back.
While there is a freedom to relish in riding solo, I feel like I may have been riding solo for far too long. That initial invite has extended for a few more weeks as of this writing, and I have slowly seen the benefits – which are only maximized by the fact that most of the VPx cyclists I’ve ridden with are far stronger than I am. It is refreshing to not be the strongest rider in a group.
the accidental randonneur 