This ride was a rerun for me after failing in previous attempt (my first brevet ride) due to silly mistakes I did. To list some, not carrying stuff needed for long rides (not even a water bottle - resulted in myself almost fainting once due to thirst), not wearing proper cycling gear, riding a brand new bike (hardly ridden some 3 km before) for the longest and challenging ride till then, etc., I had to drop out when I got a flat after 195 km where I had only 35 minutes remaining to cover rest 10 kms.
To recall the experience then, I started around 0615 hrs, reached Magadi control by 0800 hrs, 'getting tired + 1 hr wastage to get back to normal' drama happened in Koppa - Maddur stretch, reached Maddur control by 1305 hrs and Chandrappa circle control by 1700 hrs, got back into Magadi road when it was getting dark, and the flat when reached Outer Ring Road (ORR),... I Had to brave rain for initial 30 min, mud road after Huliyurdurga, headwind in Maddur - Ramanagara stretch, a bad stretch after Chandrappa circle, and heavy traffic in Magadi road.
I set out for ride this time, along with Harikrishna, Nirmal and Vijay, around 0615 hrs. We struggled to get into Magadi road where we lost some time in asking people for way frequently, and rode around 4 km extra. In Magadi road, Nirmal and I gradually sped up. We rode together for rest of the ride. We reached Magadi control manned by Gokul and Mustafa, by 0819 hrs and had nice big idly with bonda for breakfast.
We resumed riding around 0845 hrs, maintained good pace, and reached Huliyurdurga around 1000 hrs. After a drinks break, we headed towards Koppa. Here, at a point where we had to turn left into a mud road, we got confused and rode straight for a km to confirm that we were in wrong road. Meanwhile, some riders who were riding with us then, called Mustafa and confirmed correct way. We then took the mud road and rode towards Koppa. After Koppa, again Nirmal and I sped up. I couldn't resist a smile while crossing the places where I got tired and waited to get back to normal in previous attempt. We reached Maddur control around 1220 hrs.
After a fairly long lunch break in Maddur, we started around 1315 hrs. In this Maddur - Ramanagara stretch, surprisingly there were tailwinds assisting us to maintain average speed more than 25 kmph, unlike headwinds in previous try. We reached Ramanagara around 1415 hrs, took a drinks break, and headed towards Manchenbele Reservoir. We stopped a minute before Manchenbele to refresh, and climbed the ascent and continued, to reach Chandrappa circle control manned by Sreepathi, by 1524 hrs. We took a break there chatting with Sreepathi and had some biscuits.
We started by 1540 hrs, towards Thavarakere to reach Magadi road. Here, a stretch which was bad previously, is newly laid. This helped us to save some time as the stretch contains one of the nice ascents, which would be time consuming to climb otherwise. We soon reached Magadi road. The traffic density increased gradually as we reached Nice road, and it was more upto ORR. We took ORR, reached Mahalakshmipuram layout, stopped a minute to refresh, climbed the challenging ascent, and reached the final control by 1729 hrs.
Though the ride was not that challenging as expected, we were completely satisfied as we made it in 11 hrs 29 min, thanks to Nirmal. Nirmal maintained nice pace and most of the times I just tried to maintain the same pace. Gokul's Serfas Drifters, once again helped me to complete a brevet successfully, that too in a nice average speed of 17.85 kmph. I was afraid of knee pain started in 600 km brevet, but it hadn't affected much.
0 comments:
Post a Comment