Tour of Nilgris 2013 !! - DAY 2

Day 2 - Mysore to Ooty (132 kms)

Start

After Day 1, being tired of riding the longest distance of the tour, and also the fear of climbing kalhatty in mind, we were all flagged off at 7:15 AM, by the manager of SBI Mysore, and volunteers, led by the lead riders with the blue jerseys, off we go with a double pressure in mind, a Competitive Section planned for the day and the climb of kalhatty ghat, let go the competition for the tile "King/Queen of Kalhatty"

Support Station 1(SS1)

With the pleasure of witnessing scenic locations along the route, with green fields, roads with huge trees on either side of the road providing the divine shade which we rarely see these days, was all pleasure to sight. Slowly we sneak to the support station 1.  for all to be done right I was observing that the elite riders were stopping for a very short bit and sneaking out fast enough not to waste time at the support stations, realizing the fact that if not the ride on the kalhatty would be really hot and potential time range to not get swept. I started doing the same, spent the least amount of time and sneaked out

Support Station 2(SS2)- Competitive Section Start(CS)

With an experience of riding a CS section the previous day, I was still not really prepared to take the second one, for the 3 various reasons, the day is long enough with climbs 132 kms,  a CS, followed by a hard climb up the hill. Yet managed to gather courage started my CS section, though the very thought of having enough energy to climb Kalhatty was still in the back of my mind while racing

Competitive Section End

With the distance being longer than the previous day with 21kms to race, I started economical, but started to push after couple of kms, yet there were serious speed bumps and passing through couple of villages enroute, I was trying to be careful at the intersections of the city with taking lesser risk, that costed me almost 2 to 3 minutes ending up finishing the race section of 21 kms in 41:30, which quite more than what I expected, yet felt ok since I thought I could still push and climb up the hill that was waiting to be conquered. We were served with freshly cut Water melons at the CS end, since it was not a support station by itself. Had a quick fill of water of started again to proceed to meet the queen of hills.

Support Station 3(SS3)

Support station 3 was unique for the day, for the fact that riders were grouped and sent as groups since that was the entry into the Bandipur Tiger Reserve area, saw the elite riders waiting there to be sent as a group, as I arrive at the station the first group was sent into the reserve area. We were hydrating enjoying the stuffs at the support station, did a bit of stretching saga and was waiting for few more riders to join to be sent as a group. I managed to join the elite riders to start as a group to slowly start our minor climbs of the day, was so very careful in every rotation from there, with the intent to be conservative in riding to face the major climbs that were in place. Got to hear about the terrain and grade to expect from Bjorn, Vikki and Venky, the elite riders who are TFN veterans. Adding to the fuel, I was asked by venky if I am really going to climb the hill with the standard in the front and 23 in the back. That added to the worry list of mine, yet was trying to keep that thought at the back of my mind and continue riding, got past the horrible pot holes along the route, with sidelining by cars to off road at certain occasions, we reached the support station 4

Support Station 4(SS4)

Support station was much awaited by almost all of us in the group that we were riding along, since it was already hot enough and need to take some rest before we start to ascend the mighty kalhatty ghat. It was around lunch time and lunch hadn't arrived until then, we did not have an option other than to wait a bit, have lunch and then ride probably around 5k to the timing station for the kalhatty climb. Everybody was taking it easy, had lunch, quite a few had a nap under the shades of the tree and was really getting ready for the climb. The cautious rest, nap and time spent in the ss4 proved to be good for few and bad for many for the reason that they had lesser time in the day to cover the climb and ride to the hotel.

Start of Kalhatty climb

Gathering all the courage I had and the will power that I had potentially developed by running for quite few years now, I started on to face the mighty climb as describe by many and feared by all. While I was all concentrating and was climbing a small climb and panting, I got a call from my wife, I was literally panting for breath and told her that I am starting to climb and shall call later(not sure what she felt like) but I was concentrating too much to not do anything but start with my meditative start of the climb. Finally I reached the start point of the climb, i.e timing station, with the countdown started my climb slow and easy.

Torturous Climb and happenings en-route

Once I started to see the board mentioning about the 36/36 bends, I was all bitten with the bug of tiredness and the very statement from venky about the 23 cassette rig came to my mind and started pushing. I have rode tougher climbs like these back in seattle, but they were potentially not beyond 1 to 2 miles long and weren't sharp. For the first time, in a cold climate of around 10 degree Celsius I was literally dripping with sweat, never before had I sweated like that, even while racing a full marathon in the past. I started to become cautious and saw riders who started behind me who were struggling, yet passing me slowly, so I kept spinning as hard as I could, after I reached bend 31, I was exhausted and gave up my idea of not getting off the bike, and ended up walking, that act was by itself so de-moralizing for myself.

Slowly I see venky passing with a good cadence going in, though it was not easy, he was still going slowly, then I see gautham, he started saying 23, 21 :) reminding me of the casette size and no motivation to get on to the bike. Slowly as I saw chris, I thought I should start proceeding and started to spin again, from then on to the bend 7, I spinned to one bend, walked half of the next and again biked the next one, getting a few snaps along the way, kept going without taking any break.

At bend 7, saw bjorn, who was slowly crusing along, tried to atleast keep him in sight, but couldn’t, again, managed to reach bend2, where I was helped by one of the bike volunteer with some electrolyte, had a quick break , hearing his words saying its just 3 bends to conquer the hill, I kept going nonstop until bend 1, literally couldn’t move further any bit

Another bike volunteer who was descending down, said to me "Its few hundred meters to the end, no more waling allowed :) " , then I realized that it was the final climb. Gathered all the strength I had, started slowly climbing it. The final climb was that hard that I could hear the cheering sound, but couldn’t see them literally. with loud cheer Christen "Its Steep, but you can Do it", Venky and other elite riders who were already there, I started seeing the countdown of numbers marked on the road, and finally finished the climb. Yahoo!! Finally I did it, that too on my racing bike!! . It took me holy 2 hours 32 minutes to finish the climb of just 10 kms. That speaks of the difficulty and the pain I would have gone through climbing it. Glad it's over :)

Day End at Ooty

With all the kind words from the fellow riders and volunteers, felt very great about able to climb the hill well in time to be not swept :) , I was told by one of the volunteers "It's Mostly downhill from here", I did not really bother to worry about the mostly part, was happy to just hear there are downhill sections. With a quick break of 10 minutes, started to the hotel, which was about 12 kms I suppose, there were sections of down hills to start with, soon there were quite a few hills as we approached the city, passed the bus stand and suddenly see a marking which lead to steep climb to the left.

The climb from that point on, to the hotel was itself 2 kms, which was much more steep than the actual kalhatty climb, which I ended up taking at least couple of breaks, with the tiring day that got over, was not happy to climb the hill. Finally managed to sight the hotel and spinned up to the hotel to have a great resting.

Doubtless, it was the hardest biking day in my 7 years of biking, that almost made me rethink my proposition of "Biking is easier than running".

Press Meet

While I was at the dining area, enjoying my horror story of climbing and hearing similar stories from others who had climbed by that time, Sridhar was checking with me on how the ride fared, and to my surprise I was asked to join him up the stage for a press meet that day. Instantly joined him up the stage and got to speak a few words of my experience about the ride so far and about the ride up kalhatty. Felt great to be adressing a sizeable bunch of journalists from up the stage. That was an unique opportunity to share my experience with press. With my mention of being from Coimbatore, I got an additional call from "Time of India" to share my experience about the ride.

Major Sweep

For various reasons and mainly for the horror climb, there were enough people who got swept by the sweep vehicles, being dark, and cold enough, riders were already feeling cold at 6 degree Celsius , with quite a few walking and few who climbed kalhatty, but couldn’t manage to reach hotel before it was dusk, were swept. From what I heard, volunteers were doing a great job in making sure that everybody was safe and got all the ride back to the hotel. That speaks to the effort the volunteers would have put in to make sure about the safety of the riders.

Statistics for the Day

Start of Ride	7:15 AM
Reach SS1	8:50 AM
SS2(CS Start)	9:10 AM
CC Complete	09:57
CS Time	41:30
CS Distance	21 kms
SS3	10:50 AM
SS4	12:45 PM
Top of Kalhatty	4:25 PM
Kalhatty Climbing Time	2:32
End of Day(Ooty)	5:35 PM
Moving Time	6:58
Moving Average	KMPH
Distance	132 Kms