Day 6: Ooty to Sultan Bathery
Start
After a detailed session by the elite riders about how to safely climb down the hill, we were all ready to climb down the mighty kalhatty route. All i wanted was to not burn out my brake pads riding down the hill. This the mighty climb that most of us struggled to climb on day 2, which we were going to ride down. It was a 10 kms ride to the top of kalhatty, from where we were let go in groups. Since it was windy and cold, yet did not manage to get hold of my wind cheater, finally at the last minute decided to go with the cheap wind cheater. it proved to be so effective finally :)
Support station 1 was set up right immediately after the ride down the ghat road, it was super thrilling at the same time to be skeptical about a fall every time. Just to speak of the descent, i hit 60 kmph in one stretch, but ended up holding onto the break with the at most scare in my mind to take a turn the next hair pin bend. Though we were escorted by the motor bike escort vehicles, just to avoid any collision, i tried to keep a safe distance from the ride ahead of me, hence was able to make it up to that speed. anyways i would never try to do it again, it was so Freaking scary. In spite of all the instructions and precautions couple of our riders ended up with minor scratches. the lead rider of the tour Neils, ended up into bushes while crossing a small village along the ride down kalhatty route, he ended up with bruises , and our Lord Venky got slipped his tires on a oil spill along one of the bends, but was safe enough to just get his jersy painted black alone :).
Fun before SS2
After a brief stop at the support station 1, we headed out towards the scenic routes via the reserve forest, towards sulthan bathery. while we were crusing along the route, we had a natural blockade by folks who were happy with us being in their territory :)
after we entered the reserve forest area, it was a silent long stretch of curvy routes surrounded by trees on either side, was really a nice feel going through that area.
While we exited the reserve forest area and was cruising towards the most elephant sighted area, we saw few folks enjoying a bath in the river, we tried to see as to who those folks were, only to realize that it was our lead speedster riders who were enjoying a dip in the river. Unable to resist we went to have a look at them. Soon enough every one of us started to jump into the river, had a short little swim around for few minutes and sneaked out. As we were about to get onto the road, we had the volunteers come in to say that its totally not permitted to get onto the river, we were gracefully excused :) , just had the feel of a notorious kid caught red handed by a parent ;)
Support Station 2 - (SS2)
the group with which i was riding, had sneaked early out of the river, so i was riding alone, having a cold dip in the river myself, it was so refreshing, but soon came a very bad patch of roads, horrible enough to be even ridden on a MTB. yet i maneuvered through that and was speeding at the max speed i can get to. Slowly the stories narrated by TFN vetrans of them stuck in a situation of being alone while sighting a leopard and a group of elephants came to my mind, that very feel made me pedal even faster to find some company. Soon i reach a small set of shops to see that Abhirama and Vineeth, waiting to enjoy the mallu chai, joined the party there, and started to roll again , soon enough to reach the Support station 2. we were greeted with Classic lord ayyapa bakthi songs sounding loud enough from a temple near the support station.
That was one such days in the whole tour so far to feel much better even after covering half the days distance, probably because good enough downhill ride, had a long break of close to 1 hour at the support station 2, had lunch, had a short nap and took it easy. soon to see venky, vineet start, i joined to party. it was nice stretch to get a photograph, surrounded by bent Bamboo on both sides.
After the ss2, the ride was super good, with constant pacing by Vineet, myself and venky had a great ride. i would rate that section from ss2 to ss3 to be most contending ride with consistent pace, enjoyed riding along the technical curves. Gautam was getting himself dropped from the party more often, just to save enough for the Competitive section the next day. had a nice view when we had stopped for gautam to join the party
Support Station 3 (SS3)
After a nice ride along with the group, reached Support station 3, that was also potentially the fastest ride between any two rest stops so far. i suppose the hotel was not too long from the support station 3, we had a short break at ss3, it was nice curve with a scenic spot, with a bus stop turned support station, had rest for a short while started to roll again.
After we pushed off from ss3, again started to roll at constant pace, post climbing the last climb for the day, again had a brief stop hoping to get in gautam again to regroup. it was nice silent forest are in kerala.
Day end at sulthan bathery
After a easy ride moving along, we entered the city of sultan bathery, soon could we realize the crazy traffic and senseless drive to the core, cornering you off the road along. though the route for the day was not too bad, we had a good ride good enough to tired though. had a good post ride recovery drink and had a long chat with the group at the restaurant.
Statistics for the day
Day start
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8:25 AM
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Support Station 1
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9:25 AM
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Support Station 2
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11:44 AM
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Support Station 3
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1:30 PM
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Day End
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3:30 PM
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Moving Time
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4:11
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Moving Average
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24.16 Kmph
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Distance
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101.6 Kms
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