Day 7: Sultan Bathery To Madikeri
Start
After a nice rest from the previous day, we were all set for a early start. After hearing about the horror tales of Bjorn, i made sure that my bike is all fine with no potentially expected issues. After heavy inspection, got onto the group for a great start. Only after hearing from fellow riders did i realize that it was going to be second toughest day that day, though by distance it was longer, it is expect to be equally a bad road en-route.
Enroute To Support Station1
the route started from the town and slowly started to feel the serene nature and typical kerala outlook all along. although the road was horrible during the patch towards support station 1. It was combined with the horrible driving by the bus drivers along that route consistently trying to keep the bikes away from the road, they trying to take up the whole section of the road.
Although the route was horrible to ride, after a while there was a nice stretch of roads with a really scenic sides, i totally wanted to record a video to share my experience then.
Support Station 1(SS1)
After a totally solo ride until then, reached the support station 1 which was just in the entrance of a wild life forest. i was almost yearning for the stop, just because of passing on the bad patch of roads. only to really realize later that it was just a beginning of such a bad patch.
this was the day, that again the elite riders started to speed up right from the beginning, predominantly to beat the heat and had been spending very meager time in every support station, by the time i reached, those folks had gone by long time back then.
Soon after that, there was this regular group of gautam, vikki, anup, and i decided to join their train and hope to sustain the endurance ride that they were into. luckily was able to keep up with their speed until the next support station. the ride until the next station was quite challenging.
Support Station 2
after a difficult ride until then reached to the support station 2, we were so much engrossed into the discussions about the competitive section that day, i suppose the heat was more on it just because it was the last competitive section of the season and whoever wanted to make up, it was the last chance. with the intensity of that discussion, we forget the much expected item at the support station until the Francis served us with the delicious UnniAppam, almost everybody munched more than 2 of them. i was skeptical about having anything more at that point, since the Competitive section was starting in next 10 km. i was preparing myself with couple of CLIFF Shot blocks, some water, some enerzol, all mentally and physically preparing to beat Rakesh Rana and if possible Linda as well to move up 2 places in the General classification.
After a brief visit by our predecessors, we started rolling on to the start of Competitive section. i was taking it as easy i can and riding slow towards the start of the competitive section. the route towards the start of competitive section was nice scenic route.
it was already starting to sink in every one of us about the start of the CS section. all were so being overcautious, trying to take the ride easy till there. soon after we reached there, everybody stopped by the side, and started to stretch, started to examine our bikes to make sure that we don't have uncertainties along the way. That's when gautam realized that there was some issue with his shifters.
While everyone of use were trying to take our own sweet time to start, Abhirama was cool enough to start his CS section at ease, soon to be followed by Vikki.
After gathering some confidence and with the mental thought to give it all that day, i started my CS section. it was supposingly with rolling hills, but good enough stretch of the route to have technical downhills, the key was to utilize those down hills and gather momentum and keep up them up to the next climb. All the riding besides Vineeth down the hills the previous day came in handy, cruicially shifted my gears at right times and took the fullest advantage of the down hill rides and made the distance in 30:32. I was mentally all satisfied that i gave it all for the CS that day and was kind of confident that i at least got ahead of Rakesh.
Support Station 2
The very feel that i had was of a school kid after the end of annual examination. so much relieve mentally. Gautam finished his CS in the mean time, shifting to higher gear was not happening for him and he was eventually spinning it like a mad dog, yet he got it in 31 minutes or so. We were told that it was going to be little late until the lunch arrives, so we were waiting a bit to take it easy and recover after the hard ride during CS. Soon when were mentally ready to go, we were told that the route markings had problem and the lead riders had already lost way and rerouting currently. we were made to wait until the correct markings were made along the way. by the time lunch arrived as well, we had our stomach full and started to ride again
Support Station 3
The route from support station 2 to support station 3 had one of the most horrible roads and traffic during the day. it was nice greenery along the route, good rolling hills as well, until we were rerouted through a small potentially 60 Feet road, where it ended up being a horrible potholed road with too much traffic with cars on either side, potentially due to some marriage functions happening in that area. i was stuck alone as well, i wanted to catch up with gautam, vikki and anup, but every time i sighted them and was trying to switch to my highest gear, the chain came off. by the time i get it back it was too late to again loose them. Finally after 10 miles managed to catch up wit them along the route.
After a group ride for a decent distance, we reached out to the support station 3, which was one of the most dreaded for station due to the horrible route and repeated rolling hills that we had to climb along with the horrible 60 feet road that we had to ride along.
As we were interacting with the volunteer at the ss3, we learnt that the lead riders pack had left the station 1.5 hours back, there were already at the hotel at around 2:30 PM i suppose. we were still dreaming about getting over with the rest of around 20k to the hotel. we took a relatively long break and started to roll on. i decided to stick to the same group, but i was literally dropped off by the group close to 10 k before the hotel.
i was just telling myself , that this miserable ride was soon to get over, and kept covering the rolling hills. every time i saw a downhill i was so much cursing myself thinking about the up hill to come. that was more of a repetition all along the route after ss3. After a miserable painful ride, soon i could see a single big construction along the route only to realize that it was the hotel that we were to stay that day
Statistics for the Day
After a nice rest from the previous day, we were all set for a early start. After hearing about the horror tales of Bjorn, i made sure that my bike is all fine with no potentially expected issues. After heavy inspection, got onto the group for a great start. Only after hearing from fellow riders did i realize that it was going to be second toughest day that day, though by distance it was longer, it is expect to be equally a bad road en-route.
Enroute To Support Station1
the route started from the town and slowly started to feel the serene nature and typical kerala outlook all along. although the road was horrible during the patch towards support station 1. It was combined with the horrible driving by the bus drivers along that route consistently trying to keep the bikes away from the road, they trying to take up the whole section of the road.
Although the route was horrible to ride, after a while there was a nice stretch of roads with a really scenic sides, i totally wanted to record a video to share my experience then.
Support Station 1(SS1)
After a totally solo ride until then, reached the support station 1 which was just in the entrance of a wild life forest. i was almost yearning for the stop, just because of passing on the bad patch of roads. only to really realize later that it was just a beginning of such a bad patch.
this was the day, that again the elite riders started to speed up right from the beginning, predominantly to beat the heat and had been spending very meager time in every support station, by the time i reached, those folks had gone by long time back then.
Soon after that, there was this regular group of gautam, vikki, anup, and i decided to join their train and hope to sustain the endurance ride that they were into. luckily was able to keep up with their speed until the next support station. the ride until the next station was quite challenging.
Support Station 2
after a difficult ride until then reached to the support station 2, we were so much engrossed into the discussions about the competitive section that day, i suppose the heat was more on it just because it was the last competitive section of the season and whoever wanted to make up, it was the last chance. with the intensity of that discussion, we forget the much expected item at the support station until the Francis served us with the delicious UnniAppam, almost everybody munched more than 2 of them. i was skeptical about having anything more at that point, since the Competitive section was starting in next 10 km. i was preparing myself with couple of CLIFF Shot blocks, some water, some enerzol, all mentally and physically preparing to beat Rakesh Rana and if possible Linda as well to move up 2 places in the General classification.
After a brief visit by our predecessors, we started rolling on to the start of Competitive section. i was taking it as easy i can and riding slow towards the start of the competitive section. the route towards the start of competitive section was nice scenic route.
it was already starting to sink in every one of us about the start of the CS section. all were so being overcautious, trying to take the ride easy till there. soon after we reached there, everybody stopped by the side, and started to stretch, started to examine our bikes to make sure that we don't have uncertainties along the way. That's when gautam realized that there was some issue with his shifters.
While everyone of use were trying to take our own sweet time to start, Abhirama was cool enough to start his CS section at ease, soon to be followed by Vikki.
After gathering some confidence and with the mental thought to give it all that day, i started my CS section. it was supposingly with rolling hills, but good enough stretch of the route to have technical downhills, the key was to utilize those down hills and gather momentum and keep up them up to the next climb. All the riding besides Vineeth down the hills the previous day came in handy, cruicially shifted my gears at right times and took the fullest advantage of the down hill rides and made the distance in 30:32. I was mentally all satisfied that i gave it all for the CS that day and was kind of confident that i at least got ahead of Rakesh.
Support Station 2
The very feel that i had was of a school kid after the end of annual examination. so much relieve mentally. Gautam finished his CS in the mean time, shifting to higher gear was not happening for him and he was eventually spinning it like a mad dog, yet he got it in 31 minutes or so. We were told that it was going to be little late until the lunch arrives, so we were waiting a bit to take it easy and recover after the hard ride during CS. Soon when were mentally ready to go, we were told that the route markings had problem and the lead riders had already lost way and rerouting currently. we were made to wait until the correct markings were made along the way. by the time lunch arrived as well, we had our stomach full and started to ride again
Support Station 3
The route from support station 2 to support station 3 had one of the most horrible roads and traffic during the day. it was nice greenery along the route, good rolling hills as well, until we were rerouted through a small potentially 60 Feet road, where it ended up being a horrible potholed road with too much traffic with cars on either side, potentially due to some marriage functions happening in that area. i was stuck alone as well, i wanted to catch up with gautam, vikki and anup, but every time i sighted them and was trying to switch to my highest gear, the chain came off. by the time i get it back it was too late to again loose them. Finally after 10 miles managed to catch up wit them along the route.
After a group ride for a decent distance, we reached out to the support station 3, which was one of the most dreaded for station due to the horrible route and repeated rolling hills that we had to climb along with the horrible 60 feet road that we had to ride along.
As we were interacting with the volunteer at the ss3, we learnt that the lead riders pack had left the station 1.5 hours back, there were already at the hotel at around 2:30 PM i suppose. we were still dreaming about getting over with the rest of around 20k to the hotel. we took a relatively long break and started to roll on. i decided to stick to the same group, but i was literally dropped off by the group close to 10 k before the hotel.
i was just telling myself , that this miserable ride was soon to get over, and kept covering the rolling hills. every time i saw a downhill i was so much cursing myself thinking about the up hill to come. that was more of a repetition all along the route after ss3. After a miserable painful ride, soon i could see a single big construction along the route only to realize that it was the hotel that we were to stay that day
Statistics for the Day
|
Day Start
|
7:30 AM
|
|
Support Station1
|
8:40 AM
|
|
Support Station2
|
9:55 AM
|
|
CS Start
|
11:10 AM
|
|
CS End
|
11:40 AM
|
|
SS3
|
12:00 PM
|
|
SS4
|
2:45 PM
|
|
Day End
|
4:10 PM
|
|
Moving Time
|
6:09:35
|
|
Moving Average
|
23.84 KMPH
|
|
Distance
|
146 Kms
|
|
CS time
|
30:32
|
It was indeed the toughest day after the day we climbed Kalahatty!
ReplyDelete