Tour of Nilgris 2013 !! - Day 8 - Final Day

Day 8: Madikeri To Mysore

Start

After a really tiring day the previous day, and with the only day which looked flat on the elevation map, and being the last day, most of us were all ready to be done with it and rejoice later in the evening. Based on the experience the volunteers and the lead riders had with the difficulty folks had with the lunch, volunteers decided to have staggered start on the last day. with top 30 or 40 riders starting an hour late, and rest of the folks starting ahead, so that we will have everybody reach in almost at the same time.

First Set of Riders starting at 7:30 AM from Madikeri

Rest of us folks starting at 8:30 AM

Just as we started, we had to climb a steep climb for about 2 kms, that pretty much warmed up all the folks to start on a cold day.

The  day was also planned for a team time trial and few teams were already practicing riding in groups, pace lining. The spectrum team were already into their form lead by dipankar, they were just speeding away. i was already feeling the tiredness, soon came the much awaited rest stop number 1

Support Station 1 (SS1)

We could sight quite a few riders who started an hour ago at the support station and much before that. For the first time, had to seek help from the physio for stretching my back during the ride. that was quite a bit of relief and started to roll on to the next station. Though the day had relatively flat course all along till the end, which much were looking forward to, but there were enough headwinds which was ruining the comfort feel that we expected that day. it was the best day to do pace lining, i was kind of stuck between really fast groups and relatively slower riders, hence decided to go all by myself beating the head winds.

Support Station 2(SS2)

for the obvious reason, i was starting to feel tired, partially due to the tiredness from previous day, riding seldom and that too against the head winds, was trying to go as fast over any minor stretch of downhill or flat course and using it up any climbs, started to average around 19 Miles/Hour, with almost half exhausted reached the support station 2. Huge chunk of the riders were lining at the tender coconut stall put up near the support station 2. i took my time to hydrate, stretch and while i heard that it was close to sweeping time for that station, i assume that they were remarking that to woo away the riders who were there for long, but i didnt want to take any chance. Also i heard the statement that Lunch will only be at the end point, that was "Really a Surprise" for me. i probably did not hear to the pre start briefing if it had been mentioned. i was expecting lunch to be served at the next support station. but anyways was all up to get it done for the day.

Support Station 3(SS 3)

the ride from ss2 onwards was feeling long enough,  it was getting hot along the way to the next support station. My only motivation then was to catch up with any long pace-lined groups along the way. was trying to overtake as many riders as i could, with on the bigger rig on the front, was overtaking bunch of riders down the hill and maintaining the momentum up the climbs. I was also seeing couple of riders zooming right beside auto rickshaw to use it as a wind breaker. i did not have enough energy to keep up to that speed, was slowly rolling on to reach the support station 3.
Spectrum team was there mentally preparing themselves for the team time trial start which was due to start in another 5 or 10 k from there. it was blazing hot, i was almost fearing for a tire burst for some odd reason.  was hiding behind the support station tent, hydrated and started to roll on. the route was of good feel, but was already tired to not able to enjoy the greenery on either side

Team Time Trial Start

I was part of a 3 member team BareFoot Heroes, with Taner and Anup being the other two riders, but due to the headwind and being tired, anup had already given up the idea of participating in the team time trial. Taner was also tired and was happy enough to not race. So by the time i reached the time trial start, i was just waiting to see the Team Spectrum Off to the start and followed them at my own comfortable pace riding solo. After i crossed half the distance of 10k mark was glad that we decided to give up racing the team time trial.

Team Time trial End

soon i went past the team time trial end point, i could sight team spectrum riding on relatively easy pace. i was trying to reach them, but they kept going at a brisk pace, so eventually soon after we were nearing the mysore city, i caught up with Vikki and Venky.

Day End at Mysore

with almost another 7k more to ride, was riding along with venky and vikki, soon joined by Prafulla, we sneaked through the signals and crossings once we entered the city and finally rolled in to the hotel. What a feeling it was. Finished the great tour with atmost sense of satisfaction and a high five from Venky. I would not have asked for more for a first time TFN, finishing the ride strong with no injuries and with finishing the General classification at 9th position in Mens Category and 15th Overall.

Statistics for the day

Day Start	8:30 AM
Support Station 1	9:55
Support Station 2	11:30
Support Station 3	12:25
Day End	2:15
Distance	119 Kms
Moving Average	25.28 Kmph
Moving Time	4:42

Presentation Ceremony

After a quick shower and packing of bikes, had a heft lunch, with great sense of pride and satisfaction, was sharing thoughts and hearing from fellow riders as we ate. Soon it was followed by the awesome presentation ceremony adorned by the prizes to be given away and press reporters.

STAGE SET WITH REPORTERS

MENS WINNERS OPEN CATEGORY

MENS MASTERS WINNERS

FINAL STANDINGS & CERTIFICATE

Tour of Nilgris 2013 !! - DAY 7

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

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

Tour of Nilgris 2013 !! - DAY 6

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 (SS1)

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	8:25 AM
Support Station 1	9:25 AM
Support Station 2	11:44 AM
Support Station 3	1:30 PM
Day End	3:30 PM
Moving Time	4:11
Moving Average	24.16 Kmph
Distance	101.6 Kms