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.
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
|
