Dhanushkodi (600 Kilometer Brevet)

Date: 30 June 2018

Total distance: 614 Kilometers

Start Time: 4:00 pm 30 June 2018

Return Time: 4:35 am 2 July 2018

With: Raghunandan Nagaraja

Altitude Profile:

Trichy - Thanjavur - Pudukottai - Karaikudi - Thondi - Ramanathapuram - Rameshwaram - Dhanushkodi - Rameshwaram - Ramanathapuram - Thondi - Karaikudi - Pudukottai - Trichy

Got to know about this ride much before it was open for registration and had decided to ride it. The only constraint was that it was too close to the Gates of Heaven ride and was worried if 2 weeks will be sufficient to recover from this ride and be ready for the Gates of Heaven ride. Only way to know is to ride it and see if I am able to recover. I did wait till the last minute to register as I was not sure on the work front and also had plans to cover Thanjavur as part of this ride. However, I had to give up on the Thanjavur plan and also the plan to ride to the start point from Bangalore as I did not want to reach the start point tired, since the wind was going to be a challenge on this ride and I wanted to have fresh legs to be able to tackle the wind.

There was a huge contingent headed for this ride from Bangalore. Raghu had registered as well and he offered to take me in his car. Sridhar Srinivasan also joined us making us 3 riders in the car. Sridhar is a triathlete and trying his hand in endurance cycling now. This was going to be his first 600km Brevet.

We started from Bangalore at 5:00 am after loading the cycles. Being early hours, it was a pleasant and fast drive. I had expected to reach Trichy by 1:00 pm, however, we reached by 11:00 am. A quick drive which gave us time to rest before the ride.

We met Prashanth (the organiser) at Track and Trail and he guided us to the service apartment. We reached the service apartment at 11:30 am, assembled the cycles, loaded the bags onto the cycles, went out for lunch and by the time we were back, we could catch 30 minutes of rest before getting ready to get to the start point.

There was a huge rush at the start point. 69 starters assembled at Track and Trail. We went about completing the start formalities and also met up with Swamy, Raju, Guru and others from Bangalore. After a while, the place was so crowded that we were dispersed in the crowd and had to wait until the start of the ride to be able to move. We were given the route briefing and the ride was flagged off at 4:00 pm.

Navigation was a problem for me and the ride through the city was about following the others. I saw Raghu speed away and disappear while I chatted with Swamy and Guru. We reached the highway and were welcomed by a strong head wind. We had been informed that the wind would be a huge factor on this ride, however, I was not expecting it to start so soon. The expectation was that the wind would be strong near the Coast which was 200 kilometers away, however, the wind was there right from the start. The road was pretty much flat and having fresh legs we were able to ride above 25 kmph. The few stops at signals while crossing the BHEL township was a small deterrent and the irritation was channeled to ride harder after I got past the township.

The kilometers were passing by quickly and soon we had a small group out ahead. Galin and Balaji from Kochi, Bavitran, Kali and Vignesh from Madurai were riding very quickly. I managed to keep them in sight and after a short while we had caught up with Raghu. I was surprised to see Raghu and it did look like he was not riding like his usual self, he was slower and probably coming in with a sleep debt to this ride was hampering him. Thanjavur was approaching fast and it was time to take a turn towards Pudukottai and the lookout for the turn had begun. Having riders around when there is a turn makes it easy and it was simplified further when we saw Prashanth standing near the turn and guiding us to take the turn.

A kilometer from the turn we saw a watering point had been set up by the organisers. Prashanth had gotten the Thanjavur group to set up a refreshment stall for us and we were very happy that we could refill water and had milk shake and chikki's to refuel for  50 kilometers. Prashanth informed us that we would not get anything for a further 50 kilometers after which dinner had been organised. We got back on the saddle and began riding. The cross wind was not letting up, Raghu and I had started out quickly and were ahead before Raghu pulled away from me. I was feeling the effects of the fast start and to an extent the thought that only 60 kilometers of the 600 were done was playing on my mind. In a short while the Kochi and Madurai gang came by and I was able to sit on their wheel and drag myself with them. I was pedaling quicker than I wanted to, however having the group around kept me going.

The light began to fade and along with it came lightning. Every time the sky lit up, I could see the clouds and it was not a pleasant sight as I did not want it to rain. If it rained, then the night would be cold and I had decided not to carry the jacket since I was not expecting rain and cold weather. The further we rode, the more imminent the rain threat became and it was only a matter of time before the clouds opened up. We were about 20 kilometers from Pudukottai when Prashanth stopped us and told us that it was raining heavily in Pudukottai and that we should prepare for the rain. Only Raghu was carrying rain clothing and he started decking up, the rest of us drank juice and started riding.

I was slow to start and the group had shot ahead, I tried in vain to catch up and then backed off to settle into my pace. It was a drizzle to start with and then it began to pour. The rain was very heavy and I was barely able to see ahead. The lights did not give sufficient visibility, looking up was very difficult since the water was getting into the eyes. It was a case of having quick glances to see the road ahead and then keeping the head down and pedaling. This was a risky approach and I had a close shave when I went inches past a bike which had been parked at the side of the road with the rider taking cover in a nearby bus stop. I was shaken and in a sense woken up a little, the after effect of this close shave was that I slowed down and was riding with my head up rather than down. The 10 kilometers from the time we stopped to the Control Point took forever to reach, I was relieved to see the cycles parked at the restaurant and made my way in.

We were told that the food would arrive in 10 minutes and that we had to wait. The waiting time was spent removing the shoes and rinsing the socks. I absolutely hated that it had rained in the night, with no sun light to dry us out, I was sure that the feet would get wrinkled and riding would become very difficult. I hoped that the time spent without wearing the shoes would delay the feet getting soft.

The food arrived and we were served delicious rajma pulav. I had a large serving of it along with loads of mango pickle so that I would not run into a nutrition debt during the night. Dinner was done and it was time to get going. We had spent 45 minutes at the control point and I wanted to get going. Raghu was having a problem with his phone, it had stopped working on account of getting wet in the rain. He had managed to get it working and was packing it carefully to keep it safe and functional. This took a while and by the time we got going Galin and gang had started and were ahead by about 15 minutes.

I was slow to start, was showing signs of tiring after just 100 kilometers. Not a good sign, however, the stop had cooled me and I was freezing at the start. It took a while to get warmed up and to get going. The rain had cooled off as well, the downpour had changed to a drizzle and it was the Chinese torture time, with a droplet of water getting into the helmet at a constant interval. Raghu and I rode together and I was happy to have a ride partner in this section as I was able to ride quicker than I would have if I was alone. Riding in Raghu's slipstream was not exactly smooth riding with the spray being thrown up from the wheel, pretty sure that Raghu would have had the same spray when he was riding in my slipstream. We managed to take a line diagonally behind each other most of the time, except in cases when there was a pothole or a vehicle passing by. Watching the spray and the water being thrown up at Raghu shorts, I was happy that I had a huge saddle bag which was working as a mud guard and protecting my shorts from the spray from my wheel.

Even though it was wet and cool weather, I was running through my water supply pretty quickly. I had to stop to refill, when we passed a shop I shouted out to Raghu that I needed to make the stop and went to the shop. The water stop became a tea stop for Raghu and a juice stop for me along with a banana. The balance Pepsi was kept in the jersey pocket for use further up the road.

We had ridden 24 kilometers in an hour after the control point. I was refreshed, was able to keep up with Raghu and it would be fair to say that we were quick off the blocks and also continued to ride quickly for the next hour and a half. We were around Karaikudi when the rain almost stopped and it was just a few droplets here and there. The rain abating brought about a renewed push on the speed front and we put in a strong ride. I was beginning to lose motivation on the ride as the quick ride in dour conditions was getting to me. The spark was lit again when I caught sight of the tail lights ahead. We had caught up with Galin and gang, presumably they had stopped for a break as well and we had been able to make time during that.

It was perfect timing to catch up with them as well as we entered the road towards Devakottai. There was a lot of turns here and having them ahead made it easy for us as we just had to follow.

We reached Devakottai, 178 kilometers done, 8 hours 15 minutes had lapsed, things were going just fine till here. The next 20 kilometers was a very good leveler. Road work in progress, only half the road was available, the road which was available was filled with potholes, the potholes were filled with water making it impossible to know the depth of the hole, in short it was treacherous. In spite of having 6 riders ahead, I was struggling with visibility and went in hard in a couple of pot holes. 5 kilometers from Devakottai was all it took, Vignesh had his first puncture. We found a bus stop and the tube replacement procedure started. It was a large group and too many cooks will spoil the broth, I stayed away from getting my hands into the replacement process since 3 of them were already on it.

20 minutes spent on replacing the tube, the reason for the puncture was the overlapping of the tire liners and Vignesh opted to remove the tire liner. 5 more kilometers when we heard Vignesh call out, he had another puncture. This time a pinch flat. 20 more minutes to replace the tube. When we started we opted to ride on the side where road work was in progress since the surface seemed to be smooth, only the top surface had not been tarred. We rode about 500 meters before Kali I think rode his cycle up a pile of stones. We got back onto the pot holed surface, after seeing Vignesh struggling with punctures and going into potholes hard, I opted to ride slowly and get through the section unscathed rather than having to stop again. This forced the group to stop and wait for me which was a reminder to get going rather than riding slowly.

We had constant company of dogs from here till we reached Thiruvadanai. Galin having a horn which kept them away was working well for the ones riding in the front of the group, the ones at the back were left to fend the dogs away by shouting at them. Reaching Thiruvadanai was a relief as the road improved. Having a smooth surface after 20 kilometers felt like I had gotten out of jail and the effect was that we started riding fast. We were racing into Thondi, when Vignesh called out, third puncture. We were 6 kilometers from the control point, we decided to ride to Thondi and wait for Vignesh there. Vignesh and Bavitran set about fixing the puncture, the rest of us rode into Thondi.

It was 2:30 am when we pulled up at the Control Point. The organiser's car was parked, however the organiser was not in the car. He had gone to the room at Azmath House (Hotel) and was probably sleeping. The door to the hotel was locked preventing us from going in. We took a selfie and headed back to Thondi town, a bakery was open and we fuelled up for the rest of the night.

40 minute break by which time Vignesh had replaced the tube and joined back. We started from Thondi. The effects of the ride through the night were beginning to show. Balaji wanted to rest, Raghu wanted to keep riding and maximise the use of good riding conditions, which was no wind, pleasant weather. The weather was expected to be hot during the day and riding would be difficult in the heat which was the reason behind wanting to ride. Galin and the other riders decided to rest while Raghu and I decided to ride. It was only a matter of time before sleep caught up with me as well. Guess we had hardly ridden a short distance since the other riders decided to rest and I was beginning to sleep while riding. I told Raghu that I would like to rest and that he should continue riding. However, Raghu decided to wait and we decided on a 10 minute sleep break. The 10 minute break stretched to 30 minutes when Raghu woke me up.

I was not feeling very good and was still groggy. I told Raghu that he should ride ahead and not wait for me. We started riding and in a short while passed Galin and the other riders who had stopped for a tea break. In a short while, Raghu's tail light had disappeared and I was riding at a pace with which I was comfortable.

5 kilometers ahead I saw a stationery tail light and was wondering why Raghu was waiting. When I got closer, I saw a lot of objects strewn on the road and my first thought was that Raghu was waiting there to warn me about the objects and signal to avoid them. I got closer and heard Raghu wincing in pain, I realised that he had a fall. I got off the cycle and Raghu was in a lot of pain, he said that he was blinded by the lights of an oncoming vehicle and had run into a lady walking on the road. The objects on the road were clothes which the lady was carrying and as soon as she was hit by Raghu she had run a short distance to gather a crowd. By the time we picked up the clothes we had about 5 ladies walking up to us along with the lady who had been hit. Fortunately, there were another local on a bike who had noticed that we were on cycles and explained the situation to the ladies. The lady had been hit on the feet by the pedal and was wounded and she was creating a ruckus about it. The local asked her to head to a hospital and get it fixed and asked us to leave rather than hang around.

We got back on the saddle and started riding. Raghu was in a lot of pain, however he continued riding. It was day break in a short while, we had reached the outskirts of Ramanathapuram where the organisers had set up a stall with refreshments. It was a welcome stop, we drank lime juice and ate biscuits and were able to see the damage on the cycle, which was not much. The pedal was bent, the handle bar tape was torn and the handle as well seemed to have been bent a little. The cycle was still ride able and that's the only thing that mattered at that time.

We started after the break at 6:10 am. 70 kilometers to get to Dhanushkodi. I targeted getting to the control point at Dhanushkodi by 9:30 am. The plan was simple, keep riding and get to the control point where we could stop for breakfast. The refreshment stop had come at the right time and I expected to make it to the control point without any further stops.

We had to ride 30 kilometers before catching the first glimpse of the Indian Ocean. Early morning hours were the right time to catch a glimpse of the Ocean and it was a refreshing sight. It was good enough to keep me going to get to the Pamban bridge.

Few more kilometers and I was at the Pamban bridge. The wind which was expected to play a big role here did not make its appearance giving us the opportunity to admire the place. To my left was the Bay of Bengal and the right was the Indian Ocean. The railway bridge running across the sea was the main attraction, however, when I reached, the calm water stole the show. People were fishing from the bridge and the size of the fish they had caught was impressive.

Rode a little further and the sight of parked fishing boats in the calm water was amazing. The colour of the water was tempting enough to spend time just watching it. I did not want to get mesmerised by the surroundings and got back on the saddle. Being a brevet I did not have the luxury of spending time at these places.

Few more kilometers and a quick stop at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's memorial. We had to request the guards for permission to take a snap with the cycles and then headed into Rameshwaram town. It was a crowded town and I managed to catch a glimpse of the temple gopuram on the way out of the town. We made a brief halt for banana and juice before riding towards Dhanushkodi.

Dhanushkodi was 17 kilometers away, Arichal Munai a further 4 kilometers from there. Dhanushkodi was the official u-turn point of the ride, however with time on hand and if the road to Arichal Munai was open I wanted to ride to the end point. The road to Dhanushkodi was beautiful. Initially we passed through a section with trees on both sides of the road. Then came a section where the water had dried up leaving a dry sea bed which to an extent stole the beauty of the temple here, which would have been a definite go to if it was surrounded by water.

A little further and there was no tree cover anymore, we could see the Ocean on one side and the Sea on the other. It was very windy and riding here was difficult. The road was flat, however the wind was making it seem like an uphill ride. The Bay of Bengal was visible in the distance as it was dry beside the road, however the Indian Ocean was right next to us. The waves lashing the shore line was making a pleasant sound as compared to the honking that we get to hear when riding. We could see the ruins of Dhanushkodi in the distance and every pedal stroke got us closer. I was excited to see the ghost town.

When I reached the ghost town, I was disappointed with the number of stalls that have come up at the location. It was like an eye sore in such a beautiful place and were stealing the beauty of the place. Prashanth waved to us and that signaled that we had reached the Control Point. He had news for us, the road to Arichal Munai was open and he said that we could ride the 4 kilometers to the end point if we wanted to. It was an opportunity that I did not want to miss, I checked with Raghu if he would want to ride, he agreed.

We drank juice and without wasting time we started off towards Arichal Munai. There were a lot of boards erected by the local municipality stating that getting into the water is prohibited, however there were a lot of people getting into the water. We show scant respect to the warning boards around. The ride to the end point was hard on account of a head wind in this section, however, I was happy that the return would be easier. We reached the end point where a Ashoka Pillar has been erected and we took the pic here and saw a pretty crowded beach with tourist vehicles pouring in.

Just as we were taking the pic, Galin and the other riders in the group came in the organisers car. Raghu and I started the return ride which was easy for about 3 kilometers on account of a favourable wind. We reached the Control Point, where Prashanth gave directions to the place where arrangements had been made for us to freshen up. I was not keen on the stop as I was sure that it would take in excess of an hour which would be better spent on the road. The main reason that I did not want to stop here was that I wanted to ride the bad road section near Devakottai in day light and wanted to avoid doing it in the dark. Stopping here meant that we would certainly be doing it at night. Raghu wanted to make the stop, I decided to take a call when we get there.

We made a quick stop at the ruins of the church before resuming the ride. We restarted, the ride became very difficult for me. When riding towards Dhanushkodi, the thinking was about seeing Pamban bridge, the ghost town Dhanushkodi, riding to the end point at Arichal Munai, getting to see the beautiful water, now that it was done, the thought was about getting back and this was when I felt the pain in the legs. The legs were hurting on account of the damp shoes which had made the feet soft. I slowed down and Raghu along with Galin and the other group of riders shot past me and went ahead. The other riders had begun to stream in and we passed a whole lot of them riding towards the Control Point.

Getting to Rameshwaram town was a rather painful experience and the urge to continue riding had changed to making a stop and hoping to recover from the soft feet situation. I decided to get to the rest stop and go through the freshening up process. Finding the place was a little difficult, managed to find it and headed in to the place with the bag.

I got about freshening up while the other riders ate up. A quick bath, fresh clothes, packed the used clothes in the bag and then headed to eat. Ate an idli and a lot of Pongal, it was the first food for the day and it was 12:00 pm, which was more like lunch rather than breakfast. Managed to catch 30 minutes of sleep as well before the other riders began to stream in to the place. We took a further 30 minutes to get going. The benefit of the stop was that the feet had recovered sufficiently making riding easier.

We started from Rameshwaram at 1:00 pm. 250 kilometers to be ridden and we had 19 hours to do it. I hoped for favourable weather and a safe ride to make it back. It was peak afternoon heat, however the wind although a deterrent was neutralising the heat a little. Passed by the beautiful Pamban bridge, avoided the temptation to stop and admire the beauty again and continued riding. After crossing Pamban bridge it became a case of counting down kilometers and setting short targets.

The wind and the heat made me run through my water quickly prompting a refilling stop where we had milk shake and chips as well. When we got back on the saddle, we were tired and wanted to catch up on sleep. The lookout for a bus stop to rest started, however, the ones that we came across were not clean and we had to continue riding. The hunt for a place to rest was futile and in the process we reached the outskirts of Ramanathapuram and took the turn towards Thondi.

The ride speed was dropping, we needed to make a stop for food to get going again. We reached Devipattinam town and after a failed search for a vegetarian restaurant we stopped at a store to eat banana's.

30 kilometers to get to Thondi and we hoped to get food there. We thought that the stop at the store had woken us up, however It took us under 10 kilometers to realise that we needed a sleep break and stopped when we saw a barricade next to the road. 10 minutes later I was woken up by Raghu and we resumed. My fingers were hurting a lot and I decided to remove the gloves as I felt that the pressure from the gloves was hurting the fingers. Not the time to test new routines, however, I took the chance.

I was struggling to ride after the break, the body had gone to sleep, Raghu had gone ahead. I tried to keep the pace up as much as possible and tried listening to music to get the mood up. However, it was a struggle to keep moving and I had to eat up if I wanted to continue riding. I was forcing myself to ride, which was not enjoyable. Getting closer to Thondi helped and I was able to push myself to ride hard to get to Thondi when the remaining kilometers dropped below 10.

Raghu had reached a few minutes earlier, we took the pic and it was the same case of the organiser's car being parked but the organiser was not around. He was in the room and presumably sleeping again. Galin and group came by in a couple of minutes. We went around town in search of a vegetarian restaurant, however they were closed as we had reached post 6:00 pm. We went back to the bakery to have snacks.

An hour later we started from Thondi along with Galin and group. It was good to be in a group as we were going to be riding the bad road stretch in the dark and having riders in front would help a lot. Having struggled to get to Thondi, I was apprehensive about being able to keep pace with the group and asked Raghu to ride ahead and that I would ride at my pace. The group started slowly which gave me the opportunity to warm up and I was able to keep pace with them when they cranked up the speed. Half an hour later we were at Thiruvadanai and took the turn to Devakottai. It was time to tackle the bad roads.

We went about the task with relative ease as compared to the struggles of the previous night. On this night the problem was more with the oncoming traffic rather than the rain. We were making easy work of this section when the wind speed shot up. There was a chill in the wind which was a precursor to the rain. It was a question of when rather than if it would rain and we prepared ourselves for the onslaught. I removed my socks hoping that the ploy would help in recovering from wrinkled feet faster than if I wore socks.

The rain came by in a few minutes and coupled with the wind it was treacherous conditions. I had not experienced such high wind speeds and the only positive here was that it was a cross wind and not a head wind. The wind was blowing from left to right and the speed was so high that it was pushing the cycle to the right. I gripped the handle hard to stay in control and had to ride diagonally to the left to make the correction for being pushed to the right.

Within a kilometer of riding in these conditions I could not take it anymore. A look ahead and I could see that the group were continuing and I was getting scared to ride. Controlling the cycle was becoming difficult and there was no let up in the wind. The howling from the surrounding trees gave me jitters and I doubted if I could make it out of here in one piece. Rain pelting us, high wind speed, potholed road, oncoming and passing vehicles made it a perfect recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. We struggled through this for a couple of kilometers before we came across a bus stop and all of us happily took the cycles inside and waited for the wind to subside.

Being within the safer environs of the bus stop I was able to calm down and refocus on the ride. Raghu had fallen behind since he was wearing his rain gear and we called out to him when he came by the bus stop. It was 8:15 pm and hunger was beginning to bite as we waited for the wind to slow down. We kept looking at the trees and the watch, waiting too long would leave us in nutrition debt and hoped that we could start riding soon.

It took 20 minutes for the wind to subside, the rain had changed to a drizzle and we were back on the road. Vignesh had another puncture and got to know it just before we started from the bus stop. It was a slow puncture and it was decided that he could ride till Devakottai and change the tube when we stop for dinner. We were 10 kilometers from Devakottai where we could stop for dinner. We rode quickly and pulled up at a restaurant as soon as we saw one.

An onion dosa and an omlette is what I had for dinner and caught up with a little sleep while the puncture was being fixed. Few more riders came by while we were at the restaurant. When we got ready to start, we realised that the puncture had not been fixed properly and they had to rework on it. I was fine with waiting as it meant that I could catch up with sleep, however we decided to ride and sleep later. Raghu, Yoga and I started from the restaurant at 10 pm. The move to ride without gloves had not paid dividends since my hands were hurting a lot and the gloves were back on when we restarted the ride.

We were 120 kilometers from the end control. 10 hours were available to complete the ride in time. When we started it looked like we would require all 10 hours to complete the ride. It was still drizzling when we started from Devakottai. We passed through town and rode slowly through the small roads and passed small towns on the way. Cobble stone roads, dogs, cows, these were passed and we made it to the outskirts of Karaikudi and were back on the highway. We stopped for a tea break when we saw an open bakery. The ride was slow and the breaks were only going to increase from here.

The feet were soft again on account of the rain and the damp weather. Pedaling was becoming a painful activity and I wanted to finish the ride as soon as possible. 11 pm when we got going from the bakery. We got past a stretch of bad road before getting onto good and wide roads. The ride eased out a little here, however I was slow and was playing catch up to Raghu and Yoga. I would fall behind and then lose sight of the tail lights before getting the act together and closing the gap.

This cat and mouse game continued for a further 50 minutes during which time we had knocked 20 kilometers from the route. Sleep was catching up and we had to make a stop to rest. We did not find a bus stop, found a closed shop with chairs in the front. We stopped and when we got closer we got to know that there were people inside since the television was playing. We did not care about the television and sat down on the chair and caught up with sleep. Raghu woke us up in 20 minutes and told us to get going. I was not happy with the sleep and wanted to rest for 10 more minutes. It was only when Raghu said that it was 12:10 am that I realised that we had spent 20 minutes at the stop and could not afford to spend more time. Got ready and started from the shop.

4 kilometers later we stopped again at a bakery for a tea stop. I refilled water and drank juice here. The stops were increasing and we were not making much progress. It was 12:30 am when we started from the bakery. We were around 25 kilometers from Pudukottai and 80 kilometers from the finish. We were comfortably placed on the time front with 7.5 hours available, however, with the increase in the number of breaks restarting was becoming a problem for me.

I started slowly and again the gap to Raghu and Yoga opened up. When I did catch up with them Raghu told me to go ahead and that he would catch up. I was sure that Raghu would catch up in a couple of minutes and whizz past me and kept riding. I reached Pudukottai and no sign of Raghu or Yoga. I kept looking back to look for lights, but did not find any. I rode slowly and hoped that they would catch up. I was feeling sleepy and wanted to stop. I stopped at a bus stop on the opposite side since there were no clean ones on the left side of the road.

When I woke up 10 minutes had passed and there was no sign of Raghu or Yoga. Now I was in a fix, I did not know whether they were behind me or ahead of me. Calling Raghu was futile since his phone would be on Flight Mode, I decided to continue riding.

I was riding alone, route was simple, follow the highway till I get to Trichy and then I would have to follow the map to get to the end point. The pace never went above 20 kmph from here and it was a ride where I was coasting more than pedaling. It helped that I got a few downhill stretches with no wind enabling me to carry speed and have a relaxed ride. Passed by Keeranur, stopped for a while near a railway bridge as the train had to pass and then resumed the ride. As I got closer to Trichy I was beginning to fight sleep. The ride was becoming risky and I was not keen on taking a risk although I was close to the finish.

I stopped when I was 18 kilometers from the finish and took a nap at a bus stop for 10 minutes. Just when I stopped Galin and group went ahead. I slept for 10 minutes, was feeling better so started and rode into Trichy limits. In a short while I passed the airport and that was confirmation that I was almost done with the ride.

Entering the city made me feel good. However, the last few kilometers always takes ages. Following the map holding the phone in the hand made it difficult with the roads not being in very good shape. The hands had taken a beating during the ride and were being subjected to a lot of pain just before the finish. I caught up with Kali who had got separated from Galin and group and rode with him. The map showed 2 kilometers remaining, however I did not know where I was and made sense of the route when I saw the Track and Trail store. 200 meters more and we reached the service apartment where we were welcomed by the volunteers.

Raghu came by in 2 minutes and I was surprised to see that he was behind. Galin, Balaji, Vignesh and Bavitran had reached at 4:20 am. Kali and me at 4:35 am. Raghu came by at 4:37 am and Yoga 5 minutes later. Got to know that Raghu had slept and therefore was behind me. The time I thought that he had gone ahead, he was still behind.

We were given our medals for completing the brevet. We headed up to the room, freshened up and slept. My legs were in bad shape as they were crumpled, hoped that I would recover by the time I woke up. When we woke up at 7:00 am, the other riders had begun to stream in. Legs were still in bad shape and walking was pretty painful. Swamy, Raju and Guru came in around 7:30 am. Sridhar came in at 7:50 am. The ride had pretty impressive stats wherein 46 riders finished within time, 5 finished late and remaining 15 riders did not finish.

By the time we collected the drop bags, had breakfast and started from Trichy it was 11:00 am. We were still tired and juggled the driving duties, with Raghu shouldering most of the driving duties we made it to Bangalore at 7:00 pm. Rode back home from BTM layout and reached at 7:30 pm just in time to catch the Brazil vs. Mexico pre-quarterfinals of the football world cup.