MC's Cycling Diary

Date: 1 December 2017 - 3 December 2017 Total distance: 603 Kilometers Start Time: 4:00 pm 1 December 2017 Return Time:  5:10 am 3 December 2017 With: Rajkumar Khot, Ruban Raju Altitude Profile: Kanteerava Stadium – Krishnagiri - Yercaud - Krishnagiri - Yelagiri - Krishnagiri - Kanteerava Stadium I played a couple of hockey matches during the previous weekend and that left me drained. I could barely recover from the effects of the game which had left my hamstring muscles in bad shape. By the time I could recover the 600KM ride was on me and I had to risk getting onto the saddle without having ridden during the previous 2 weeks. Further, the weather turned just before the start of the ride. Cyclone Ockhi had hit the Tamil Nadu Coast and was on its way towards Lakshadweep Islands. It has been raining through the day and has me worried as I am dreading riding in the rain for the entire distance and having to do it with head/cross winds which is also a huge possibili...

Date: 18 November 2017 Total distance: 408 Kilometers Start Time: 6:00 am 18 November 2017 Return Time:  3:00 am 19 November 2017 With: Rajkumar Khot Altitude Profile: Kanteerava Stadium – Tumkur - Devarayanadurga - Pavagada - Penukonda - Lepakshi - Chikkaballapur - Kanteerava Stadium The minute Mohan Sir announced that the 400km BRM would be to Lepakshi I was excited about it as I had not been to the place. However, I knew that just riding to Lepakshi would not be 400km as the route from Bellary road is just about 120 kilometers and expected that it would be a ride from Tumkur Road or from Old Madras road where we would have to circle round to Lepakshi before heading back. Being a brevet I had written off visiting the place and was down to experiencing the road rather than the destination. When the route was finalised it was a ride to Tumkur from where we had to ride to Devarayandurga, then to Madhugiri, Pavagada, Penukonda before starting the return and on the ...

Date: 11 November 2017 Total distance: 304 Kilometers Start Time: 6:00 am Return Time:  9:15 pm With: Rajkumar Khot Altitude Profile: Kanteerava Stadium – Horsley Hills - Kanteerava Stadium We were back from a very good 2 day tour in which we had climbed Yercaud and my confidence was on a high. The 300 BRM to Horsley Hills was scheduled for 11 November 2017 and I was looking forward to the climb. The ride day arrived very soon and before we knew it Rajkumar messaged saying that he would be at my place at 5:00 am and we could leave together. I set up the cycle and set the alarm for 4:00 am and slept at 11:00 pm. I woke up promptly when the alarm rang and got ready. It was 4:45 am when I was down and ready to leave. I received a call from Rajkumar at 5:00 am and he said that he has a flat in the rear wheel and that he would come after fixing it. I waited for Rajkumar and as the clock ticked past 5:30 am I assumed that we would be making a late start today. ...

Date: 4 November 2017 Total distance: 307 Kilometers Start Time: 4:00 am 4 November 2017 Return Time:  12:00 pm 5 November 2017 With: Rajkumar Khot The 200km brevet was done on Wednesday, and even though I had not yet recovered I wanted to ride on the weekend. The legs were still hurting from the 200 km ride, however, I was sure that I could handle the ride. I checked with Rajkumar if he would accompany for the ride and he proposed that we ride to Hogenakkal, Mettur Dam and then to Yercaud. We had one and a half days to do this and planned to load the cycle onto the bus and come back to Bangalore. Although Yercaud was part of the 600km brevet in a month's time we decided to ride to Yercaud since this would give us an opportunity to explore the place and also test our climbing skills. The route to Hogenakkal and then to Mettur Dam was also rolling terrain giving us a good opportunity to tune in for the upcoming rides. We decided to start at 4:00 am so that we ...