Basavanabetta Revisited

Date: 14 October 2017

Total distance: 185 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:15 am

Return Time:  17:00 pm

With: Rajkumar Khot

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala - Basavanabetta - Koramangala

Nandi Hills was done and it was time to crank up the difficulty level of the climb. The obvious choice was Basavana Betta as it would confirm if I could climb. I checked with Rajkumar if he would join and he confirmed. We decided to start at 4:30 am on Saturday morning if it did not rain.

It did rain, however there was no damage and I could ride. The only issue was that I  was hit with a bout of sleep at the wrong time. I switched off the alarm and went back to bed to catch an additional 5 minutes of sleep. However I woke up only at 4:30 am when Rajkumar called. I told him that it would take me an hour at least and that we would meet at silk board junction at 5:30 am.

I got ready and started from my house at 5:15 am. A few meters out of the house and I realised that I had not worn gloves. Although I thought I could ride without gloves, better sense prevailed and I turned back home. Took the gloves and rode towards silk board junction.

I reached at 5:30 am, Rajkumar was waiting and we started the ride. It was still dark and riding on Bangalore roads has become treacherous especially on a road bike. We rode through pot holed roads which were filled with water and made slow progress. When we got onto Kanakpura road it got worse with the Metro construction the road is in very bad shape and before long all the effort of washing the cycle and wearing clean clothes was down the drain. The cycle was covered in slush and so were my clothes with the kick back from the wheel.

I was relieved when I made it to the NICE junction as the road improves after this, however I was immediately reminded by a bus driver not to take it easy when he tried to push us off the road just to prove to us that the road belonged to him. I don't understand why these drivers get offended at having to slow down when it is just a simple movement of the feet on the accelerator to get them going again as against a cyclist who will have to put in a lot of effort to get back to the same speed.

We made it to Kaggalipura in 75 minutes, we had not lost a lot of time in spite of the bad roads and traffic. Just as we reached the Edify school Rajkumar beckoned to me to take the pipeline road instead of the highway. I was riding on the pipeline road for the first time. It is  a narrow road and has minimal traffic. The road was good till we cut across the highway. From here the road was filled with potholes and at many places as the pot holes were filled with water we could not judge the depth of the hole and rode past them tenderly hoping that we would not end up in the pothole. We rejoined the highway a few kilometers after Harohalli.

The ride to Kanakpura was quick after rejoining the highway as it was downhill gradient. I got to see the Arkavathi River in full force for the first time, the heavy rains in Bangalore had filled the river and I watched it flowing towards Sangam where it merges with the Kaveri river. It was 8:00 am when we reached Kanakpura. We stopped at the famous Vasu hotel for breakfast. I had bisi bele bath and Rajkumar has Masala Dosa. Since the coffee here is famous, I had a cup of coffee.

We started the ride towards Basavana Betta at 8:30 am. The ride out of Kanakpura is difficult because of the uphill gradient. Although I did not want to think about the legs and the tiredness setting in, it invariably crops up at the first sight of the hill. Doubts began to creep in as we were getting closer to the hill and I was not sure if I had the legs as well as enough gears on the cycle to get me to the top. I had become accustomed to the 14-32 chain ring at the rear on the Btwin and had serious doubts if I could climb the hill with a 12-26 chain ring. There was no time for any further preparation, the hill was approaching soon and I would know the answer in a short while.

I wanted to slow down a little before starting the climb to get some energy back in the legs, however a favorable gradient was not letting me do it and I was approaching the turn to Basavanahalli quickly. Crossed Satanur and just before Halagur, we took the turn to Basavanahalli. The gradient begins to increase from this point and as we approached the base of the climb I told Rajkumar to shift into the low gears as the climb hits us suddenly and changing gears becomes difficult. I shifted into the lowest gear and started the climb at 9:40 am.

The climb started easily and I was able to change into a higher gear before getting back down to the lowest gear when the gradient kicked in. It did not take long before I began to think about the remaining distance and had to keep reminding myself that the gradient would let up and I kept pushing myself to continue riding. I was concentrating hard on continuing to pedal that I did not realise that I had left Rajkumar behind, and did think about stopping and waiting for him. However, I was beginning to cramp a little and knew that stopping at that point would make it difficult for me as I will have a tough time to ride if the cramp set in. I opted to continue riding and stop if the legs began to cramp. I was able to manage as I minimised riding off the saddle and remained in the saddle. The gradient took a while a let up and when it did let up it was for a short while, just enough for me to catch my breath. The gradient kicked up again, the kilometer stones were appearing after very long time and when they did come I was not able to catch a glimpse of the remaining distance as I was only concentrating on the road and pedaling.

It took a while, when I made it to the small downhill and then the climb to the Forest Office. As it was just a short distance I pushed myself and got to the forest office and realised that the road continues on its uphill gradient further. I had expected it to ease out at this point and was a little disappointed that it continued to climb, however as it was just a further kilometer to the temple, which is the end of the road I kept pedaling. It took a further 5 minutes to get to the temple. I was overjoyed that I had climbed to the top without a stop and was able to manage without cramping. Further I had made it to the top in 40 minutes which is a personal best for me. My confidence in climbing is increasing, however I know that there is scope for a lot of improvement.

Rajkumar came by in 5 minutes and we went to the temple. As the climb was done and since we had not stopped for pics, we decided to stop for pics on the way down. We started off at the temple and we made intermittent stops on the downhill. It is a steep descent, as I am not very confident with the brakes on the trek I was taking it easy and did not try to make it a high speed descent.

About a kilometer from the base we stopped at a hair pin bend and shot a few videos of us climbing and the downhill with my phone. It helped that there was no one around, with absolutely zero humans/vehicles the road belonged to us. We spent a good 20 minutes at the same spot before resuming the ride back.

Once we were downhill, we stopped at a shop to refill on water and had juice. It was around 12:00 pm when we started from the shop. Kanakpura was not very far off and it looked like an easy ride till Kanakpura. We had done a few kilometers when the gradient began to kick in and the Sun was out finally. Only issue was that it was out at a time when we needed the shade. The Sun sapped our energy and we realised that we were low on energy and had to stop for lunch. The ride to Kanakpura was proving to be difficult. I was happy when we reached the downhill section to Kanakpura and when we entered the town I enquired with Rajkumar about lunch, he said that we should ride out of town and stop at Mandarathi hotel. Both of us were under the assumption that the restaurant was about 2 kilometers from town, however, it was around 7 kilometers from town. This was a difficult ride and we had a tough time getting to the restaurant.

We had a relaxed lunch. Juice, starter and a meal. I was still hungry and though I wanted to fill up, better sense prevailed and I opted to get onto the saddle since we still had 50 kilometers to ride. The Sun had gone back behind the clouds which made things easier. Although the weather had eased out, I was struggling a little to keep the pace up on the climbs. As we got closer to Harohalli, the weather was cooler and the roads were wet from a passing shower. We did not get caught in the shower and were riding in cool temperatures.

The ride from Harohalli to Kaggalipura was monotonous with the road having become repetitive. However things began to worsen when we got into the city. The morning ride through the city had been very difficult as the roads were bad and filled with slush, the return in the city was worse than the morning ride. Bad roads led to a lot of traffic and riding through pot holed roads with slush was not very appealing. Riding a road bike through these roads was very painful and I couldn't wait to get home. The ride was painful from the time we hit the Metro construction on Kanakpura Road till I got home and the road on most stretches was very bad.

I was happy to get home. I did not enjoy the start and finish of the ride but then the climb was satisfying and a good workout. The state of Bangalore roads is deteriorating and there is no sign of any improvement with the rainy season not abating. Will have to discount any ride for the time being within Bangalore as the roads are fit enough only for an MTB.