Budigere

Date: 20 November 2016

Total distance: 95 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:00 am

Return Time:  10:45 am

With: Madhusudan

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala – Devanahalli - Budigere – Koramangala

We had gone for a couple of night rides in the city during the week. I was not free on Saturday and checked if anyone would want to ride on Sunday to Manchanabele. I had thought of Manchanabele since it would be an easy ride and would encourage the relatively new starters to join for the ride, however only Madhusudan confirmed. Madhusudan and I have already ridden to Manchanabele and I checked if he would be willing to ride to Basavanbetta. He said that he would have to be back by 11:00 am and would prefer riding to Nandi Hills. I was fine with any location and agreed and said that we should leave at 4:00 am and could target getting back by 12:00 pm. However, Madhusudan said that he would prefer leaving only at 4:30 am. The reply was a pointer to me that the ride would not be to Nandi Hills and the destination in all probability would be the airport toll. I was not too concerned as I only wanted to ride and was fine with a relaxed ride without time pressure to get to any place.

I woke up promptly at 3:30 am and got ready by 4:15 am. The wait started and at 4:30 am, when I had not received a call from Madusudan the alarm bells were ringing. I called and his phone was not getting connected, the alarm bells were now loud and I had almost written off Madhusudan accompanying me for the ride. I tried one last time at 4:40 am and this time the phone rang but there was no answer. I was reconsidering whether I had to ride when Madhusudan called and said he would come in 5 minutes. I got the cycles out and was riding near the house when Madhusudan arrived. We started at 4:55 am and went to Chetan's house to collect the MTB tubes. We finally started the ride at 5:00 am after collecting the tubes from Chetan's house.

The first 5 kilometers of the ride was all about seeing a host of dogs on the streets and hoping that they would not attack us. As soon as we had crossed the first few kilometers, Madhususan was in the zone and was riding very fast. He was zipping through the city and I was playing catch up. When I did get to him I told him that he was riding very fast and that he should relax a bit. However, I also did think that his speed was a confirmation that he would not be riding to Nandi Hills and was looking for a shorter ride. We slowed down a little and took a break after the Hebbal flyover. Madhusudan was looking tired and said that he would return. It was only 6:00 am and I convinced him to ride a little further and moreover was able to get him to ride on the flyover as well.

The ride on the flyover was quick and Madhusudan seemed to have recovered. We rode below the flyover when we reached Yelahanka and made a small stop since the rear tire was rubbing against the brake pad. I tried to fix it and was only able to make a adjustment to minimise the problem. The brake pad was still rubbing against the wheel, however the cycle was rideable. A look at the time and we were doing pretty well on the time front which served as motivation for Madhusudan to continue till the airport toll.

On the way to the airport toll I did broach the topic of returning via Budigere instead of taking the Airport Road. Madhusudan was not willing and said that we should stick to the same route. He was concerned on the time front and did not want to ride additional kilometers to get back. When we reached the airport toll it was 6:50 am and Madhusudan was surpirsed that we had reached so early and said that we should ride for a further 30 minutes before returning. The road ahead was mainly downhill and we were at Devanahalli at 7:15 am. We took a tea break and Madhu sipped his tea he said that we could ride to Budigere only if the distance would be the same as taking the airport road. We checked on Google maps and the distance through Budigere to get back home was 50 kilometers and via airport road was 44 kilometers, the small difference of 6 kilometers was not a deterrent and Madhu agreed to take the Budigere route.

The incentive to ride on the Budigere route was that it is supposed to be scenic. I was keen to ride on the route having heard about it and I finally had the opportunity to ride this route. I was excited, however Madhu was tired and had not recovered from the morning ride, we made slow progress. However the positive was that the road was empty with hardly any traffic as we were passing through villages. The landscape changed from buildings to agricultural fields. We stopped to click a few pics of farmers tilling their land and the fields and also doubled it up as a break. We realised that we were behind the airport when we saw flights taking off. It was a cloudy day and the flights were appearing from the clouds and disappearing into the horizon.

We continued the ride and it was rolling terrain. The uphills were done slowly and the downhill was used to relax. As a result of the failed monsoon the fields were mostly dry and this would have been more scenic if all the fields had agricultural produce. The roads were relatively empty, however the few vehicles which were on the road were pretty irritating since they were unnecessarily honking. The traffic pattern changed after we got to Budigere. Heavy vehicles increased and we were often pushed off the road. Madhu was feeling the effects of the ride and we stopped for a break. There was a tamarind tree around and I tried to find a ripe tamarind. I could not find any and we ended up tasting a raw tamarind which was very sour.

We continued the ride and within a few kilometers we had to stop for breakfast, however since we were still on interior roads there were only small eateries where debit cards are not accepted. Having only a Rs 2,000 note and a Rs 100 note in the wallet as there was no change available for the amount in the vicinity, we had to restrict ourselves to eating bananas, biscuit and juice for Rs 40 instead of a proper breakfast.

The ride continued and as we got closer to Old Madras Road we could see the apartment complexes rising up to the sky. The scenic route was over and we were heading back into the concrete jungle. We made it to the Old Madras Road and rode on the flyovers and within a short while were at the KR Puram hanging bridge. I tried to race up the bridge but realised that I am still short on the fitness front when I backed off the pace with about 50 meters of the climb still remaining. I stopped and waited for Madhu who was putting in a huge effort to get to the top.

We took a small break at the top and continued knowing that the ride was as good as over as soon as we got to the top of the bridge. As we got closer to the house I tried to convince Madhusudan to ride for a further 5 kilometers so that we could make this a 100 kilometer ride. However, Madhu was not willing and did not want to extend the ride anymore. We rode straight for home and reached at 10:45 am. It was a relaxed Sunday morning ride and another century ride (using the rounding off concept) for Madhu.

Ride Details:

From	To	Distance	Ride Time (hrs)	Total Time (hrs)	Departure Time	Arrival Time	Avg Speed
Koramangala	Devanahalli	44	2.00	2.25	5:00	7:15	22.00
Devanahalli	Koramangala	51	2.75	3.50	7:15	10:45	18.55
		95	4.75	5.75			20.00