Budigere

Date: 14 April 2018

Total distance: 97 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:00 am

Return Time:  9:15 am

With: Rohit Bidkar

Altitude Profile:

Koramangala – Devanahalli - Budigere - Koramangala

The Fleche is scheduled for 21 April. We had put together a team and I was now looking to get a little practice in. I did not want to miss the opportunity to put in a small ride the week before the Fleche and with limited time was considering doing Nandi Hills. Rohit Bidkar messaged and enquired if I would join for the weekend ride. I was more than happy to join. Rohit had planned to ride to Devanahalli and return through Budigere. It was the ideal distance considering that I had about 5 hours for it on this weekend. I decided to ride the MTB as I had not lubed the road bike and also wanted to avoid a cleaning session before the Fleche.

As discussed over the call, I was ready at 5:00 am and within a couple of minutes of reaching Sony World Signal Rohit arrived as well. It was still dark and I switched on the lights when we reached the Inner Ring Road. The light lasted two minutes and then it went dead. I had charged it about a week ago, but the battery was drained. It was not a problem as we were in the city and the street lights helped with the visibility. Further Rohit had his lights on as well.

We rode past Indiranagar and then got onto the Outer Ring Road. The warm was done and we picked up the pace on the ring road. The familiarity with this section of the road is increasing and with it the pace also is on the ride. We rode quickly and as we got close to Hebbal we passed a few cyclists. When we took the turn towards Hebbal it was daybreak and I was happy that I did not have to worry about the lights anymore.

The warm up had been done and we were both in a good rhythm now. Moreover, the route being familiar it was easy riding and it was quick. Surprisingly, we did not pass any cyclists on the route and also the number of bikers was less as compared to the previous occasions when I had ridden here. We had reached the airport toll when we were passed by Aijaz and we chatted with him as he rode towards Nandi Hills. Aijaz rode ahead and we stopped just before reaching Devanahalli to have coconut water to replenish the electrolytes before resuming the ride.

We reached Devanahalli in a short while and took the turn towards Budigere. The traffic reduced, however, the traffic from here comprised of heavy vehicles and we had to be careful whenever we were being passed by one as road work is in progress and only one lane was available.

As we got closer to Budigere, we crossed the section where road work was in progress and we were able to ride quickly again. The agricultural fields were filled with marigold and other flowers and many were being prepared in anticipation of the rains. Another addition to this route is the number of provision stores which have come up. On the previous ride we found it difficult to find one store to be able to eat a few biscuits. This time there were a lot of them, however, we did not require them as we were riding quickly and reached Old Madras Road before breakfast time.

As it was still early for breakfast, we decided to stop for a coconut water and then head home for breakfast. We stopped just before the KR Puram flyover and re-energised with the coconut water.

The restart was quick as we raced to the top of the flyover and then took it easy and had a relaxed ride home. It was a good workout ride and I enjoyed being on the bike, although it was only for a few hours.