Hassan (400 Kilometer Brevet)

Date: 18 June 2016

Total distance: 404 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:45 am

Return Time:  6:15 am

With: Rajkumar Khot

Altitude Profile:
Lavelle Road – Arasikere – Hassan – Channarayapatna – Lavelle Road

All the plans with respect to preparing for the ride could not be executed. The plan to work on the quads before the ride had also not been executed. To add to it, the trek to Kudremukh the previous weekend had left me physically drained. Not feeling right about the ride got me down mentally as well. Deliberated quite a lot and looked for reasons to cancel the ride. However, decided to go for it so that even if I don't finish  I will know that it was not due to lack of trying. Knew that I would struggle, however, as I knew 40% of the route, was hoping that the  knowledge would serve me well during the ride.

I got the cycle ready for the ride. Removed the stand, got rid of the medical kit with the exception of Savlon and band aids. Essentially, I tried to do away with any excess weight. Considering the weather, and also the threat of rain, I decided to wear a jacket. I did not want to freeze at night and also after the rain, if and when it happened. The usual snickers, electrobion, power bank, spare tubes, puncture repair kit, lubricant, batteries were all packed into the saddle bag and handle bar bag's.

Woke up at 4:15 am, got ready and was off by 4:45 am from home. Reached Airlines hotel at 5:15 am and saw that only few riders had arrived. The early morning start had caught everyone off guard. The crowd picked up within 5 minutes and as the clock ticked towards 5:30 am, people started getting fidgety since 5:30 am was the scheduled start. There was a delay in the start and it was 5:45 am when we were flagged off. Buffer time of 15 minutes was given for the finish as the start had been delayed, we had to finish by 8:45 am the next day, if not the ride would not count.

The start was decent and pretty quick, it hardly took any time to get to the Yeshwantpur station. From here, the ride got a little slower because of the gradient and also due to the wind. The wind was back to haunt me and it slowed things down, however it was not as bad as the 300 km brevet to Palamaner. This time I was mentally prepared for the wind and did not allow it to affect me too much. I continued to pedal and did not try to increase the speed to overcome the wind and also did not panic when the average speed was below the 20 kmph mark. Rajkumar and I rode together and we had a lot of other riders around us for company. It is an encouraging sign when you have a cyclist in your eye line and have a little bit of catching up to do. It did not matter that I was not able to catch up, however, it took my mind off the gradient and the wind.

As we approached Tumkur, a lot of riders decided to stop for breakfast. Rajkumar and I decided that we would ride on and would stop for breakfast after the first control point. We rode on and hit the Tumkur ring road. Mid way through the ring road, we saw the Karnataka Bank ATM and stopped to take the selfie as proof for having reached the location. It was 8:50 am, we had done 71 kilometers in 3 hours. The timing was good in spite of the wind and to my surprise I was in line with the budgeted time. We rode on and as soon as we got off the ring road, we saw a few other cyclists, around 4 of them, who were the lead group had stopped for breakfast. We stopped at the next hotel and ordered Thatte Idli's. It took some time for the idli's to be served, however it was not very good and I could barely manage to eat. Filled up on water and was ready to start riding.

I knew that from this point on the ride till Tiptur was going to be tough, before it eases out a bit till Arasikere and then the day's toughest part was lined up from Arasikere to Hassan. However, having done the ride till Tiptur as part of the Goa trip, I expected the ride to be easier than when I had done it earlier. I had started to cramp a bit when I reached Tumkur. I hoped that the breakfast rest would have helped. The ride started and went fine till I reached Gubbi. The cramps were at bay, however, the breeze had picked up. After Gubbi, when the gradient changed to uphill riding, I could not keep pace with Rajkumar and began to struggle. Rajkumar went ahead and soon I did not have anyone in sight and riding became pretty difficult since I did not have anything to distract me from the wind. 30 minutes of slow riding and all the cyclists behind me had caught up and went past me. I did not try to keep pace with them as I knew that it would affect the body and I decided to ride at my pace.

The clock ticked past 12:00 pm and I still had over 20 kilometers to reach Tiptur. The energy supply from the breakfast had been expended and I was hungry and had to refill soon. However, considering that I had not reached Tiptur I continued to pedal. I passed by few of the cyclists as they had stopped for lunch. As I rode on Vikas Ruperelia caught up with me and we rode together chatting about the ride and the difficulties. A few kilometers ahead Rajkumar was waiting for me; he had waited almost half an hour. That's the amount of time that I had lost over 40 kilometers of riding. The slow speed continued as we rode on and the clock ticked past 1:00 pm, I still had 10 kilometers to go for Tiptur, saw the board for Rama Anjaneya restaurant which was ahead and decided to stop there for lunch. Vikas had ridden ahead and had stopped, Rajkumar was not very keen as he had just had a nice rest, however, I was famished and wanted to stop. It was 1:15 pm when we reached the restaurant; freshened up and ordered South Indian Meals. Gururajan also stopped and joined us for lunch. 2 chapattis, a little rice bath and sufficient white rice with all the usual accompaniments and vermicelli payasam, a choco bar and 45 minutes of rest was just what the doctor had ordered. I was refreshed and ready to get back on the saddle.

We started the ride at 2:00 pm and it did not take long for Rajkumar and Guru to open the gap again. Vikas was having a leisurely ride and I was somewhere in between, so I was riding alone again, however this time I had Rajkumar in my eye line. It took about 30 minutes for the energy supply to kick in I guess, because I closed the gap and caught up with Rajkumar and Guru and was able to keep pace with them as well. Rode at a decent speed and made good progress towards Arasikere. As we got closer to Arasikere, the road had long descents which helped ease the pressure on the legs and also importantly gave recovery time to handle the next climb. We reached Arsikere at 3:15 pm and quickly found the Corporation Bank check point and took the selfie.

The most difficult part of the 400 km brevet was coming up and I knew that I had to get through to Hassan unscathed if I had to complete this ride. We took the left from Arasikere and then a right again towards Hassan. I had expected the wind to change to a tail wind in this section, however, taking the right again had changed the wind back to a diagonal head wind. Wind would be a deterrent again and not be a help to get through this section. I had to stop to refill on water, Rajkumar had already ridden away and I had Vikas for company. The two of us rode on and were enjoying the rural roads and as we got past each uphill, the thought process was that this is not too difficult. I had misread the elevation map and thought that the climb was only for about 8 kilometers after we take the turn towards Hassan and if I get past the 8 kilometers, I would be home and dry. As soon as I got past the 8 kilometers, I was very happy that the climbing was not difficult and that I had made it through, however, what lay ahead was a climb up a small hill and then the gradient eased but the wind picked up making the downhill also seem like climbs.

As soon as the hill started my speed spiraled down. I was down to 6-9 kmph and within 5 minutes I had a host of cyclists overtaking me. I continued pedaling, even though I was slow, I did not want to stop, made slow progress and every passing kilometer was a small boost. Every time the road evened out after a climb, I hoped that it would be the last climb, however the climb did not end. I still had about 20 kilometers to go for Hassan when I caught up with Vikas, a few cyclists had stopped to rest, we continued to pedal. The traffic was heavy as we got closer to Hassan, being a two lane road, on a lot of occasions I had to back off the pedaling due to a oncoming/passing truck or bus which cost me momentum and as a result a lot of time was added to the ride. I stuck to pedaling, in spite of being slow, knowing that only after I reached Hassan things would get easier.

The last 10 kilometers to Hassan had a lot of climbing with strong head winds which was energy sapping. With about 6 kilometers to go, we get to see Hassan city in the horizon and this worked as an energy booster as we can see the target. It did not take long to get into the city, however, when we get to within a kilometer of the check point, it seemed like the check point is just not arriving. I had thought that Hotel Ramaa was on the Belur highway and was riding towards the highway when to my pleasant surprise, the hotel arrived about a kilometer before where I had expected it. It was 6:20 pm and I was mighty relieved to reach the check point. A host of cyclists were all seated on the grass and relaxing. The volunteers welcomed me to the check point. Rajkumar had reached almost an hour earlier and was relaxing. He told me to fill up on the food front so that it will serve me well for the return.

Puliyogare and curd rice was served and there was Pepsi, although I am not a fan of carbonated drinks and prefer fruit juices, I dug into the Pepsi and almost finished half of the 2 litre bottle even before I knew it. It was like the body was thirsting for fluids and I was just gulping down whatever was available. I got the brevet card sealed and slowly started getting ready to leave the check point. What was good at this point was that all the cyclists that were at the checkpoint, around 15 of us were getting ready to leave at around the same time. Only 2 cyclists had reached by around 5:15 pm and had left the checkpoint at 5:30 pm. The remaining 15 cyclists who had reached the check point were all together. Jins and Harish told us that there were two route options for the return, one which would join the highway immediately, however was 5 kilometers more than the route which goes through the city and joins the highway. Surprisingly, almost all the cyclists opted for route one, which would add 5 extra kilometers to the ride, I and Vikas were all for riding through the city and although Rajkumar was not convinced, he also opted for the shorter route. We started from the check point at 7:00 pm.

We had to ride about 80 kilometers to the next checkpoint which was the Coffee Day at Bellur Cross. A quick calculation and the target was to reach the Coffee Day by 11:00 pm. Also, the gradient was going to be a general downhill and that was an added incentive. I do not know whether it was the puliyogare, or that the wind had ceased or the downhill or a combination of all these, I was riding like a man possessed and was speeding towards Bellur Cross. The uphill's which followed the downhill was averaging the speed, however, on the whole it was a very good ride. It took about 45 minutes before we caught up with two cyclists from the group who had started about 10 minutes before us. Rajkumar and I rode on, however Vikas joined the other two riders to take a break. We rode on and reached Channarayapatna by 8:30 pm. We still had 150 kilometers to go to get to Bangalore. The ride till Channarayapatna was very quick, things slowed down just a tad from here since the slope of the downhill reduced. Kept pedaling as fast as I could and slightly below the limit so that I do not start cramping. Good 2 hours of pedaling and we had brought the remaining distance to Bangalore to around 100 kilometers. As we reached Bellur Cross, we started to look out for the Coffee Day and the sight of the Coffee Day was an energy booster in itself. We reached Coffee Day at 10:45 pm and as it was on the other side of the road, we crossed and when we went inside, we were told that only 2 cyclists had arrived before us and they had left just 15 minutes earlier. They were the guys who had left the check point at 5:30 pm. We had almost caught up with them and although I wanted to start from Coffee Day immediately, better sense prevailed and I opted to eat up and fill the stomach. I ordered Egg Wrap and Veg Biriyani and freshened up and waited for the food.

The thing that I do not like about coffee day is that they take a lot of time to serve the order. It took almost 30 minutes by the time they served us. I had planned to make only a 30 minute stop, however, the food arrived late and we had to push the exit time a little further. Just as we got down to eating, the rest of the group started arriving at Coffee Day. A little chit chat as we ate and we got to know that the group is planning to sleep for about an hour before resuming. I did not want to do that as that would be running the clock too close especially considering that we have to climb back to Bangalore. Also, I was apprehensive about punctures and any other mechanical delays and wanted to have a buffer time for it as well. Rajkumar was also not keen on sleeping as he was pretty sure that if he sleeps he will not wake up for another 8 hours at least.

We decided that we would leave and got ready. It was 11:45 pm when we headed to the cycles, I made a cursory check on the tires and to my dismay the back tire was punctured. It looked like a pinch flat since there was some air left in the tire.       It's not what I wanted however, I had changed quite a lot of tubes in the past week and was confident that it was a 10 minute job. Took out the spare tube, by which time Rajkumar had dismantled the tire and started working on removing the tire from the rim. First road block, the tire was not ready to budge. It took about 10 minutes to get the tire off the rim itself. We removed the tube and pumped a little air into the new tube with the hand pump and got down to fixing the tire back into the rim. Another 10 minutes and all we had to do was pump air into the tube. I started pumping and the hand pump gave way, it broke, now I was in a dilemma. Rajkumar meanwhile went hunting around the other bikes and came back with a hand pump and fortunately, not only did the air get pumped, the tire was inflated to a good pressure. I was confident that the speed would not be affected as the tire pressure was good. We quickly reassembled the tire back onto the cycle and put the tools in and crossed the road to leave. It was 12:15 pm, we had taken 30 minutes to fix the flat.

I braced myself for a difficult 100 kilometers and hoped that there would be no further issues on the road. We quickly made it to Yadiyur and as I approached Kunigal, Rajkumar was not behind. I slowed down a little hoping that he would catch up, however, he was not to be seen. I stopped and waited for approximately 5 minutes before he came by and said that he had missed the flyover and had gone towards Kunigal before returning. We resumed riding and made good progress towards Solur which is the town before Nelamangala. We were 12 kilometers from Solur when I felt the impact of the ride for the first time during the night. I struggled on an uphill and Rajkumar noticing that said that we should take a break. We found a bus stop within the next kilometer and stopped to rest. 15 minutes went past in a flash and it did not feel like we had rested at all. I munched on a snicker and told Rajkumar that we should get going, if not we would find it difficult to get into the rhythm. It was 3:00 am when we started. We had 56 kilometers to get to Bangalore.

Although we were comfortably placed with respect to the time, we did not back off the pace. Surprisingly I was able to pedal at the same speed from the time we started from Hassan and also, the gradient was not as bad as I had expected. We passed Solur and a few climbs later, we could see Nelamangala in the horizon. We had a nice downhill as well as we got closer to Nelamangala which was more than welcome at that stage. It was 4:30 am, as we made the turn from Nelamangala towards Bangalore, I started to think of the climbing required and knew that the last climb would be near Windsor Manor. The thought process was that once I have made it past Windsor Manor, the ride would be as good as done and things would ease out. However, Windsor Manor was still 25 kilometers away and we needed to make it that far. As the road started to climb, I was beginning to feel cold and knew that I had to refill with some food, if not this would be 25 very long kilometers. Unfortunately, nothing was available at the time, I pushed myself to get to Peenya so that we could get something. I was hoping that I could drink a cup of hot tea to warm the body and also a few biscuits would do just fine to get me to the finish line. However, as we approached Peenya, I could not get my mind off the tea and it was wearing me down mentally, I told Rajkumar that we had to stop and take a break. I did not want to eat snickers as I was bored with it, however, being the last option, I gobbled one up before resuming the ride.

At Peenya, I requested Rajkumar not to take the flyover, instead we rode below and at daybreak we had made it to Yeshwantpur. We rode slowly and steadily and counted down the uphill's, and one last push to get through the Windsor Manor climb and the ride eased out after that. We rode easily through to Airline hotel from here. It was 6:15 am when we arrived and I was very happy that we had reached.

Quickly went to the volunteers car and drank pepsi and ate a banana and the energy level was up. Submitted the brevet card and got it sealed. Then we just sat on the foot path and relaxed. As the clock ticked, I was in no mood to get up and leave the place. It was almost an hour after which Rajkumar said that we should get going. The ride back home was pretty painful as I felt the saddle sore. As long as there was time pressure, the saddle sore was not a concern, however, the 6 kilometer ride from the finish to home was very painful and I was happy to be home, but happier that I had completed the ride.

Ride Details:

From	To	Distance	Ride Time (hrs)	Total Time (hrs)	Departure Time	Arrival Time	Avg Speed
Lavelle Road	Tumkur	70	3.25	3.25	5:45	9:00	21.54
Tumkur	Tiptur	80	4.00	5.25	9:00	2:15	20.00
Tiptur	Hassan	70	4.00	4.00	2:15	6:15	17.50
Hassan	Bellur Cross	78	3.75	4.50	6:15	10:45	20.80
Bellur Cross	Nelamangala	78	4.00	5.75	10:45	4:30	19.50
Nelamangala	Lavelle Road	28	1.50	1.75	4:30	6:15	18.67
		404	20.50	24.50			19.71