Mandya (200 Kilometer Brevet)

Date: 25 March 2016

Total distance: 200 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:45 pm

Return Time: 4:05 am

With: -

Altitude Profile:
Lavelle Road – Mandya – Lavelle Road

Bangalore Randonneurs are organizing a 200 kilometer brevet ride, Bangalore – Mandya-Bangalore on 25 March 2016. As soon as I saw the ride, I registered for it since it was a 200 kilometer ride and it was being done on a route with which I am familiar. From the past experience, the route is not a difficult one, however, the challenges that I foresee for the ride is the recovery from the Achilles Tendon Rupture, hope that it will hold, next being that I will be riding in a group in which I do not know any of the riders, and that it is going to be a night ride. I have not done a full night ride and this would be the first time that I will be riding through the night. It is exciting and at the same time there are doubts in my mind about being able to do it. I am confident that if it was a day ride, I would have been able to do it, however, since it is a night ride, I do not know if tiredness will set in because of the sleep time that the body clock is accustomed to. Only way to find out is to do the ride and see how the body reacts.

All my rides done till date have been as per my own rules and regulations, in this ride I will have to adhere to the rules laid down by the organizers. Not that I will have a problem following the rules, however, getting the cycle to adhere to the requirements of the ride is becoming cumbersome. For starters, I have to purchase a reflective vest, good head and tail lights; a number display on the cycle has to be prepared. As this is my first time, I am trying to read up as much as possible about earlier rides and trying to gather data on brevet rides. Most importantly I am trying to gather data on which lights to buy, however, I am unable to zero in on any particular light. Either the lights are not powerful enough or they are very expensive or they are out of stock.

After a lot of deliberation, finally I landed at RR cycles in Madiwala and bought a Raven head light (500 lumens) with rechargeable battery, Pro Bike back light with AAA batteries, reflective vest and a cycle pump. Now that I have all the required equipment, the only thing remaining is to prepare the cycle number. Gaurav helped in preparing the cycle number and fixing it on the cycle.

The day of the ride was on me and the cycle was ready, had wiped it clean, fixed the handle bar bag in which I carried the spare tires and medicines, the saddle pouch has the tool kit, tire pliers and the puncture repair kit. The front number was fixed onto the handle bar bag and the side number to the saddle. I carried a back pack in which I had the spare head light, batteries, torch, face towel, chain lubricant, sanitizer, Vaseline, power bank, a biscuit packet, 3 snickers packets, 4 electral sachets, mobile phone, wallet. I was showing the cycle to Gaurav when I realised that the hand pump was missing. The two of us frantically searched and realised that it's lost. We rushed to Decathlon and bought a hand pump and got back home at 2:00 pm. I had just enough time to have lunch and then a final check of what I am carrying before I headed out to the starting point, Airlines Hotel on Lavelle road.

A lot of cyclists were already at the venue and there were more streaming in. The organisers were busy verifying the cycles and getting the paper work done. Curious onlookers had a lot of queries about what was happening and a few cyclists were patiently explaining the concept to them. The verification of the cycles was simple, whether there is a front and back light, are the lights working, reflective vest and whether the number had been displayed correctly. In addition to this we had to sign a Liability Waiver document which effectively absolves the organisers from any risk. Cyclists across different age groups were present, the young, middle aged, old, everyone were there. There were ones with the premium road cycles, ones with hybrids and MTB's as well. There were a few first timers, however, most of the cyclists were in groups and as a first timer with no acquaintances I could not start a conversation with anyone to break the ice. I sorely missed having a riding companion for the ride and got that sinking feeling that this was going to be a long ride.

There were over 30 cyclists present at the venue and by the time the paper work and route briefing could be done it was 5:45 pm. We were told that we would be given a 15 minute buffer since the start was delayed, we would have to make it back to Airlines hotel by 7:15 am instead of the scheduled 7:00 am. If we missed this time then the ride would not count.

Since this was an endurance ride and since the only thing that mattered was completing before 7:15am I had presumed that the ride would be relaxed in the beginning and people would pace themselves, especially knowing that the return journey is harder since we would be climbing. However, I was very surprised when I saw that it was a very fast start and the pace was well above 30 kmph. I made a slow start and by the time I had completed half a kilometer, I had only about 8 cyclists that I could see around me. A further kilometer and I had my first hiccup, near Kanteerava stadium when going over the road hump, the back light fell, fortunately for me no one ran over the lights, only one battery was dented, however when I fixed it back, the light was working. When I got back on the cycle there was no one around, I got into chasing mode and pedaled hard and caught up  with a couple of cyclists at the next traffic signal.

Even though I had caught up, I kept the pace up and kept pedaling at over 25 kmph. Caught up with a few more, over took a few and passed few who had stopped for a breather. I was having a torrid time handling the road bike on bad roads, the road till Raja Rajeshwari Nagar Arch is in very bad shape and not suited for the road cycle. I went in heavy into a few potholes and road humps. I made it out of the city and realised that the derailleur alignment has been affected because of the impact and the gear was not shifting into the big chain ring on the front. Also, the chain was rubbing against the derailleur making a very irritating noise. I did not have the time to waste trying to rectify the issue and told myself that I would rectify it if the chain gets stuck, if not I would continue to ride as long as the pedals keep turning. I was in the middle chain ring and knew that it was sufficient for this ride.

As I crossed Kengeri, I knew that I was riding at a very fast pace and that I might not be able to hold the pace for long, also cramping was an issue that I was worried about. Knew that if I continue to pedal at this pace then I would run  out of  steam for the return journey. Looked around for signs of slowing down by the other cyclists, however, they just kept pedaling at a fast pace and did not show any signs of slowing down. I did not stop and kept the pace up and had about 10 cyclists behind me, I did not turn back to see how far back they were, but was of the impression that I had left them behind by quite a distance. Held onto the wheel of another cyclist and pedaled hard and made it out of Bidadi. At this point I decided that I had to take a break, I did not want to get exhausted by the pace and then not be able to complete the ride. I told myself that I should stick to my pace and not the pace set by others, moreover there were others behind, so I could take rest and then resume when they caught up with me. I stopped and realised that the guys behind were right behind and I had not put in any distance between me and them, within 30 seconds of stopping they went past me. I took a few sips of the ORSL from the sipper, it was spoilt, I had to empty the sipper. The ORSL had gone bad even though I had stored the sipper in the fridge. I was left with just water till I could mix the electral sachet at the next place where I stopped.

I got back on the saddle and the racer in me was back and I targeted catching up with the cyclists in front of me. There were steep descents in this section and the speed was hovering around the 30 kmph mark, however there were no cyclists that I could see. I reached Ramanagar at 7:40 pm, I did not stop, neither did I see any cyclists in the vicinity. I was feeling the pressure of the ride and kept pedaling hard in the hope that I could catch up with the cyclists. As I approached Channapatna, I saw a couple of cyclists who had stopped for coconut water. I reached Channapatna  at 8:00 pm and stopped at a bakery to purchase water for the electral and refilling the water bottle. A quick stop before resuming the ride.

The ride from Ramanagar to Channapatna was very quick. I could feel the effect of the ride when I got down to purchase water, the first few steps were taken in a dazed state and took a few steps to regain composure. 2 hours 15 minutes for 60 kilometers which showed that the average speed was approx 30 kmph which was 10 kmph over my usual average. The ride from Channapatna to Maddur was generally downhill, but with quite a few flat sections as well. The ride speed did  reduce but it still hovered above 25 kmph on the flat sections, the uphill's would drop below 20 kmph and the downhill's were being done at 30 kmph. As I got close to Maddur, I saw a cyclist coming out of a hotel, he had finished his dinner and was restarting, I still had to make my dinner stop. I went past him and within a short while just before entering Maddur, he overtook me. I crossed the Adiga's junction  and saw few more cyclists had stopped for dinner at that junction since it is filled with hotels. I wanted to continue and moreover I had a wheel to stick onto. However, within a kilometer, he had opened up a gap of 100 meters and did not show any signs of slowing down. The hunger pangs were showing up and was making me feel weak, the gap had opened up significantly at the next uphill, I decided that it was better off to stop and have dinner. The food would take care of the weakness, more importantly, it would be a rest break which would help me recharge the batteries.

I stopped at the Maddur Malavalli junction for dinner. I ordered for curd rice and orange juice. The time was 9:15 pm, and I was thinking that if I had not stopped there was the possibility of me reaching Mandya by 10 pm. During the ride I did consider that I should reach Mandya and stop for dinner on the way back. However, considering that I was struggling a bit and was feeling a little weak, I decided to stop before getting to Mandya. I quickly gobbled the food and the juice and paid the bill and restarted the ride. It was around 9:35 pm when I started, I felt a lot of air on the head and felt like something was different after dinner. Before dinner I did not feel so cool and windy and free around the head, that's when I realised that I had left my helmet at the restaurant. Quickly turned around and went back and was relieved to see that the helmet was still on the table.

I was out of the place at 9:40 pm and had 17 kilometers left to get to Mandya, the half way point. Still no cyclists around, assumed that most of them would have already reached the control point and kept telling myself that I was still ahead of the planned time and completing was more important that finishing ahead of the others. The ride from Maddur to Mandya was uphill and the pace was slow. I was not disappointed, on the contrary I was happy to see the uphill's since the return journey would start with a downhill ride to Maddur. I made slow progress on the uphill's and the downhill's were being used to relax the legs, not like the ride before dinner when I was pedaling in the downhill's as well. I got into Mandya limits at 10:10 pm and a further 10 minutes I was at the check point. I did stop to enquire with a localite about the location of the check point and was told that there is no Karnataka Bank ahead, I was beginning to get worried when a couple a cyclists came by and signaled to me to follow. The check point was a further half a kilometer off.

I was expecting a group of cyclists to be at the check point, relaxing there before they resumed their ride. Surprisingly there were just 2 there along with the 3 of us who had just arrived. The organisers had set up a stall with cold drinks, chocolates, curd rice and bananas. I assumed that the others had already restarted the ride and was expecting that I would have only 10 riders behind me. I had a couple of bananas and refilled on water and sat for a while to rest the legs. Couple of other riders came by when I was at the check point. I was very happy with my time, 100 kilometers were done in 4 1/2 hours of cycling, which included 40 minutes of breaks, so the ride time was just 3 hours and 50 minutes. I had over 8 hours left to complete the return journey and I did not have any doubts about getting back. I knew that the climb back would be difficult but not impossible. I got the brevet card signed and popped the question about how many were yet to arrive at the check point. I was surprised when I was told that I was the 10th person to check in and there were still 20 cyclists to report.

The news that I was 10th got the adrenaline pumping. I started the return journey at 10:40 pm and was looking to complete the trip in 7 hours, so the estimated arrival time was 6:00 am. I restarted alone, just as I had ridden the first half of the journey, I was alone again. I was told by the organisers that there are riders ahead and that I should join them since it would be safer. Not that I was not looking for company, but I knew that I would not be able to catch up with the guys ahead and even in the eventuality that I did catch up, there was no way that I would be able to keep up with their pace.

The adrenaline rush got me through the first 5 kilometers, and reality struck when the uphill started. The pace was back down and I backed off the high tempo pedaling and concentrated more on keeping the speed above 20 kmph and not 30 kmph. The 2 riders who had guided me to the check point caught up with me, went past me and were gone in no time. I tried a little to keep pace, but realised that it was not worth it since I was only hurting the legs beyond repair. Got back to the pace that I was comfortable with and made steady progress. I reached Maddur at 11:20 pm, quicker than I had expected, however knew that the ride would only get more difficult from here. I was not too worried about the ride to Channapatna, since the gradient even though it is uphill it is not very steep. I knew that I would make it to Channapatna comfortably, and the steep climbs would start only after that.

I was looking forward to the coffee day before Channapatna. It was 12:00 am when I got to coffee day and I made my customary stop here to drink juice. Just when I sat down to drink the juice, a couple of cyclists zipped past. I gulped the juice down like water and sat around for 5 minutes before resuming the ride.

I was able to pedal around 25 kmph without feeling the pain in the legs. I was alone again and was fine with the fact that I was alone, however, I was looking forward to having some cyclist with me from Ramanagar since the climbs are very steep and it would help to have company. Within a few kilometers I caught up with the 2 riders who had passed me at Coffee Day and I sat on their wheel. I rode with them till I got to Ramanagar and when the climbs started, just after Ramanagar, they pulled away. They were  almost 200 meters away and my efforts to keep pace with them was proving futile. I decided to stop and take a break. Couple of minutes into the break, Vinay caught up with me and he took a break as well at the same place. It was 1:00 am when I stopped, the time was great since I had ridden 50 kilometers in 2 hours 20 minutes. It looked like I could finish the ride by 5:00 am if I could get through the grueling climbs at a decent pace.

After a short break, we resumed the ride, I finally had a ride companion and his pace was similar to mine, so we worked together on the climbs.  The first target was to get to Bidadi which was 15 kilometers off. The climbs were done pretty quickly and the downhill's were used to get our breath back. Things were looking good when we got to Bidadi and kept turning the pedal. The weather was very cold and I was missing my skull cap to keep me warm. I was beginning to get hungry as well. I munched a Snickers as I cycled to get the energy level back up. The climbs were getting steeper and more grueling. I was out of water at this point and was looking for the next truckers halt so that I could refill on water. Just as we were making our way up a difficult climb, the organisers passed by in their car on their way back to Bangalore, they clicked a few snaps of us struggling to ride up and sped up the climb. When we got past the climb, we came across the road side shop and stopped to get water. The organisers were there too and told us that we had a further 10 kilometers to go of difficult climbing to do before things ease off. However, since I had done the route before, I knew that the climbing does not abate even after that and that we would be climbing till we get to within 3 kilometers of the finish.

We restarted and made it through to Kumbalagodu and then to Kengeri. Just as we were getting to Kengeri, I was beginning to struggle on the uphill's and my pace was very low at the climbs, less than 10 kmph. We took another break at Kengeri for 5 minutes and then rode on. I told Vinay that the ride eases off for about 5 kilometers before we hit steep climbs again. We breezed past the 5 kilometers and entered the city, we had about 12 kilometers to go and tried to hit the climb hard. However, the recharging of the legs at the break only lasted a while and both of us were struggling on the climbs. We made it past the KSRTC satellite bus stand on Mysore road and took another break mid way through the climb. We munched another snickers to get the glucose level up and then resumed cycling. The legs were hurting a lot at this point and the climb was done with a lot of difficulty. We still had the flyover to climb and the legs were not ready to do it, we opted to go below the flyover instead.

We passed through a crowded City Market wherein the flower vendors had already set up shop. We were at Hudson circle in the next 10 minutes and I was relieved as the ride was as good as over at this point. We did not have any climbing to do after this and rode quickly to Vittal Mallya road and then made the right turn to Airlines Hotel. The organisers along with a couple of riders were at the location and welcomed us and congratulated us for completing the ride. We had made it back at 4:05 am and we were the 8th and 9th cyclist to complete the ride. The refreshments counter had been set up, juice, chocolates, chips, etc. Photos were clicked and there was a general sense of relief that we had completed the ride and I was very happy that the ride had been completed in 10 hours 20 minutes. Checked Strava and saw that the ride time was 9 hours 1 minute for the ride.

I stayed around for 15 minutes during which time I returned the brevet card. I confirmed that I wanted the medal and was told that a link would be sent to me for making the payment for the medal. I said my good bye's and made my way back home. I got back home by 4:45 am, a hot shower, volini and I crashed for a well deserved sleep.

Ride Details:

From	To	Distance	Ride Time (hrs)	Total Time (hrs)	Departure Time	Arrival Time	Avg Speed
Lavelle Road	Ramanagar	50	1.75	2.00	17:45	19:45	28.57
Ramnagar	Mandya	50	2.25	2.58	19:45	22:20	22.22
Mandya	Ramanagar	50	2.25	2.67	22:20	1:00	22.22
Ramanagar	Lavelle Road	50	2.75	3.08	1:00	4:05	18.18
		200	9.00	10.33			22.22