Mysuru Airport (300 Kilometer Brevet)

Date: 17 February 2017

Total distance: 308 Kilometers

Start Time: 12:40 am 17 February 2017

Return Time:  4:20 am 18 February 2017

With: Rajkumar Khot

Altitude Profile:
Lavelle Road – Mysuru Airport - Lavelle Road

After completing the SR series ride for the 2016-17 year I did not have any plans on riding brevets during the year. However, Rajkumar had still not completed his SR and when he enquired about riding the 300 BRM to Mysuru Airport I agreed. The route was not new and as such I was not keen on the route, however it was an opportunity to ride and as I did not have any other plans, I opted to ride.

The ride was starting at 12:30 pm in the afternoon. Rather odd considering that the rides had always started in the early morning hours or in the evening. The timing was set probably keeping in mind that the cut-off time for the 400 BRM and 300 BRM should be the same, which was 8:30 am in the morning. As the 400 BRM had started at 5:30 am the 300 BRM starters had an odd start time.

It was a lazy Saturday morning and I was in a relaxed mood. Things were being done at a very slow pace and before I knew it was time to get ready to leave. I checked with Rajkumar and he was also not in a hurry. We generally get to the start point about 30 minutes before the start, we knew that today was going to be late as Rajkumar started from his house at 11:30 am. By the time he got to my place it was already 12:00 pm. We rode quickly to the start point and got there at 12:20 pm and finished the start formalities. There were new faces all around with Mallikarjun being the only familiar face. The start was delayed by 10 minutes as it took time to complete the formalities and give us the route briefing. The ride was flagged off at 12:40 pm.

There was a lot of traffic and coupled with bad roads it would have been a frustrating experience, however I was relaxed and strangely calmer than I usually am and was not worried by the traffic or the roads. It took only 30 minutes for us to get to Kengeri and a few more minutes to get to the NICE road junction when the traffic eased or so I thought. I was reminded of the traffic when I was told to politely get to the left of the road and allow traffic to pass when I was chatting with a fellow cyclist about the route and did not realise that I was blocking the way and had to ride in a single file to avoid being reminded again. The sight of hotels kept reminding me that I needed to fill up, however, I did not want to stop very early, I wanted to ride at least 50 kilometers before making a stop as I expected the speed to fall after lunch. Rajkumar checked with me on lunch and I enquired if we could ride till Ramanagar before we stopped. He agreed and we continued to ride. It was hot and windy and although we started with a head wind, as we rode on the wind changed direction and we had a tail wind. The tail wind was another reason that I wanted to push as far as possible so as to take the benefit. We made it to Ramanagar and as we crossed the city we came by Kamat Lokaruchi and we stopped for lunch. It was 2:50 pm.

I wanted to have a quick lunch, however being Saturday, we ran into a hotel which was full. We had to wait around for 5 minutes to get a place, during which time I was getting worried as it did not seem like we would get place for a further 10 minutes at least. After we sat down, it took a further 10 minutes before we were even attended to and I got the feeling that this was going to be a long lunch and that every minute we spent at the restaurant we were losing out on the tail wind. We finally managed to place the order and were served and gobbled down meals. We did not do justice to the food as we ate very little, however, I was feeling full after eating just a couple of roti's and rice. At the back of my mind I was constantly reminded that I still had 250 kilometers to ride and that I would be slowed down if I stuffed myself. We settled the bill, refilled on water and started the ride at 3:30 pm.

It was very hot, however the tail wind was still on and riding was easy. We made it to Channapatna in no time and continued riding towards Maddur and then to Mandya. We were speculating about whether there were other riders ahead of us and got out answer as we began to pass a few riders on the road. We passed by a lot of coconut water vendors and it was very tempting to stop, however, as we had just had lunch and were not struggling to ride we opted to delay the coconut water stop. I was gulping down water and did not realise that I had gone through with one bottle and needed to stop to replenish. We were close to Mandya and decided to combine the stop. It was crowded in Mandya and we made our way past traffic and got to the Karnataka Bank ATM. Took the pic and decided to ride out of town to refill on water. A kilometer out of town we stopped to refill on water.

The Sun had begun its descent and with it the heat was down and the wind was also beginning to slow down. The ascent from Mandya towards Srirangapatna did not seem to be difficult at all in the reduced heat condition and we made swift progress. We caught up with Mallikarjun and Mansukh just before Srirangapatna. Mansukh was riding a single speed cycle and was riding with ease and putting all our geared cycles to shame. We stopped just before Srirangapatna for coconut water as Mansukh sped on towards Mysuru. Coconut water and Malai was refreshing. I wore the reflective jacket as it was getting dark and did not want to take an additional break to wear the jacket. We got back on the cycles and as we rode on the bridge across the Kaveri saw a beautiful sunset at Srirangapatna.

The break was refreshing and we sped towards Mysuru. The gradient did not matter and we rode like we had just started the ride. I tried to make it to Mysuru before dark however, in spite of the quick pace it did get dark before we reached the Columbia Asia signal. We caught up with Sachin, Aatish and Mansukh at the signal and rode into the city. I did not let up on the speed and continued riding quick and before I knew it I was in the city and speeding towards the Palace. Just when I thought that I made it to the Palace and would stop for a pic, the road to the Palace was closed as it was under repair. I took the wrong turn and reached the wrong gate of the Palace and realised that I had taken a wrong turn. I turned back and realised that there was no one behind me as well, I had lost them in the city traffic. I enquired on the route to Nanjangud and based on the guidance I reached the Mall of Mysore signal where I synced up with the other riders. It took a few minutes to negotiate the traffic and enquire for the route and make it to the Nanjangud road. We made quick progress after that and although it did seem like the Airport was not going to arrive, we made it to the gate at 7:40 pm. A security guard came up and enquired about the ride and helped with taking the photos. We spent about 10 minutes before heading back to the city.

I had expected the ride into the city to be difficult as it involved a little climb, however to my surprise I was able to maintain a good speed and made it to the city easily. We reached the control point and got the brevet cards signed. We ate watermelon and oranges and were told not to spend too much time at the control and that we had to restart the ride. We got back on the saddle and rode back into the city. A lot of enquiries and after losing the route again we were back on track and made it out of the city. We had decided to stop at Srirangapatna for dinner. We sped towards Srirangapatna as it was only 10 kilometers away and as the dinner break would be substantial I was not wary of riding fast. We made it to Srirangapatna at 9:15 pm and waited a couple of minutes for Mallikarjun to catch up with us. We parked our cycles and headed into Annapurna restaurant and freshened up. We had meals and were ready to get going at 10:00 pm.

Just before leaving from the restaurant we stretched our leg muscles. Rajkumar stretched a bit too much and ended up straining the muscle rather than relaxing them. He did not want to rest and we decided to ride a little slowly till he recovers. We had to climb for about 10 kilometers after the restart and the ride speed was down, however the descent into Mandya made up for the loss in time. Rajkumar had recovered by the time we reached Mandya and having the down hill helped. We reached the Control Point at 10:50 pm. We stopped for a lenghty break here. We synced up with the Go Green riders and met up with Prasad who had ridden to Mandya to boost the morale of the Go Green riders. We spent about 30 minutes at the Control Point before restarting the ride.

We decided to ride slowly and avoid getting tired as we approached Bangalore as there is a lot of climbing to be done to get into Bangalore. We rode steadily, and made our way into Maddur pretty easily. However, just as we exited Maddur the hunger pangs began to bite. Mansukh was good to go for the rest of the ride, however Rajkumar and I wanted a break. We kept looking out for a bakery and fortunately found one within a few kilometers. We stopped to have tea and I ate 6 biscuits to quell the hunger. We spent about 20 minutes during which time Rajkumar unsuccessfully tried to catch a quick nap.

When we restarted we knew that we needed another break before we got into Bangalore and ideally would prefer a stop with food as we knew that the biscuits will not sustain. We had decided to stop after Ramanagar, probably near Bidadi. With that in mind we started the ride and rode steadily. Mansukh kept entertaining us with his cycling stories and was chatting constantly which kept us awake and going.

Just as we entered Ramanagar we saw that the organiser's had parked their car and were waving us down. They enquired if we would want to have curd rice or dosa's and they also had chocolates and juice in addition. I was very happy with the curd rice offer and confirmed that I would have curd rice. The stop was earlier than we had expected, however I was not complaining as it would be a good refresher. We ate up, had a chocolate and restarted the ride.

Mansukh had ridden ahead and it took a while for Rajkumar and me to catch up with him. We made it past the climb after Ramanagar and enjoyed the rolling terrain after and as we got closer to Bangalore the traffic increased and we had to ride in a single file. When we did get into Bangalore we were welcomed by the climb from Raja Rajeshwari Nagar. We made slow progress and surprisingly Rajkumar sped on the flyover. I followed and when we made it to the base of the flyover we noticed that Mansukh had fallen behind. We were only 2 kilometers from the finish and rode on knowing that Mansukh would join shortly. It took a further 5 minutes before we were pulling up alongside Mohan Sir's car at Airlines Hotel. It was 4:20 am. We finished the end point formalities and spent a few minutes catching up with Mohan Sir before heading back home to rest.