Anchetty (200 Kilometer Brevet)

Date: 9 June 2018

Total distance: 202 Kilometers

Start Time: 6:00 am

Return Time: 4:35 pm

With: Naveen Kumar

Altitude Profile:

Kanteerava Stadium - Harohalli - Maralawadi - Thally - Jawalagiri - Anchetty - Denkanikottai - Attibele - Kanteerava Stadium

Anchetty 200 BRM is the most difficult 200 kilometer brevet in Bangalore and its legend has grown over the years. The registrations for the event were thrown open about 4 months ago and as the ride date neared Bangalore Randonneurs had over 100 registrations for the first time. It was going to be a huge event with riders coming from Kerala, Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu to ride this route.

The USP of the Anchetty route is that it has a lot of rolling terrain and passes through scenic country roads. As the years have passed, the traffic is also one of the factors to overcome in the ride. Mohan Sir had done the recce for the route and we had been informed about the road condition, navigation and traffic conditions which in itself had taken care of atleast 20% of the effort for the riders.

I reached the start point at 5:15 am and saw a huge bunch of riders. It was great to see Swamy on his Single Speed Btwin Mybike, Raju and Partha on MTB's, Lokesh on a Trail bike. Specal mention for Venkatesh and Elango who had ridden from Ambur, climbed Yelagiri and had reached the start point just before 6:00 am, right in time to start. They had braved cold conditions at night and extreme head wind to get to Bangalore. 

The start formalities were completed smoothly on account of the good organisational skills of the organisers. Considering the number of riders I had expected the start to be delayed, however, the ride was flagged off at 6:00 am.

It was good to see Bangalore roads flooded with cyclists, in other words, if felt good to be amongst the majority rather than the minority. The ride through the city was smooth except near the Banashankari market where it was choc a block and we had to wait a short while before getting through.

Once on the Kanakpura road, it was time to get rid of the shackles and the pace improved since the traffic reduced and it was downhill gradient. Reaching Kaggalipura in 50 minutes was a booster dose to keep pushing the pace further. The weather was perfect for riding, lot of cloud cover, minimal wind and moderate temperature. Wanting to make the most of the ideal conditions I kept churning the pedals and reached Harohalli at 7:30 am.

After the selfie at the control point I continued the ride. I did not want to stop for breakfast and wanted to get to the mid-point as soon as possible to have a sufficient buffer for the second half of the ride, which I expected would be more difficult than the first half. On taking the left there was road work in progress for about a kilometer and I was struggling to ride on this stretch. I was surprised at the ease with which Arpit, Rupert and Chintan were riding on this road, it was like they were on a different surface. I was happy to make it back on to good roads after this stretch and got back to the earlier pace.

As I had ridden the route quite often over the past weeks, it was easy to keep going as I knew where I could relax. On reaching Maralawadi I was riding with Naveen Kumar, Sangram Jena, Abhiskek Priyadarshi and Sagar Routh. The rolling terrain kept getting more difficult with the climbs getting steeper. We did get relief when passing through the villages and on downhills. When we took the turn towards Thally, the road became smaller, climbs and descents steeper. The descents were risky to do at high speeds as the road surface was not great. Rushit caught up and went ahead of us with ease, like he was on a Sunday evening ride. It was fascinating to watch him pedal with ease on this terrain.

We reached Thally and a little search for the control point before finding it and taking the pic. I took a swig of the Coca Cola  that I had and popped a candy to keep me fuelled till the next control point.

We exited Thally and got onto the Jawalagiri road. I had not ridden from Jawalagiri to Thally, so the route was new and navigation took precedence here as I was expecting it to be a downhill ride on bad roads. The downhill did not arrive immediately, rolling terrain on scenic countryside roads continued. There was a drizzle which necessitated that I pack the phone which made navigation all the more difficult. I would have to remove the phone from the pouch, unpack the phone and check the route which made every navigation stop a two minute break. Naveen and I were riding together and I checked the route as Naveen filled up water. Just as we were about to start, Abhiskek and Sangram caught up with us.

We rode out of Jawalagiri and took the turn to Karadikkal. The road was good, rolling terrain followed by a small descent and then a small climb. When we made it past the climb, we got the first feel of bad roads on this section. It was a downhill filled with potholes. Naveen had ridden ahead and Abhishek and Sangram had fallen behind a little. Riding alone made me feel very uncomfortable as I did not know if I was on the right route or I had missed a turn. I made frequent stops to check on the route to ensure that I was on track. I was happy to see Abhishek and Sangram catching up with me as it was additional confirmation that I was on the right route and the minute I lost contact with them the uneasiness was back. I passed through a lot of small villages and finally reached the downhill.

The view was excellent, the drizzle had become heavier and the road was wet making it a risky downhill ride. I had caught up with Sangram and Abhiskek, just at the start of the downhill who had gone ahead on one of my route check stops. I was reminded about how risky the downhill is when I almost ran into Abhishek's rear tire as braking was difficult and there were sharp turns. I had to keep distance on this downhill to make it down safely. Keeping distance meant holding onto the brakes and this was a painful experience. Within a kilometer the fingers were hurting. It was a catch 22 situation, holding onto the brakes was painful and letting go would result in a crash/fall which might be more painful. It was a choice between which was the preferred pain. I was able to get fleeting views of the beautiful landscape around to ease the pain momentarily. When we reached the bottom of the downhill, I was relieved to have made it down without having a fall/crash. It took a few minutes for the fingers to get back to normal.

We caught up with Naveen just before getting onto the road from Kanakpura to Anchetty. When we reached the Kanakpura-Anchetty road, the road was good from here and riding became easy. We sped into Anchetty town and saw that Rushit was waiting at Anchetty since Mohan Sir had not reached as yet. It was 11:00 am when we reached Anchetty, Mohan Sir came by in 10 minutes along with Jins and two of his friends.

Rushit started as soon as Mohan Sir reached, the rest of us stopped to fill ourselves up with delicious Bisi Bele Bath and Kesari Bath. To top it there was organic Dussheri mangoes as well. The only regret that I have on this ride is that I could eat only one mango as I was full and did not want to risk over eating with the climb back to Bangalore ahead. 30 minutes had flown before we knew it, other riders began to stream in to the Control Point.

Refilled water, Sangram said that they would be resting for some more time, Naveen and I started from the control point at 11:40 am. 90 kilometers to be done in about 8 hours, comfortably placed on the time front, however, we did expect a little delay near Bangalore due to traffic and having a buffer for that section would be good.

We sped through the initial rolling terrain and I slowed down when the climb started. It was a short climb, I had expected it to be a 5 kilometer climb, however it was just a two kilometer climb followed by rolling terrain. I fell behind on the climb and caught up with Naveen on the rolling terrain. The road was beautiful and the scenery was excellent. The green surroundings took the mind off the effort and kept me going. The body was feeling the effects as I was beginning to cramp and had to manage by staying on the saddle more than I would have preferred.

The climb past the Anchetty stream was done, we made decent progress through the rolling terrain that followed and made it to the small climb before Denkanikottai. Again Naveen had ridden ahead and I was slow on the climb. Reached Denkanikottai town a little while later and then made it past town. Saw that Naveen was waiting, caught up with him and we started towards Hosur.

I had expected the ride to ease out a little from Denkanikottai, although I knew that the rolling terrain continues. However, there was a strong cross wind which added to the difficulty level of the ride. As we held onto the handle bar firmly to prevent the wind pushing us off our path, we were thinking about the ride becoming more difficult when we get onto Hosur Road, since it would be a head wind. We were facing the challenges thrown at us, but were thinking of the challenges which lay ahead and were mentally preparing ourselves for it.

The wind did not abate and neither did the rolling terrain get easier. We kept our heads down and kept turning the pedals. It took an hour to get to the turn to the TVS factory, decent time to make it past this section. When we took the turn, I was struggling to keep pace with Naveen. We had discussed that we would take a break at Attibele which was 10 kilometers ahead. Knowing that I would be stopping in a short while, I tried to increase the pace and keep up with Naveen. A few downhill sections helped to ease the pressure on the legs.

Half an hour later, we were at Attibele. It was 2:30 pm, we took the selfie, informed Mohan Sir that we had reached the control point and that we would reach Bangalore at 4:30 pm. 2 hours for 30 kilometers seemed a lot, however as we were taking a break and with the head wind it seemed like a decent target. We drank coconut water, refilled water, ate chikki and drank a little Coca Cola in 15 minutes and restarted the ride.

The 12 kilometers after the restart was very difficult with the wind playing havoc. It was a strong head wind and it took me a while to get going in the wind. Set myself a target of getting to Electronic city as I hoped that the buildings would block the wind from there and the ride would get easier. It was about pushing for 10 kilometers, put my head down and kept riding. Kept ticking off the familiar land marks on this road, counted down the flyovers and I was at Electronic City earlier than I had expected.

Having reached electronic city, I expected an easy ride to Kanteerava Stadium in moderate traffic. The traffic signals would give just about enough rest to the legs to keep going till the end point. With the time being 3:30 pm, I did not expect the traffic to be a huge problem. However, we ran into heavy traffic just a kilometer from Electronic City which was a precursor for the rest of the ride. The traffic situation did not ease and we spent a lot of time at the traffic signals.

It did not get easy after reaching Silk Board junction as well, the traffic in the city was very heavy. Getting past the St John's signal, Forum Signal, Adugodi signal was very frustrating. I was low on nutrition and was beginning to feel the effects, I wanted to get to Kanteerava Stadium and have something to eat. However, the traffic was not letting up and every minute spent in traffic was getting me very frustrated.

The clock ticked a little over 4:30 pm when Naveen and I reached Kanteerava Stadium. Alok was waiting for us and after a quick submission of the brevet card, Naveen and I went up to Konark restaurant to eat up. I had a dosa and a masala puri (since south indian snacks and chaats were only available at the time).

It was a good ride and the joy on the riders faces on having completed the ride was a beautiful sight. Although it is Bangalore's most difficult 200 km ride, the stats at the end of the ride did not seem to justify the diffuculty level. 88 finished in time and 7 finished late out of 106 starters. It was good to see such a high percentage of riders finshing the ride and the credit in my opinion goes to the organisers since the route had been recced and we had been informed about what we could expect on the ride which took care of at least 20% of the effort for us. Super job by the organisers for organising a ride on this scale in Bangalore and hope to see more cyclists in future rides.

Photo credits: Sanath Rath, Siddalinga Swamy, Mohan Subramanyam and Jins Paul

(This was a ride on which I did not click snaps other than at the control points)