Nandi Hills

Date: 27 October 2018

Total distance: 140 Kilometers

Start Time: 4:20 am

Return Time: 12:30 pm

With: Rohit Bidkar

Altitude Profile:

Koramangala - Yelahanka - Konaghatta - Nandi Hills - Devanahalli - Koramangala

I had come back from Trichy on 8 October 2018 and planned to do a few rides to stay in the groove for the SR5 event which was on 1 November. A combination of work and catching a cold/sore throat on my return kept me away from cycling along with the unavailability of the cassette, I spent a lot of time off the saddle. I had managed a couple of rides of 70 kilometers and 20 kilometers which I knew were not sufficient. I still had the cold/cough when Rohit asked me about riding during the weekend. The SR 5 ride was due in 5 days, I still had to risk riding and hope that the cycle and I would not come off worse at the end of the ride.

I did not want to ride too far and opted for Nandi Hills again. It was going to be a repeat, however, since it offered a climb at the end of 70 kilometers I was okay to ride this route. Decided to start early and get back by afternoon so that I could cram in as much rest as possible as well. Start time was set as 4:30 am near Forum.

Woke up on cue, did not need the alarm, got ready and reached Forum at 4:30 am just as Rohit arrived. I was labouring through the initial kilometers and spent a lot of time off the saddle as I was riding high gears. The 7th, 8th and 9th ring were what were available, 5th and 6th ring there was a lot of slipping and on the lower gear in the front I had the 1st to 3rd ring available, slipping on the 4th. I tried to avoid gear changes and stuck to one gear and the effects of riding after a few days was showing. We stopped near Cubbon park since Rohit had to hand over his power bank to a friend. We spent 30 minutes waiting and his friend did not turn up. We decided to start riding when it became evident that his friend would not come.

5:30 am when we started from Cubbon Park. The small rest had done a world of good as I was feeling better. Rohit took off and I followed, managed to keep close to him and we were riding on the Yelahanka flyover pretty soon. We took the interior route rather than riding on the airport road and went towards Yelahanka. Interior roads meants a slower speed which worked well for me. A chat about movies and celebrity weddings brought us onto the Doddaballapur - Devanahalli road. Wanted to try a new route and checked google maps which showed the route via Konaghatta that exits near the Nandi foot hill. We opted to ride on this route.

A couple of kilometers on this route and we were on a metalled surface which had not been tarred. That was enough for me to drop off the pace as I tried to ride carefully over the stones and hoped that I would not sustain any damage. We passed through ragi fields with Nandi Hills in the back drop. It was a beautiful view which could not be enjoyed too much on account of having to focus on the road. We rode about 3 kilometers to get onto a good road. We were at Konaghatta village and from here it was smooth riding. I checked if the 5th and 6th gears were working and found that as long as there was no load, there was no slipping, but riding on them would be a risk.

In a short while we were at the Nandi foothill. The clock had struck 8:00 and I was a little hungry. We decided to have breakfast before starting the climb. A plate of idli vada and then loaded on water and Pepsi.

8:50 am when we started the climb. I had a slow start to the climb as I was stuck on the high gear. I don't know why I did not change into the lower gears and tried to stay on the high gear and was stuck on it since I could not change to the lower gear on load. It took a while to get past the initial half kilometer and then get to the lower gears. Rohit had streaked ahead by then. Caught up with Rohit by the end of the 2 nd kilometer as he had slowed down to answer a call. Rode for about a kilometer in the 4th gear at the back and when the chain slipped on this ring as well I was frustrated. Changed to the higher gear, got off the saddle and pushed ahead. Had to keep the pace up since I had to keep the load off the chain. It worked to an extent as I was able to get past the 4 kilometer mark quicker than I had in the past. The next kilometer went by quickly before I hit the hair pains where the gradient got steep. Shifted to the lower gears and tried riding off the saddle and felt the effect of having pushed on the higher gears earlier, I was cramping. Had to sit on the saddle and pedal and in the lowest gear combination. It was disappointing to have cramped, but made it up quicker than I had done on the previous occasions. Took 33 minutes for the climb which still leaves a lot of scope for improvement.

Took a rather long break at the top, about 15 minutes during which time w recorded videos of us climbing and descending the last hair pin bend. We started the descent at 9:00 am. It was a quick descent, was down in about 8 minutes, was happy with the climb and the descent and then hit a wall as we started the return. I was slow and was low on motivation to ride which translated to a very slow ride. Rohit was flying and had to slow down to wait for me.

We had decided not to stop and to ride back to Bangalore. However, I was bored and was not too keen on riding back. We took a small deviation at the Devanahalli fort and spent a few minutes at the Fort. It was a good break which broke the monotonu of having to ride back on airport road. Allowed the mind to waver for a few minutes rather than think about the ride.

10:00 am when we started from Devanahalli. Was a steady ride, we did not fly but the speed hovered around the 20kmph mark. Reached Hebbal at 11:00 am and were welcomed by a huge traffic jam. It was frustrating to see the traffic and I recommended to Rohit that we ride on the outer ring road and then through HBR layout to get into the city, this was from the perspective to keep moving rather than having to wait for the traffic to clear at the Hebbal flyover. We took a coconut water break at HBR layout and when we resumed we got stuck on the ChikBanaswadi flyover. We were destined to get stuck on a flyover. The move to take a different route did not work out and we made slow progress through the traffic and got home at 12:30 pm.