300 BRM - Monsoon Edition
It's been a week already! The saddle soreness and numb palms from the 300 km brevet ride are still bothering me a bit, but the memories are still fresh :)
On 22-Jul-2017, I reached the start point of the brevet at around 4 AM (It was well before start time of 6 AM) by riding around 5 km to Balanagar and getting a lift from Vikranth. We thought of getting the bike check done and brevet card stamped at around 4:30 AM as we were told to reach the start point 1:30 hours before the start time. However, instead of the volunteers, we were warmly welcomed by a bunch of mosquitoes as soon as we got out of the car. We tried to sleep a bit, which, of course, did not happen. Slowly fellow riders Franklin, Prem, PV Sivaram, Pavan etc., arrived. Vishu and Rajeev too arrived, and we slowly got into chit-chatting and getting off the bikes from cars. Franklin had an issue with the rear tube and he had to change it even before we got to the bike check. Later on the festive atmosphere kicked in as more and more riders poured in. The volunteers Vandana, Rajeev and Vishu got their hands full with the brevet card disbursal and other formalities.
As the sky dawned, we got the formalities done, had a few bananas, and were waiting for the flag off.
One of the riders (Trivikram) forgot his seatpost when packing his bike after the Vijayawada 300 km brevet the previous week. I kept bugging him if it arrived or not. Finally he managed to get it just when the ride was flagged off. Aditya too came to ride till Narsapur.
This time, I remembered to turn on strava (on phone this time) right after starting the ride. For the first few km, I rode with Vikranth and Prem. I was very much relaxed as I was familiar with the route till Medak, and also because I managed to finish my first 300 km brevet in 2015 quite comfortably. I felt the change in route and time would not change the experience that much.
The terrain was nice with rolling roads and tree cover. It was humid though. We reached Narsapur by 7:30 AM without any issues. This being the first and automated check-point, we took selfies outside an ATM as a proof of time, and headed to the Udipi hotel for breakfast. Vikranth was having numbness in his feet due to cleats or insole. Vikranth, Vijay and Prem were still getting used to cleats in this ride. After feasting on the steaming idlies and sipping coffee, Bhavani showed up. It was good to see her after a long time. Till Medak, the road and climate conditions remained more or less the same.
Soon after crossing Narsapur, I couldn't find Vikranth. Tried to keep up with Prem most of the time. Kept bumping into Vijay, Anshuman, Arup, Durgesh and others in this stretch. Anshuman was waiting for Subhadeep, who was supposed to catch up already. Arup too stopped for others when we passed him. Except for few short bad patches, the road was good. The heat was playing hide and seek with us. Later on Prem stopped and was just starting when I caught up with him. He said that one of the riders had a fall, and that he was not sure if it was because of road or a stray dog.
After entering Medak at around 9:40 AM, I stopped at the first ATM I could spot and stopped for taking a selfie as this was the second and automated check-point. Rajeev called up from the car and informed about a breakfast point ahead. I was not planning to stop for eating anytime soon though.
Soon after I caught up to Vijay, who was also on the lookout for an ATM. We stopped after finding one across the road, and he went to get a selfie. In the meantime, Dr. Pavan too came along and went into the ATM after asking us to hold the bike. By this time, a few curious onlookers were checking out our bikes and started asking questions about the bikes and the ride. When we were about to leave, a local journalist asked us to tell us a few details about the ride. I wrote a few details (names, ride distance, randonneuring sport etc) in SMS on his phone as he was not having a pen. He asked us if he could write about anti-drugs/narcotics. I told him to write whatever he wants to, as I was pretty sure he would anyway stick to a story he comes up with, rather than a story we narrate.
(Just in case you are interested and can read Telugu, here is the link:
epaper.andhrajyothy.com/1292153/Medak/23.07.2017#page/18/2
That guy couldn't even get our names right!)
We managed to leave Medak before 10 AM and the climate started to change from meagerly-comfortable weather to not-so-comfortable, with the heat kicking in along with a mixture of head-winds and cross-winds. To make the matters worse, the humidity kept on drawing the sweat out of us, and the road elevation would seem never-ending. Another rider Anshul asked about a common friend and introduced himself. When asked about the 200 km brevet, he told that he had to drop when his friend had a flat as neither of them know how to fix a flat. The ride at this point reminded me of the 2015 Heaven and Hell 200 km brevet and 'The Pearl' rides. One part of me laughed at the other part which thought of finishing the ride 'quite comfortably'. By this time I already ate a Naturo and still feeling a bit hungry. I took a quick break in the shade of a tree and ate one of the home-made energy bars I was carrying. After sometime, I spotted a few riders and noticed that they stopped for lemon soda. I too stopped and had a normal soda and a lemon soda. I started off and spotted corn vendors to the side within minutes. I grabbed one and started off again, while gobbling on the corn after quick glances ahead.
After what seemed like a slow, miserable, eternally continuing ride, I reached Yellareddy by 12:15 PM, the third and automated check-point. I saw a few riders including Vijay, Durgesh, Prem quenching their thirst with cool drinks and water ahead at a store and joined them quickly. I got to know that Vikranth dropped (I believe because of numbness in feet) and Subhadeep dropped due to fever. I asked Vijay about the check-point time and he said we were there well within the cut-off time. We enquired about the nearest ATM and rode there after filling up water bottles and having some cool drinks. After the selfie business is over, we started off to the next destination - Kamareddy as we were not feeling hungry yet. After leaving Yellareddy, the inclines and head-winds too left us. The pace felt better. I could see Raj at a distance ahead. Later on, he stopped when he spotted Christopher. From there on, we rode for a few minutes together. I asked about food and Christopher said that he was planning to eat at a place just before Kamareddy. The roads decided to throw in a challenge with a series of notoriously bad stretches. One of my bottles fell down at one point as I was not slowing down when the ride got bumpy. I sped up a bit and rode mostly solo after that and reached Kamareddy by 2:20 PM. I stopped after spotting a descent place to dine-in, and called up Christopher to inform about it. I tried to find Vijay's contact number too but I couldn't find it. In the meantime, Raj and Durgesh caught up. We took selfies just in case, had cool drinks, refreshed a bit, and enquired about the readily available items. We ordered the obviously readily available chicken biryani, a veg curry, naan and ate until our stomach's couldn't take anymore. Our next destination was the manual check-point which was on the highway. We started off just before 3 PM and I was hoping to reach the check-point by 4 PM. The full and content stomach slowed me down as expected. Raj and Durgesh went ahead. Prem too passed me and went ahead. I was checking my location on the map from time to time just to be sure.
Managed to reach the check-point by 4 PM. Anshuman, Arup, Prem, Christopher were already there by the time I reached.
We refreshed with soft drinks, fruit juice and lemon soda. A guy there was imitating the police siren so perfectly! After a few minutes, Anshuman, Raj and Arup left. I lied down on the bench for few more minutes and tagged along with Prem, Raj and Durgesh.
The good thing? We covered almost 180 km and the remaining 120 km is a very easily navigatable route - the highway!
The bad thing? Saddle soreness was kicking in!
Raj went ahead and I was riding on and off with Arup, Prem and Durgesh. We rode for about 20 km (close to one hour) and took a short break. We planned the next big stops - Zyka restaurant and Toopran. We rode for one more hour and and again took a short break. We started off again, and stopped at Zyka after riding hardly 5 km. Since we had late lunch and as it was too early for dinner anyway, we did not order anything to eat. I had a cup of strong tea, and others had coffee. We discussed about the elevation profile of the remaining route. Vandana too was at Zyka and she offered dry fruits and juice. I asked her how Vijay was doing and she said that he would be reaching soon. I grabbed a juice pack before we started off again. With less than 80 km to go, and the sun setting down, we picked up pace. With one or two very quick breaks, we stopped at around 9 PM after riding close to 40 km and crossing Toopran. I parked the bike to the side of the road, went on to the grass on the divider, and lied flat on my back for a couple of minutes. I emptied another soft drink bottle that I picked up from the check-point.We started off again, and my situation turned miserable. Saddle soreness became unbearable and the palms too were getting very numb. This reminded me of the 2015 400 km brevet. I cursed myself for choosing to ride instead of chilling off on the weekend. But of course, brooding won't help ease off the pain :) I rode off-saddle as much as possible and after some time, I saw that Prem stopped near a dhabha. I joined him and we ordered egg fried rice. Arup and Durgesh came after some time as Durgesh had a flat. After relaxing and refueling, we started off again to the final destination for the day - St. Martins engineering college.
Prem and Durgesh went ahead and vanished soon after we started from dinner break. I spotted Preetham on the road in that late night. He offered tea/coffee. I asked if they have cool drink but the vendor to the road-side didn't have any. I anyway felt good seeing Preetham there and moved on. Arup and I were riding at an easy pace. The saddle soreness won't let me sit and relax. I had to still ride mostly standing. Good thing for me though was that the legs feel pumped up and ready to even sprint (at least it felt that way ;)). Arup was sleep deprived and so he too was taking it easy. We somehow managed to reach the finish point by 11:50 PM with only a single small break.
We refreshed ourselves with the juice available there. Prem changed into dry clothing by the time we reached parking.
By midnight, we started loading the bikes into Arup's car and he dropped me at JNTU. I started riding home, telling myself repeatedly that it is going to be downhill almost all the way till home :D
George spotted me on the road at that ungodly hour and asked me how the ride was. I told without thinking twice - 'It was good!' :)
On 22-Jul-2017, I reached the start point of the brevet at around 4 AM (It was well before start time of 6 AM) by riding around 5 km to Balanagar and getting a lift from Vikranth. We thought of getting the bike check done and brevet card stamped at around 4:30 AM as we were told to reach the start point 1:30 hours before the start time. However, instead of the volunteers, we were warmly welcomed by a bunch of mosquitoes as soon as we got out of the car. We tried to sleep a bit, which, of course, did not happen. Slowly fellow riders Franklin, Prem, PV Sivaram, Pavan etc., arrived. Vishu and Rajeev too arrived, and we slowly got into chit-chatting and getting off the bikes from cars. Franklin had an issue with the rear tube and he had to change it even before we got to the bike check. Later on the festive atmosphere kicked in as more and more riders poured in. The volunteers Vandana, Rajeev and Vishu got their hands full with the brevet card disbursal and other formalities.
As the sky dawned, we got the formalities done, had a few bananas, and were waiting for the flag off.
One of the riders (Trivikram) forgot his seatpost when packing his bike after the Vijayawada 300 km brevet the previous week. I kept bugging him if it arrived or not. Finally he managed to get it just when the ride was flagged off. Aditya too came to ride till Narsapur.
This time, I remembered to turn on strava (on phone this time) right after starting the ride. For the first few km, I rode with Vikranth and Prem. I was very much relaxed as I was familiar with the route till Medak, and also because I managed to finish my first 300 km brevet in 2015 quite comfortably. I felt the change in route and time would not change the experience that much.
The terrain was nice with rolling roads and tree cover. It was humid though. We reached Narsapur by 7:30 AM without any issues. This being the first and automated check-point, we took selfies outside an ATM as a proof of time, and headed to the Udipi hotel for breakfast. Vikranth was having numbness in his feet due to cleats or insole. Vikranth, Vijay and Prem were still getting used to cleats in this ride. After feasting on the steaming idlies and sipping coffee, Bhavani showed up. It was good to see her after a long time. Till Medak, the road and climate conditions remained more or less the same.
Soon after crossing Narsapur, I couldn't find Vikranth. Tried to keep up with Prem most of the time. Kept bumping into Vijay, Anshuman, Arup, Durgesh and others in this stretch. Anshuman was waiting for Subhadeep, who was supposed to catch up already. Arup too stopped for others when we passed him. Except for few short bad patches, the road was good. The heat was playing hide and seek with us. Later on Prem stopped and was just starting when I caught up with him. He said that one of the riders had a fall, and that he was not sure if it was because of road or a stray dog.
After entering Medak at around 9:40 AM, I stopped at the first ATM I could spot and stopped for taking a selfie as this was the second and automated check-point. Rajeev called up from the car and informed about a breakfast point ahead. I was not planning to stop for eating anytime soon though.
Soon after I caught up to Vijay, who was also on the lookout for an ATM. We stopped after finding one across the road, and he went to get a selfie. In the meantime, Dr. Pavan too came along and went into the ATM after asking us to hold the bike. By this time, a few curious onlookers were checking out our bikes and started asking questions about the bikes and the ride. When we were about to leave, a local journalist asked us to tell us a few details about the ride. I wrote a few details (names, ride distance, randonneuring sport etc) in SMS on his phone as he was not having a pen. He asked us if he could write about anti-drugs/narcotics. I told him to write whatever he wants to, as I was pretty sure he would anyway stick to a story he comes up with, rather than a story we narrate.
(Just in case you are interested and can read Telugu, here is the link:
epaper.andhrajyothy.com/1292153/Medak/23.07.2017#page/18/2
That guy couldn't even get our names right!)
We managed to leave Medak before 10 AM and the climate started to change from meagerly-comfortable weather to not-so-comfortable, with the heat kicking in along with a mixture of head-winds and cross-winds. To make the matters worse, the humidity kept on drawing the sweat out of us, and the road elevation would seem never-ending. Another rider Anshul asked about a common friend and introduced himself. When asked about the 200 km brevet, he told that he had to drop when his friend had a flat as neither of them know how to fix a flat. The ride at this point reminded me of the 2015 Heaven and Hell 200 km brevet and 'The Pearl' rides. One part of me laughed at the other part which thought of finishing the ride 'quite comfortably'. By this time I already ate a Naturo and still feeling a bit hungry. I took a quick break in the shade of a tree and ate one of the home-made energy bars I was carrying. After sometime, I spotted a few riders and noticed that they stopped for lemon soda. I too stopped and had a normal soda and a lemon soda. I started off and spotted corn vendors to the side within minutes. I grabbed one and started off again, while gobbling on the corn after quick glances ahead.
After what seemed like a slow, miserable, eternally continuing ride, I reached Yellareddy by 12:15 PM, the third and automated check-point. I saw a few riders including Vijay, Durgesh, Prem quenching their thirst with cool drinks and water ahead at a store and joined them quickly. I got to know that Vikranth dropped (I believe because of numbness in feet) and Subhadeep dropped due to fever. I asked Vijay about the check-point time and he said we were there well within the cut-off time. We enquired about the nearest ATM and rode there after filling up water bottles and having some cool drinks. After the selfie business is over, we started off to the next destination - Kamareddy as we were not feeling hungry yet. After leaving Yellareddy, the inclines and head-winds too left us. The pace felt better. I could see Raj at a distance ahead. Later on, he stopped when he spotted Christopher. From there on, we rode for a few minutes together. I asked about food and Christopher said that he was planning to eat at a place just before Kamareddy. The roads decided to throw in a challenge with a series of notoriously bad stretches. One of my bottles fell down at one point as I was not slowing down when the ride got bumpy. I sped up a bit and rode mostly solo after that and reached Kamareddy by 2:20 PM. I stopped after spotting a descent place to dine-in, and called up Christopher to inform about it. I tried to find Vijay's contact number too but I couldn't find it. In the meantime, Raj and Durgesh caught up. We took selfies just in case, had cool drinks, refreshed a bit, and enquired about the readily available items. We ordered the obviously readily available chicken biryani, a veg curry, naan and ate until our stomach's couldn't take anymore. Our next destination was the manual check-point which was on the highway. We started off just before 3 PM and I was hoping to reach the check-point by 4 PM. The full and content stomach slowed me down as expected. Raj and Durgesh went ahead. Prem too passed me and went ahead. I was checking my location on the map from time to time just to be sure.
Managed to reach the check-point by 4 PM. Anshuman, Arup, Prem, Christopher were already there by the time I reached.
We refreshed with soft drinks, fruit juice and lemon soda. A guy there was imitating the police siren so perfectly! After a few minutes, Anshuman, Raj and Arup left. I lied down on the bench for few more minutes and tagged along with Prem, Raj and Durgesh.
The good thing? We covered almost 180 km and the remaining 120 km is a very easily navigatable route - the highway!
The bad thing? Saddle soreness was kicking in!
Raj went ahead and I was riding on and off with Arup, Prem and Durgesh. We rode for about 20 km (close to one hour) and took a short break. We planned the next big stops - Zyka restaurant and Toopran. We rode for one more hour and and again took a short break. We started off again, and stopped at Zyka after riding hardly 5 km. Since we had late lunch and as it was too early for dinner anyway, we did not order anything to eat. I had a cup of strong tea, and others had coffee. We discussed about the elevation profile of the remaining route. Vandana too was at Zyka and she offered dry fruits and juice. I asked her how Vijay was doing and she said that he would be reaching soon. I grabbed a juice pack before we started off again. With less than 80 km to go, and the sun setting down, we picked up pace. With one or two very quick breaks, we stopped at around 9 PM after riding close to 40 km and crossing Toopran. I parked the bike to the side of the road, went on to the grass on the divider, and lied flat on my back for a couple of minutes. I emptied another soft drink bottle that I picked up from the check-point.We started off again, and my situation turned miserable. Saddle soreness became unbearable and the palms too were getting very numb. This reminded me of the 2015 400 km brevet. I cursed myself for choosing to ride instead of chilling off on the weekend. But of course, brooding won't help ease off the pain :) I rode off-saddle as much as possible and after some time, I saw that Prem stopped near a dhabha. I joined him and we ordered egg fried rice. Arup and Durgesh came after some time as Durgesh had a flat. After relaxing and refueling, we started off again to the final destination for the day - St. Martins engineering college.
Prem and Durgesh went ahead and vanished soon after we started from dinner break. I spotted Preetham on the road in that late night. He offered tea/coffee. I asked if they have cool drink but the vendor to the road-side didn't have any. I anyway felt good seeing Preetham there and moved on. Arup and I were riding at an easy pace. The saddle soreness won't let me sit and relax. I had to still ride mostly standing. Good thing for me though was that the legs feel pumped up and ready to even sprint (at least it felt that way ;)). Arup was sleep deprived and so he too was taking it easy. We somehow managed to reach the finish point by 11:50 PM with only a single small break.
We refreshed ourselves with the juice available there. Prem changed into dry clothing by the time we reached parking.
By midnight, we started loading the bikes into Arup's car and he dropped me at JNTU. I started riding home, telling myself repeatedly that it is going to be downhill almost all the way till home :D
George spotted me on the road at that ungodly hour and asked me how the ride was. I told without thinking twice - 'It was good!' :)
Comments
Post a Comment