Huliyurdurga - Where tigers tread!!!

It was a perfect day for cycling - the 23rd of November in the year of the Lord 2013 .... The route was IISc, Bangalore -> Magadi -> Huliyurdurga -> Koppa -> Maddur -> Ramnagara -> Manchinebele -> Magadi Road - IISc, Bangalore. The weather was never hot and it only drizzled a little till 7.30 (post which of course, the heavens opened up and Bangalore recorded highest rainfall in Nov in 44 years). The route is below (Google Maps link is here)

It was challenging for 3 reasons:
1. There was literally no flat surface ... it was slight up gradient or down gradient
2. The route involved a lot of turns and there was a good reason you might get lost
3. The traffic in Bangalore while getting back is horrible, so you had to consider about 45 mins for that!!

I had wanted to do a brevet after my last year's Bangarpet brevet. So this was the first one that I could actually try, since most part of 2013, I was in Pune. I had prepared for this brevet by doing a 120 km ride the previous week. So I had the confidence that I could do this. And also, I had had an active few weeks before (mysore ride, half marathon walk etc).

The Start

On the D Day, I arrived at the starting point and got my bike check done and my brevet card stamped. I had not read the cue sheet at all and I knew I had to follow others at least till I hit Magadi Road. So, I was just blindly following people and we went through small lanes of Bangalore, with quite a few ups and downs - these were kinda foreshadowing the day ahead!. I managed to follow the guys till Magadi Road and from there, they all raced ahead of me. I was riding alone. I am used to riding alone, so that by itself was not an issue. Magadi road had many ups and downs and I was negotiating them by changing gears and going along. I developed a pain on my left shoulder that was leaving my uncomfortable. I thought I ll go till the first control at 48 km and then take a call. I reached the first control well before closure and had a heavy breakfast of thatte idli. I rested for about 20 minutes and the pain in my shoulder eased greatly.

Till the second control at Maddur

It was an absolutely fascinating ride till Maddur. The villages were all very quintessential Indian Villages and they were all amused to see this creature (me) riding with a fluorescent green tee shirt, tight shorts and helmet! It was like a distraction in their routine lives ... I enjoyed all the kids saying "Bye Anna", "eee al nodo" (hey, look there) etc. I knew what an animal in a zoo feels like when people stare at it!!! Overall, this was a smooth ride. I was maintaining a constant comfortable speed. My legs were in great shape and was constantly exercising my shoulder and the pain was bearable. Some photos taken in this stretch are below.

Country Roads ... take me home ... to the place, I belong ..

A water channel somewhere on the way!

The only companion for 200 kms - My bike!

While I was nearing Maddur, I had the company of Sylvester, but he was faster than me, so I asked him to go ahead and not wait for me. I reached the second control by 12.53 PM and took the ATM slip as proof (it was an unmanned control). I had a good lunch at Tiffany's and took a break of about 30 mins.

The Benign Afternoon

Usually, the afternoons are hot, but that it was quite pleasant and it did not rain either. I was riding on the Bangalore-Mysore Road from 1.35 till about 3.10 and reached Ramanagara. I was stopping every 5 km and sipping on the gatorade. I took a break of 15 mins and started again. I knew the Manchinbele climbs were waiting for me and I was ready for it.

I rode continuously at a constant pace and going through peaceful village roads. The beautiful vista kept me good company. Some pics below.

About 5 kms before the Manchinbele climb, I got down and did some stretches - providing free entertainment to the villagers. It was almost like the peacock dancing in the zoo!!! I climbed the Manchinbele Climb on 1x2 gear ratio, and stopped in between for some pics.

Manchinebele Reservoir

Your truly!

The Final Leg

I reached the final control by around 4.55PM and I knew I had more than 2.5 hours for the final 32 kms. I started pedaling and was going at a pace I am comfortable. My cyclocomp showed 200 at 6.05PM - which meant I had covered 200 km in 12 hours - I was quite happy with myself at this point. I thought I ll cover the rest with about 50 mins to spare. But the traffic at Sunkadkatte and inside Bangalore was pathetic and I reached only by 7.14PM!!! So there ended my second brevet. The elevation map is below.

The second half of the Journey had an altitude gain of 200 Metres

Closing thoughts

• The ride was not tough, I did not feel overly tired or my legs did not ache. In fact, I had to force myself to stretch my legs once.
• My average riding speed was greater than 20kmph, but I still did not reach early
• I am perfectly ok riding alone - even in my first brevet I was riding alone mostly
• I need to work on improving my pace - it was quite less compared to the others who completed the same brevet.
• My strategy was constantly sipping electrolytes and not gulping down plain water helped a lot

During the ride, I promised myself I dont want to do any more of these, but 2 days later, I am already looking forward to do a 300 in about a couple of months!!!

And last, I have to thank my wife for supporting me. She was taking care of the 2 girls while I was busy pedaling! Now I have to spend some quality time at home during weekends!

 PS:- In case, you are wondering why this post is titled as it is; that's because the brevet organizers called this the Huliyurdurga 200. Huli in Kannada means tiger.

Pain and Glory - Mysore Conquered!

When I did my first century ride on 9th June 2012, I had promised to myself that I would do a Mysore trip at an average speed of 20kmph+. Well, that day was yesterday (26/10/13) - I did a Bangalore-Kanakapura-Malavalli-Mysore bike ride.

It all started with a regular ride on Kanakapura Road. I stocked up with some chikkis, dry fruit and water. I had only one sachet of gatorade. The initial target was to go as long as possible on Kanakapura road and come back. On the way, around just after kaggalipura, I bumped into Ananth Vishwanathan who on his Bianchi Nirone Roadbike. He was going upto Mysore to stay with his friend and return the next day. He tempted me with an offer - Join him upto Mysore and take the Volvo back ... It did not take a lot for him to convince me :-). So Mysore it was ...

We went upto Harohalli and had breakfast at the Vasu Hotel and I was searching for a medical shop to buy a couple of Electral Sachets. It was just around 7.45 and there was no medical shop open at Harohalli. Decided to go ahead upto Kanakapura and buy there.

It was a great day to pedal - very nice and pleasant. Kanakapura road (NH209) is my personal favourite for biking because of all the tree cover. So, it was the two of us pedaling away to glory. I was able to maintain good speed (of course, it was downhill, so that helped ;-) ). We reached Kanakapura road at around 8.30PM 8.30AM and bought 2 sachets of Electral. It was about 50 kms from home and I had done in about 2hrs 20mins with a breakfast break. So I was rolling and I thought I ll reach Mysore by 2PM - Reality was to have the last laugh!

On the way to Malavalli, I stopped a couple of times and had some good stretches. These were stuff I learned from my previous rides and I followed them rigorously and it sure helped. We reached Malavalli by around 11.55AM and that was around 97km. So I thought this is great going - the weather is great, we have a good riding speed of 24kmph and there was no stopping!

Lunch at Utsav Restaurant, Malavalli
When I had blogged about my 200km Brevet, there was a guy who advised that bikers should have rice for food and not roti, because of the carbohydrates. I had done some research and found that this was the general advice. So, we had 2 Maaza, 2 Tomato bath, 4 cups of curd, 2 half curd rice and 1 bottle of water and the bill was all of Rs 148!!! It was indeed a pleasure! Paid a tip of 10 bucks too!

The Sun shines down on us!
So we started around 12.35PM and it was getting hotter. I thought we can do the 50km in around 2.5 hours and we should hit Mysore around 3PM. The road was a small road with little traffic. It was Mandya district and we had some great views. Sample these pics

The Road and the View

Green!!

My Faithful Companion - As always!

Another green field!

With these views accompanying, I was pedaling hard and and the sun shined down on me hard! I was feeling like sipping water every few minutes. I carry a regular water bottle with a screw cap. So I had to stop the bike, get down and then sip some water. Had I been carrying a regular sipper, I could have sipped while riding. But on second thoughts, that would be effortless and I would end up drinking a lot of water and feeling heavy in the stomach; that happened towards the end of the ride, but a sipper would mean easy drinking and I might get that feeling sooner. But I guess these are choices we take while doing the ride and these small decisions reflect on the ride efficiency.

Just before Bannur, we found a small dam and it was beautiful! Ananth decided to get down while I stayed up in the sun .... Look at these pics to get an idea.

The sun was really cruel and it impacted my speeds greatly. I stopped a couple of times on the way for drinking coconut water and Maaza .... I also was stopping for my regular stretches, but the road not very smooth and there were short climbs all through. I was pedaling on the 2x3 gear and was also feeling the heat. But I have noticed that though my speed comes down during the heat, I am not overly bothered by it. As long as I control my urge to gulp down a lot of water, I am ok to actually sweat it out in the heat.

It was around 3PM and I was still around 25+ km away from Mysore. I realised that this is not gonna be a cake walk! I was down to average brevet speeds of 15kmph (including any break). So recalculated and set myself a target of 4.15PM; that would mean 10 hours since I left home in the morning. I am glad to say I was able to achieve this and reached the Mysore bus stand around 4.10PM. Here is me all smiles after the journey!

Mysore!!!

I wanted to go the Palace and get a snap in front of the palace with a cycling salute. But I totally forgot about it when I reached the bus stand. While I was about to load the bike into the Volvo luggage rack, I remembered. But I did not have the enthu to go back! I boarded the Volvo bus and came back to Nayandahalli around 7.30PM and reached home by 8.15PM - that was 14 hours of useful time spent and a promise kept!

Now I have to go back to Mysore to get the snap in front of the palace ... I live to bike another day!

Learnings from the ride:
Practice riding in the heat while maintaining good speed. I am gonna do afternoon rides from 1PM to 5PM on the weekends so that I get used to the sun.

Ride stats:

155 kms pedaled!

Almost 8 hrs of pedaling

Average Speed - 19.56 kmph

So overall, an unplanned, but satisfying journey to Mysore! My hunger for long rides is sated and I dont plan to do any more long rides in the near future!

The day after
Today (27/10/13), I did my regular 5km walk and did a 20 minute stretch of all parts of my body - neck, shoulder, back, hip and legs. I seem to be ok - now I am off for some diwali shopping and am gonna have my well deserved tub of icecream with my daughter!

EDIT 28/10/13: Corrected time from 8.30PM to 8.30AM