After the MR400 (Jawadhu Hills) brevet last weekend, it was Shimoga 600 at BLR this weekend. An evening start on Fri 4PM, it was two nights, one-day brevet. BLR had been chilly lately and I was curious how the two nights were going to be. Well it turned to be more than I bargained for!
Squiggled through the BLR traffic jam near IISc, then it was much quicker as we hit the Mangalore highway.120 kms to Channarayapatna and then a left turn off the highway onto a two-lane state highway. Pitch dark and cold, our road was just four small puddles of light that lit up about 25ft in front. A sliver of a moon (cresent) did not help. A cloudless sky meant a very starry sky. Beautiful to lift up the head and look at the sky while riding, though only briefly possible, it was wonderful. Looked up and wondered if any living forms in some star(s) do brevets there too!
Fifty kms after the turnoff we were at greeted by Aditya Manju at CCD (200km mark), the first control.We were ~3.5 hours earlier (1:47AM) than the max time allowed. A 3+ hour in the bucket, we were happy. We had no idea how this bucket will leak the next day! After a cup of hot coffee, biscuits and bananas and nice chats with Aditya we were off to Shimoga.
And boy it was real Brrrrr. As we go downhill, it would become extremely chilly, it is when I remembered what I had learnt at school “Cold air settles at the bottom” – Ouch. Chill wind in your face means sleep, it was an effort to keep eyes open. Picture taken at Shimoga, breakfast done and we did the U-turn here (300km midway mark). And the day turned out to be interesting. A wonderfully rolling terrain sucked time, and we reached the 400 mark at 3:40PM gaining no extra time, still the same 3.5 hour advantage. After a 45 minute break we were back on the road.
The climbs and rolls started. Never ending and relentless, it tested us. 50kms seemed to take ages. Climbs, rolls, chilly headwind – a potent combination that tests you as a randonneur. And we were was back on the Mangalore-BLR highway. And the next 120km proved to be the most challenging. Not only was the terrain rolling, but it was chill wind in the face. And all four us (Karthikeyan , Somaskanda, Yuvaraj and me) seemed to be affected by this. Never have I (or others) gotten so sleepy after a 30-60 minute ride that we had stop, take a power nap or have coffee and then stretch to ward of the sleep. And the barren highway with sparse tea shops or bus stands meant using the pavement or the highway divider as the space for stretching/power nap.
The bucket leaked and slowly the time advantage that we built up vanished. And alas, it came down to calculations. The last 17kms of the highway need to be in done in 77 minutes and at the slow rate we were doing, we could not afford any more breaks. It was a wake up call. And we covered this distance in 60 minutes reaching Nelamangala,outskirts of BLR at 5:40. A hot coffee to perk up and we decided to sprint the home stretch. And oh boy, it was lovely.
Turned into Tumkur road, the last 32 kms were done in 1:15. Up the flyovers on the large gears, legs pumping, eyes sharp, small beads of sweat, overtaking the 200 brevet riders who had passed us earlier, we reached the end point by 7:07, 53 minutes before closing time. Bright eyed now, there was no semblance of sleep now! Dipankar was there to welcome us with bananas, biscuits and juice. Oh well, we thought we would be here by 2AM! But heck, the chilly second night exposed our poor clothing and I guess this is a good prep for the PBP at Paris later this year.
A very memorable ride.Of the numerous 600s that I have done, this one proved to be the most sleepy! After a hot shower and curd rice at home, I was off to Lolo-land for a good 7 hours waking up at 6:30PM on Sun. Two weekends and 1000kms done. Cycle needs rest now! So the next two weekends are for running HM next Sun at Ramanagaram and then weekend after Auroville Marathon (my maiden FM). Well to go to Ramanagarm I need to cycle, so this promises to be a nice Duathlon, a 100km ride and a HM run. (Pics at start, mid point and end – no difference in the energy levels!)