Tour of Nilgiris 2008

In the early months of 2008 when I posted a note on Bikeszone looking for partners in crime to tour the Nilgiris, little did I realize then that I was sowing the seeds for something that probably had the potential to shape Indian cycling. Yes I do feel like that! TFN will get bigger and better. What started as an inner desire to cycle thru the blue mountains soon caught flame and erupted due to similar interests from individuals like Ravi, Pradeep,Venkatesh, Sharath, Sriram, Abhi etc to name a few. The guys worked extremely hard over the months of November and December to realize the potential of TFN. After the registrations started to pour in, the sponsors followed suit and TFN eventually became a reality.

Much of it is history now and I will just add some notes about my ride here instead. To begin with deep inside me I was skeptical of riding TFN due to a lower back injury that had plagued over the past 2 months. Due to some determined hard work put in by a bunch of excellent chiropractors in the US combined with Yoga and a lots of swimming behind me minus time on the bike, I landed in India on the 10th Dec to make my ride thru the nilgiris a reality. My immediate goal was to get in some sort of form on the bike and I trained over 2 weeks in Bombay not the best of locations for it. The back was still hurting and my goal soon switched to surviving TFN. I focused on hill training on the only km of climb I could find around my home in Bombay as long distance rides were out of question.

I landed in Bangalore on the 24th and was very excited to meet other cyclists participating in TFN. Many of them I already knew from BZ but this was a chance to connect faces to their nicknames! My brother Rakesh was one of the last riders to get into Bangalore. I was well awake into the night waiting for his arrival. He arrived at midnight, we had a few hours of sleep and early morning we got his bike assembled and we were on our way to the event. My adrenalin was already pumping once I got into my jersey at 5 am! The hotel staff were a little confused to see us in our attire getting into the lift. We rode from our hotel in darkness, my driver acting as a pilot to guide us thru the city. We bumped into other riders and soon it felt that everybody on the street was heading to the grounds either on bike or foot!

Bangalore - Mysore.
The ride started with a police escort to guide us safely out of the city. Within the city itself the line of cyclists started to stretch over a km. Once we reached the outskirts the ride was all set to kick in. The faster riders set a pace right at the start and I was thinking this was not exactly what I had in mind. I knew the adrenalin was pumping in everyone but there was still 140kms to go! After the initial 30 mins spend in trying to find the dynamics of everyone, I decided to settle into my groove and ride, though at times I did regroup or waited for other cyclists. This was the first time I was riding on a Indian national highway and my mind was well aware of it. At one point I decided to wait for my brother and rode some 20kms with him. At the half way mark I was well settled and the lunch stop appeared sooner than later. I was averaging 33km//hr over the first 75km of the ride. I had just found my pace and I was in no mood to stop and have lunch. We decided to skip lunch and just keep riding. We told ourselves that we could take a small break at Mandya at the 100km mark. At Mandya we were surrounded my many onlookers who had 100 questions about the ride and the bike. We patiently answered many of their queries. After the break the heat started to get to me, the conditions were hard for me and I decided to ride thru to Mysore without any more halts. Two weeks before TFN I was in minus temperatures in the US. During the break many cyclists passed us each at their own pace and rhythm. Once back on the bike I left my brother as he was having cramps and wanted to ride slower.
I regrouped with Venkatesh, Iggy and Shantanu ( who had passed me earlier during the stop in Madhya) right at the outskirts of Mysore and we rode together for a while into Mysore. The group would ride together for every few kms and then fall apart. Every little climb towards Mysore was testing the legs of every rider after the 125km mark.

My legs were showing signs of fatigue, the ride thru Mysore had disrupted my rhythm and by the time I got to Chamundi severe cramps had settled in and I was low on fluids. Luckily my wife located me on the foothills of Chamundi, I struggled to even get off the bike. My close friend suggested the climb to Chamundi was brutal and I was left to ponder whether my lower back would cave in? After 10 minutes spent with massages and refurbishing fluids I decided to give the 6km climb a crack. I knew I could not stop, as the cramp would come back so I settled into a rhythm and started climbing. Within the first km I passed most of the riders who had passed me and I knew there was only Shantanu ahead. Shantanu who hails from Pune was riding a mountain bike and he was the only rider who kept that kind of a pace on a MTB. He would grind those big gears and was awesome to watch. Samim and Dipankar the fastest of the bunch had already reached by then most likely. At the last 2 kms I started to finally get a glimpse of Shantanu whenever the roads straightened after the numerous turns. The view to Mysore became more of a birds eye view and I knew not much was left.

My legs were crying loud for pain and started to work with an incentive to catch him. The cramps started to creep in, the heat was just too much, and I was running on adrenalin more than anything and at point I emptied a bottle of gatorade on my head thinking it was water!

A support car that had stayed with me over the entire climb kept close to me, maybe they found it amusing or maybe they were also into it totally! I managed to finish 10 metres behind Shantanu just before the apparent finish line where my family and friends were waiting for me. I was relieved and happy that the 150km ride was over but this is why I came to ride TFN and the pain was irrelevant!

Stats -
Distance - 151kms
Time – 4 hours 59mins
Average speed – 30.5 km/hr
Max Speed – 60.2 km/hr
Avg HR – 135bpm ( My Zone 1.9)
Calories burned - 5380cal
Elevation Gain - 1716 metres