My SL story continues! Castlereigh Reservior.

Rrrrrnnggg!!!, the alarm rings on my newly bought HTC phone at 645am! I was woken up more than usual since I still had to get used to that new sound. I could hear the sound of rain on the roof of the cottage. It had been raining whole night. It was cold. It was the first night I covered myself under the sheets in SL! I closed my eyes to that sound which seemed like eternity only to be woken up again. This time it was the knock on the door. My breakfast was here at 7am. I was so optimistic the night before that I had asked for the breakfast to be delivered as early so I could get out and ride my bike! It was a very small set up at the resort with just 2 cottages with the other one empty. Even the cook was not available so early in the morning so my western breakfast (not my choice) was made by the room attendant. He said it was easier for him to put a continental breakfast than a traditional srilankan meal. Fine! I settled on the verandah of the cottage with my food and a warm coffee. I know it is tea country but I still need my coffee to wake up my senses. Actually now thinking of it my senses were already awake from what I saw in front of me. Thru the tall standing timber trees surrounded by tea shrubs I could see the beautiful reservoir with low mist just hanging right on top of it. It was raining and the only 2 sounds I could hear was the rain drops on the leaves and yes religious tamil music coming from some speakers on the other side of the reservoir! Refreshing! I was told not to venture out too far into the tea shrubs as leeches were very common!

The view of the reservior from my verandah

Within 30 mins I was already in my cycling jersey waiting for the rains to die out. The night before I had mapped out a ride around the reservoir. It was a 50k ride with plenty of climbs on the nearby hills. Since i was not sure about what to expect of the road conditions, I had made up my mind to ride the mtb. I was going to take it easy and even packed my slr camera and a few lenses in a water proof bag. Just in case! Meanwhile the music continued on the other side of the reservoir, so did my wait! Everytime it looked like it was over and I got up from my chair, it would start all over again.

It was 11am now and I was still sitting in my jersey with my cycling shoes on and my arm resting on the bike. The attendant came over to take the dishes away, on his way out he turned back and said sir, it does not really rain like this, it is very unusual! Oh yeah! Thanks for telling me that. I was tempted to ride, I was getting impatient, very impatient but it was still 11, the ride was just 50k and the day was still long. So I waited.

The rain continued till 2pm and meanwhile I had my lunch! The cook was back at work and he made a delicious chicken curry, dal and plain rice. A cup of coffee followed! I know it is tea country but I need my coffee after my meals! Just after lunch the rain finally stopped and I decided to take the risk and go for a ride. Before I set out I confirmed with the employes at the resort about the route I had drawn for the previous night and also to let them know where I was heading. Just in case! It was strange to have my mind in a 'tourer' mode, it had been a long time! I had to intentionally slow myself down to relish some of the scenery! I was also riding the mtb. My scott was back at the cottage upside down to drain some of the water that might have entered inside the frame during the ride to Hatton! It had happened a few times in the past too. Though I have ridden the mtb a number of times on trails in the US and also around the city in Colombo, this was to be the longest ride I ever rode on a mtb! It was a little difficult to believe that fact.

The ride began with a long descent towards the end of the reservoir. My plan for the ride was to just get to the end of it at about 5k mark and return since more rain was likely. 

The state of the roads were not too bad. It ran along the reservoir on one side and slanting slopes of neatly manicured tea plantations on the other. I was in no hurry and even stopped a few times in the first km itself. 5kms of riding brought me to a dam about 150m long at the end of the reservoir. I could not take photographs for obvious reasons but I stayed around to check out the views. Though one eye was always on the clouds over head as it just did not look good. The peaks of the hills were covered with dark rainy clouds and my original 50k plan looked a distant reality as it required me to climb to the top and get behind those mountains. I did not even know know how high they were as they were perennially covered with dark misty clouds. That had been the case since I got to Castlereigh the day before! My only knowledge of what lied behind those low hanging clouds was derived from the elevation graph that I had drawn online. There were a couple of fishing boats in the reservoir and few men fishing on the shores of the reservoir. I was told by the hotel attendant that these guys caught fresh water fishes that weighed upto 5kg, apparently it is very fatty and is best eaten fried!

After passing over the dam and a security post, the road went thru a small village of sorts. I decided to ride further. Right after the village the road started to quickly descend and wind thru tea estates towards a place called Norton Bridge. I stopped at a few plantations to take photographs. Norton Bridge was the lowest point of the ride at 800m. I was aware that since the ride started I had only been descending for 12 long kms and to go back there was some stiff climbing to do.  I was also aware that if i decided to ride my original plan of 50k I had to climb over 15 odd kms to a place called Maskeliya where the other reservoir was located.  A huge 1400m high mountain stood between the 2 reservoirs and I had to get some way on top if it to cross to the other side.  The rain had miraculously held back till now. So I decided to gamble and go ahead with the 50k ride. All this time I hardly encountered any vehicles and that played on my mind. I was just not in a mood to get stuck some spooky place I had never been before! I was also racing against light. It was getting darker because the light was not penetrating the thick dark clouds.. I quickly got back on the bike, cleated and took the road to Maskeliya. I was climbing thru misty winding roads and it got denser as the altitude picked up. The climb itself was not too steep but the mtb did make a workout of it. I knew these moments were different from my usual rides. This was an adventure and I was excited! I was a little scared too. I knew this was similar to that day when I climbed Mt Ventoux on a cold rainy day. My impulses were having the better of me and my desire to explore what lied ahead was intense. Inspite of all the cycling I do, these moments are rare and intriguing to me.

Without much trouble I climbed the first 5k mostly thru thick forest of sorts. The only people I passed by were a few kids getting back from school. They probably know each inch of these hills on the back of their hands. They helped calm my nerves. The first climb finished on top of a pass cut thru the mountain to get to the other side. This was a quiet intersection with a tiny bus stand. Two women maybe tea plantation workers took refuge from the wet weather under the roof of the bus stand. I wanted to ask them for directions or rather confirmation of my route but I decided to wait a moment to ask someone else. Not that I don't trust women! Soon a motor bike passed and I frantically waved at them to stop. Hatton? Road to Hatton? They wanted me to get back on the route I just came from. Ofcourse since I was riding a loop, I was still closer to Hatton if I turned back. I knew that myself. I made them understand that I was riding a loop and wanted to get to Maskeliya and then to Hatton. This reminded me that Vignesh my room attendant at the cottage had told me to ask for the Maskeliya - Hatton road in case.  They looked at each other and said the road to Hatton via Maskeliya was tough!  In their own words 'difficult'. It was really wet out there. For the first time I was looking down at the other side of the immense mountain into the deep valley. The valley steeply descended and from the scenic overlook or pass where I was standing I could see a dam way down easily over 500m or more into the valley. I quickly collected my attention back to the motorbikers. I decided to ignore the 'difficult' comment and thanked them for the advice but decided to finish the loop. I calmed myself with the idea that I had the legs to climbs, it was not going to be a climb of epic proportions and if it poured fine! It just could not take more than 2 hours. The only trouble would have been if I got a flat or if I crashed! I had everything I needed in case or worse I thought I could hitch a ride with someone. So I continued.             

Descending towards Norton bridge

The mist got denser as I continued my climb, the views down the valley got even more spectacular. I was riding parallel to the peaks wilderness sanctuary. The mountain range seemed like a massive wall. Inspire of the height at which i was riding I could still hear the loud sound of the river raging through the valley. A few kms ahead was another scenic overlook and I had my first glimpse of the laxpana waterfall. White raging water in all its fury taking a deep plunge over a 100m height into the valley was quite a sight! I was only a km away and the sound was deafening! On any other given day the sight or the entire ride was just maybe not as mesmerizing but the conditions that i was riding through made just about everything twice as dramatic and i felt spellbound in it's beauty. As the ride continued on one side of the valley the mountain range continued it's own parallel path. There were plenty of more waterfalls off those mountains and lush green impenetrable forests on the higher range of the mountains. The scenes looked like a clip out of the movie Avatar! I thought why they spent so much money on computer rendering and effects when they could have just shot the entire movie on the other side of the river! It was that enticing! The winding climb continued towards Maskeliya and soon i was riding back thru more tea plantations. The west side of this mountain range that i was riding on was far more dramatic and wild compared to the east side at Castlereigh. This sise was more rustic in its beauty. I wondered how the entire range must have looked a few decades ago when the entire lot was one big jungle. 

By now the tea plantation workers were towards the end of their day. The women dressed in colorful raincoats were walking on the side of the road in a line carrying the freshly picked tea leaves in the baskets on their back. Further ahead I saw many more women weighing each basket of tea leaves. I am not sure what the men do but so far I had only seen women doing the job while men did the job of supervisors. As i passed them they paused to look at me. They were probably wondering what I was doing riding my bike thru there. One thing we had in common was our colorful raincoats.  I dont think they see too many like me. The end of the day's work for them also meant I had to hurry thru my ride to make it in time to reach Hatton before it got dark. I was over the half way mark. A few kms later I had my first glimpse of a huge building certainly a tea factory. The sight of the tea factory relieved me as I knew i was not too far from Maskeliya. I had been climbing for an hour thru some of the most fascinating scenery. I was already excited about sharing this with my wife who was supposed to come to Castlereigh with our son the next day. The tea factory lead me to a small intersection and I could see many Hindu temples in the village down in the valley. I stopped, took some photographs, drank some water and took note of the time. I was at ease now!

A big descend brought me rapidly to Maskeliya. A tall tree stood in the middle of the intersection. Every eye in that space was starring at me. Many sat under the tree waiting for the buses to take them to their destinations. I felt observed and intimidated. A right turn would bring me to Adam's peak while the left indicated Hatton. Without further thoughts I took the left. I was thru 3/4 of my ride and the challenges were behind me. A few kms of further climbing brought me to the top of the hill and I was back looking at Castlereigh. The climbs for the day was over I thought. This was the highest point from where I had a view of the  castlereigh reservoir. I was exactly on the other side of the reservoir where my cottage was located. I tried to locate it but it was hidden behind the tall timber trees that lined the shore. A 5k descend brought me to the town of Norton and after a further few kms of climbing I was in Hatton. The sun was beyond the mountains by now and I was riding in the last rays of light towards my cottage. I was ecstatic. I felt like I had made some sort of a discovery! Ofcousre many before me must have done the same but i was ecstatic because I did this on my own without any recommendations or suggestions. This was entirely my own ride!! 

I quickly changed into fresh clothes and settled on the verandah with a cup of warm tea!! The Tamil music continued from the other side of the reservoir.

Discovering SL, one climb at a time! Part 4

In the past 6 months due to many logistical reasons I did not really have the chance or time to explore SL. I was sort of satisfied with the rides I mentioned above but deep within me I knew I had to ride beyond that since some of the finest places lied in the central highlands and beyond. A few weeks ago Vandit mentioned on the forum that he was going to Bhutan, a place on my top 5 destinations to ride. I know Bhutan very well as I have lived there in the past and have explored just about every corner of it but on foot! When he proposed the idea that I could join, i was ready to jump on the bandwagon. When I started to figure out the logistics for me to get from Colombo to Paro with my bike, half my inspiration died. Thats when I thought i was being a fool trying to go to Bhutan when I still had the whole of SL to explore. I was charged now and ready.I started looking beyond Hatton on the maps and came across 2 reservoirs just a few kms beyond Hatton. I thought I could pack my bikes and try to spend an extended weekend out there. Trying to google or research about bicycling in SL is futile, there is absolutely nothing except a few counts of riding in Nuwara Eliya tea trails. I was up for whatever the place offered. So Thursday I left Colombo for the reservoirs. I packed the car the night before with my MTb, bike tools and extra wheel sets. But i was going to ride my scott atleast to Hatton. 

Riding up the hot slopes of Ginigathena

By the time i started riding the day after it was already 30c in the shade. it was miserably hot and humid. I decided to take it easy since i was just looking to get to Hatton. Much of the description of this ride has already been stated above. Half way up the climb to Ginigathena, it was so hot I felt my head was turning around and there were moments when I was blanking out. That alarmed me and I stopped for my car to catch up. My driver too was alarmed as he rarely sees me stop on a climb. As the car approached me I made hasty signals to hand me a bottle of water. Emptied a bottle of water on my head and I told my driver that I would ride to Ginigathena and then just ride the car. I kept a moderate pace from there on and it felt a lot better.

It got misty and cold and wet.

Ginigathena is at 650odd metres but every time I pass thru there it seems a good 10C cooler to Colombo. Also the ride to Ginigathena is always sunny and exposed to the sun while the ride from Ginigathena to Hatton which is a further 15k of climbs is usually wet, cold and cloudy. Maybe it is the mountains that create those conditions. Wet and cold sounds miserable if you were in England but when I saw the conditions playing out to the usual script I changed my mind and decided to ride all the way to Hatton. My legs found new vigor and i set out rolling on the bike again. The rain intensified and got misty thru the winding climbs. Fine, no worry at all. I asked my driver who was right behind me to keep those fog lights on!

I just kept going till I reached Hatton. On reaching Hatton I realized that I took more or the less the same time I usually take to climb till here! Just on the outskirts of Hatton there is tea shop, a really cool place with a scenic overlook. I always end my ride there with a cup of warm tea. The scott was put on top of the car, made a phone call or two to figure out our way to the cottages that I had booked around the reservoir. Soon got the confirmation and we set out to reach there before it got too late. My driver had to drop me and get back to Colombo the same day since he was needed at home the next day a friday a working day for both my wife and son.

Common sight around Dickoya!

Tea Plantations around Castlereigh

The reservior I was heading to is called the Castlereigh reservoir. It is set in a valley of tea plantations and lined with tall timber trees. Just beautiful. Amazingly scenic place. The roads heading out to Hatton to the reservoir was broken tar and I was glad I also had the MTb in the car! It is about 8kms from Hatton, a downhill drive and passes thru a small tea factory town Dickoya. Dickoya really seemed like a sleepy town where time had decided to take a break!! It was pouring now but still midst of the tea plantations on sloping hills were women dressed in colorful raincoats picking tea leaves.

And ohh I rode 70 odd kms with 25k of climbs from about 20m to 1200m in altitude

Discovering SL, one climb at a time! Part 3

After the initial enthusiasm of discovering Hatton died out a little, trying to ride it on a weekday and get back home to pick my son from school in time started to take a toll. It became extremely tiring to squeeze it in a day. As long as it was working out, I was managing to get there atleast once a week. Meanwhile I started to ride on the Galle sea face road very much like the Marine drive in Bombay. The road is however shorter just a km long with no traffic at all. It is a perfect set up for short high intensity intervals. The Galle face road was closed to public till recently due to threats from the sea from the Tamil tigers. Since the end of the war the roads have been made open to public but still there is a huge military presence as the army headquarters is pretty close by. The adjoining ground that lies sandwiched between the road and the beach is very popular with the locals in the evening. You see thousands of families enjoying the surroundings and over all the spectacular sunsets over the Indian ocean. This time of the year it is very popular with kite fliers.

The ground also has a massive flat post that carries the national flag. Every morning and evening it is hosted and taken off with precise ceremonies by the army. In the morning the army uses the ground for their regular exercises. Anyways I have been riding this on Sundays providing a spectacle to the army security and the morning joggers. I ride this in the company of my motorbike and we reach 60km/hr at the end of the km. The return is recovery. As I pass the army folks drenched in sweat and my head hanging off my shoulders in despair I hear them silently murmuring "come on" "come on"!! I turn back at the other end and I am ready for the next effort.

Discovering SL, one climb at a time! Part 2

My Search for climbs starts!My biggest downfall inspite of the extra miles this racing season has been the complete lack of hill training.
The most beautiful mountains lie not that far from Colombo but it takes eternity to get there. In the US I use to drive 100kms out of the city to the hills, ride a century and still be back home for lunch. But here to get out and ride could easily become a day activity.

On my return from Italy I decided to venture out further from the city and a pleasant discovery was made. The place is Hatton a tea plantation area at 1200m some 125k from Colombo. the 27k climb starts at 51m and finishes at 1250m in Hatton. What really interests me is the climb in itself so I have been driving further to cut on the flat kms thru crazy traffic. The road divides in Avisssawella where much of the traffic heads off to Ratnapura while the ride to Hatton pleasantly becomes traffic free! The ride now becomes 70k long out of which 27 is continous climbing to Hatton. I dont think I can do this more than once a week since it requires an hour of drive to get me this start point, and then another or over 3 hour drive from Hatton back to Colombo after the ride. I have been there a few times and the drive has been more tasking than the ride!! The descent seems never ending thru winding roads. I am starting to believe that the descent gives one a far better perspective of the climb than while climbing it. 

I  have divided the climb further into two sections. 10k and 12-17k depending on whether I want to really reach the town everytime. The first 10k though not very scenic compared to the second half is lot more winding and follows a furious river very popular with whitewater rafting. This 10k is also more difficult in gradient compared to the second half. It is almost at 7-8% but there is a section a km long that plateaus out 3/4th into the climb before picking up again at 8% till the end of the 10k. It brings the overall gradient to just over 5%. The last km and half is the crucial part of the climb where I tend to lose time. I need to stand up and sprint my way up on that section. At the end of this 10k is Ginigathena where the tea plantation starts. I can see myself doing this climb more often even during the week to get a good hill workout. 
The second half is similar to the scenes you find in Ooty, just lush green tea plantations and resorts though the mountains are not as cured as OOty. They are more wild here with many high scenic peaks with number of huge waterfalls on their sides. The ride is less tasking but you are still climbing at 5-7% but with occasional respites. but then you already have 10k of climbing when you get to this section and that makes it challenging. I think I will do the entire climb over the weekends just like I did yesterday.

I rode the first 10k yesterday at around LT to set a time for it. Now I have a target everytime I climb that section. The second half I rode at tempo. On the first half I took off 5 mins compared to my time last week, I am starting to understand the climb better and also I rode the second time on 23's!! I got the 10k climb yesterday in 37 mins. I think it is a 32min climb and I have that time in my mind by december since my average HR dropped to 160 by the end of it.
Another target I have in mind is to start riding this ride from Colombo when I get closer to TFN. It would be identical to the SB climb from Manarkkad.

I have been riding this with my family. My wife and I ride the entire thing while my son rides about 10-15k of it. So far it has been a very good family outing combined with stiff training. I think if i can continue to work on this stretch I should see myself in excellent shape for the next season.

Discovering SL, one climb at a time!

My Scott Cx Addict

Some of you already know that I have relocated to Colombo, SL for the next few years. it has been over 6 months since, of which I spent 2 months riding and racing in Italy this summer. I like SL, it is a fantastic place and truly deserves the tag of the emerald island. But that tag seems a distant reality when I am in Colombo which like any Asian metropolis has its wide share of urban problems. Colombo has a huge cycling scene, majority of the folks who ride race, maybe just about everyone races. All the armed forces have their own cycling team and I run into them or ride with them often! Most of them are really lean, strong cyclists. There are 2 kinds of races in SL. The category is divided between those who ride gears and those with single speeds! The geared bikes are just about all the big brand bikes while the single speed bikes are roadsters, precisely tuned to be very competitive with road bike pedals, race saddles and some even have aerobar extensions! These guys ride them at 40km/hr, a treat to watch. Bicycling only exists in a competitive form or in the form of the many impoverished who ride to work. I dont mean that in bad way. There is no amateur scene like the ones you witness in Bangalore or other Indian cities. I hear occasionally some foreigners do turn up to ride their bikes on the trails in the central highlands. It is tough, very tough riding on the urban roads here which are very narrow and infested with urban moronic drivers. I even drew a conclusion during one of my rides that many of them at home also suffer from premature ejaculation, since they are so notoriously impatient! It has been extremely challenging but somehow I have managed to persist and slowly i am finding my ways to adapt to the conditions. For someone like me who has spent most of my life riding in the US and EU, the reality on the roads is very alarming. These days my training calendar is worked out to the last detail so every ride is effective and delivers a purpose so i dont have to be on the roads without a purpose. Every now and then i also put my bike on the trainer and ride to some training dvd's. I ride my more intense rides in the company of a pilot motorbike/vehicle. I have dressed my driver up in flo green jacket/vest and helmet, the motorists and even the cops take him very seriously. The bright colored vest helps to separate him from the other motorists otherwise he could just be any other motorist on the road! Anyways add to the above 2 long monsoons and perennially hot and humid weather! Having said that I am riding far more in SL than any other place I have ever visited or lived. Since moving to SL I am averaging close to a min of 400km a week compared to the 250-300 in the US. The extra miles have been to compensate for the rather flat terrain in and around Colombo. SL has also required me to ride early in the mornings, this has been hard on me since in the US I pretty much rode whenever i wanted! It gets to 30C by 9am! To me this is a huge lifestyle change as I am not one to wake up early. I graduated at university in Zoology because it was the only major that did not require me to wake up early!! Riding in this heat takes a toll and i try to finish the ride by 10am max and quickly return home to refurbish myself with salts and other supplements.

I brought most of my bikes to SL and some I left in Italy so I don't have to carry them back and forth. The bike that I effectively built myself for SL was my Scott and so far it has delivered! Custom built, Full carbon from head to toe and maybe one of the lightest cross bikes out there! I am riding 32's on it and after almost 5000km and I still have to get a flat. Before I left the US i spent a month with my friends at the bike shop where i built several bikes and learnt the inner workings of a bike and it's components. I knew I had to learn if i had to survive a few years in SL. Riding the scott has been easy on the body inspite of the blemished surface of the roads. I have been getting fast rides out of it and even clocked a 20k TT at 40km/hr! 

Army and National Cyclists

I also ride my TT bike on the weekends when the roads are relatively empty and I can let me hair loose. It is a crazy feeling to ride a TT bike thru Colombo in aero clothing, it literally brings the city to a standstill. On my weekday rides I ride out of the city to places like Hanwella or Avissawella. It is relatively comfortable to ride on those 2 way highway stretches but there is no room to let the guard loose. Frequent accidents on that stretch mostly involving buses and motorbikes keeps me wide awake. But it is still a good stretch to ride and the sighting of many other cyclists does help to calm the fears! I have also ridden on the wheels on some national cyclists on that road and it is just great to be in such esteemed company. 

Downtown Colombo