Velo Kerala - Day1 - Ernakulam to allepey !!!

Ever since I began cycling, the dream of riding the green routes in God's own country always remained a far fetched desire. The leaves from last December were still pending and now seemed to be the perfect time to utilize them. Tempting as it may seem the decision was quickly made for a week's vacation. The accommodation was booked in Ernakulam 5 days initially. This had to be shortened due to conflict with the TCS 10K.

The surge of excitement kept me on my toes till the 27th. I managed to finish the TCS 10 run under 55 mins and was contempt with the achievement. Return Tickets booked in KSRTC Airavata Club Class Mercedes coach. The boarding point was Shantinagar BS at evening 7.30. After a quick check with Ajith Jagadish ( another cyclist that I met earlier on a ride to mysore) and he confirmed his readiness for the trip. Such was his attitude about this trip that he wasn't interested in knowing the routes or destination. Just wanted to get the bums on the saddle and ride till the legs beg for mercy. That's a great spirit and certainly is a mind over matter as one gets to face the challenges during the unplanned trip. Little did we realize that there was so much more in store for us than what we had on minds. 

The excitement begins as soon as we meet at Apple istore at Raghavendra swamy mutt 5th block. A km into riding, I quickly lose sight of Ajith. Dang, he rode like a stung bee. After a couple of attempts to reach him on the phone caught up near cosmopolitan club and then we continued against traffic on the one way all the way to Ashoka pillar and then towards inner roads that leads to shantinagar bus stand. This was a quick huffy puffy ride and my T shirt was wet in no time.Only once we stopped I understood the scale of Ajith's luggage. He almost had a caravan on his back rather than a 'backpack'. As we waited for our bus we caught up on the daily lives and the BBCh races. As usual my X6 gets to show its carl zeiss magic hence out it comes from my pocket and I'm clicking away to glory. Then we see the Mercedes Benz coach that we're supposed to board and soon load our bikes and not without the fuss from the conductor who asks us to remove the pedals. We tell him that the wheels will be removed and then we'll mount them vertically. As the passengers had boarded the conductor reluctantly agreen to just push the bikes in and do we did and I secured the bikes against the side rails in the luggage compartment. Luggage cost = 330 as per ticket for two bikes. Thats all ??  Absolutely not. You've got to grease the hands of the conductor else he simply doesn't allow your bike. Add another 70 and he's satisified and I got my change for Rs.500 only at the destination. He was happy to pocket Rs.170 if not bothered. 

Here's how the bikes were loaded ::

 After confirming the PNR number we got seated and had a relaxed drive till the dinner stop at McDees on Hosur road just beyond hosur. The service at the hotel was delayed hence we were the last passengers to board the bus when one gentleman started yelling about the delay. I happily chose to ignore him as my tummy was happy and it was time to settle in to sleep like a baby as per the advertisement outside the bus :-). However Ajith had some nice rebuttals ready and after a few comments the angry businessman mallu finallys shut up and we got moving. Fast forward 9 hours @ Vytilla. We soon near vytilla junction and then head to the KSRTC Inter state bus stand. Reached the bus stand at 6 AM and we could smell the wet earth from early morning shower.  Soon it was time to get the bikes out. I headed out to collect change while Ajith managed to reassemble the bikes to riding condition again. Just had to remove the disk brake spacer and put the front wheel back on my 4300D while Ajith's bike was a simpler task of fixing the front wheels back again. Soon we consulted the GPS on Ajith's mobile and we had to reach Panampily nagar and as per GPS it was a good 4 kms away. As it looked like it might rain again, he stopped to pull out a secret weapon to protect his luggage, a secret/hidden waterproofing for his "caravan".

After about 15 mins of riding we reached panampilly nagar and started looking for the BSNL stay. A few mins of confusing directions from the caretaker we managed to locate it and secured our bikes against some pipes. It was like a duplex villa but with rooms on the inside called suites. 

The Goof Up # 1 The one booked for us was Suite 2 and we happily entered Suite #1. Once we had freshened up, we quickly switched over to Suite#2.

We then loaded our bags into Suite #2 and started a ride towards Allepey/Alapuzhzha, our first of the Trifector destinations on this vacation. Having done the extensive homework on mapping routes and checking with google street view for the road and weather conditions, he route for Day1 ran along the coast as depicted in the pic below 

The road conditions were top notch. Hmm I should use more biker friendly terms. So let me rephrase... The roads throughout were road bike friendly except 10 kms (there is a right and an immediate left about 200mts away at kanamaly) which is
super MTB friendly.

The road bike friendly streches:

The MTB friendly 10km stretch:

The humidity levels were high and we were sweating however, due to the green cover and quite a generous amount of shades time an again the hot rising from the tarmac was being cooled and was a pleasant experience. The early morning showers also were a boon in keeping the heat under control. We managed to stop at a couple of places to sip on limca/Mirinda. One tip to whoever manages to read this blog is to avoid coke/limca/thums up etc. Mirinda is probably the only drink that can be trusted. Limca and coke taste very different. To me it felt as if a mechanic had refilled the bottle. There was an aroma of grease. you might want to blame the shop for improper storage but I had similar experience in two different stalls. Halfway through the trip my urge to sit by the beach was at an all time high and soon we found ourselves at thyckkal beach. The gadgetry instinct kicked in and I started clicking pics of my bike and trying my photography skills. Soon the instagram monster arrived with his Asus Transformer prime and managed to capture video of me riding the trek by the beach onto the waves. This feat had to be repeated a few times. Why why??

1. The first time Ajith tried to capture he missed it some how. 
2. The second time he had forgotten to set it in video mode. 
3. I had lost momentum once and was riding in the lowest gear :-)

The Instagram monster :

Thyckkal Beach

My Trek by the beach along a boat.

 Experiment with new methods/modes of capture

All in all it similar to the "ride-in-beach" just like the drive in beach in Muzhappilangad and hardly any crowd when we entered but soon we could see considerable groups of people entering the waters. Though I had my trusty Nokia X6 working its magic via carl zeiss and capturing the natural colours it was no match for the Asus Transformer Prime. The video was HD and of stunning clarity. After the harsh ride on the 10km stretch the rear wheel on Ajith's Trek had a bend and the brake levers were swaying when on the move. So we tried to fiddle with the brake settings without much luck. Soon it was good enough to be on the move but with the bend still conspicuous, we decided that it will be sorted out once we were back in the room in Cochin. Nibbling on the energy bar equivalents that Ajith managed to source from abroad, we managed to reach Allepey at  3pm. Once the batteries are near-empty, a cyclists eye then assumes that it is a hawk eye and looking out for prey which then was visible to us as Al-Firdouse restaurant. Unfortunately only meals was available and nothing else and fortunately, atleast that was available :-). It was after a long time that i ended up eating Kerala rice which resembles the idly rice locally available however a new luncheon experience is never an unwelcome to a bleary cyclist. I finished my meal as quick as a woodpecker drills. Ajith on the other hand took it nice and easy which gave me more time to realize that we in fact were at Allepey or Alappuzha. We had next hour and a half at our disposal to explore the backwaters and soon we hit a small trail alongside a channel that was covered in weed. We followed the trail for about half a km after which we hit the main road which was narrow but the water was clear of weed and we hoped that we could see houseboats soon.In about 15-20 mins of riding we were at a T-Junction and our cameras were probably just bobbing in the pouches ready to swing in to action.

Action >>  Camera  >> Click, Click,  

Crossed a small bridge to ride alongside the mini-channel.

 

Off the trail and on tarmac to reach marine expressways.

WOW. So many houseboats, ferry boats, mini boats containing goods for for transit, Canoes boats resembling shikharas of the north. I was amazed and dumbstruck by just looking at the sheer number of houseboats. Wild thoughts prevailed. I recalled the 'boating' experiments of my schooldays when I used to make paper boats of which i knew only two kinds. The really standard and the knife boat (Had a protruding extension at the base of the boat). The spark to try something new was probably missing and that might explain why i didn't build houseboats that ride the rainwaters :-). Would've been a rocking houseboat at that. Soon Ajith parked his bike by a tree and we started clicking pictures of each houseboat that passed. We stood by another small boat that was used to carry some kind of a fruit that resembled mango but learnt that it was poisonous and had medicinal value. Maybe the reader can shed some light as to what that fruit is..!!

And now some houseboats... (courtesy - My Nokia X6)

This one come to park for a short while.

On the way to the market

Something like Shikara but a lot smaller

As we didn't want to miss the sunset, it was a fast paced ride avg 28kph all the way to the Alappuzha beach. The sight of the ocean is a perfect finish for the day's ride. Or was it? As we pushed our bikes on the beach sands, a thought struck us why not try riding. Ajith managed to ride for about 30mts before stopping. Then I tried but only to stop at 10 mts :-) and it was so much fun watching the wheels getting sucked by sand. Then we pushed the bikes nearer to the shore. My trek had a stand while ajith made a "Sand stand".

The bicycle 'limits'

Love this pic

At this point you'd be expecting a wrap up and end of excitement for Day 1 and head back to the room. And.... you are absolutely...... Wrong.!!! Ajith captured many pics of the sunset. After clicking he kept the Asus transformer on the handlebar over the bag. Then.. disaster, a big wave went right through the wheels of his bike as his bike was parked against one of the pillars of the pier. The tablet fell in water and what a shocker I could do nothing to rescue it as i was farther from his bike. Ajith rushed quickly and picked the tablet which was being dragged into the ocean by the waves. The next half hour was spent trying to drain the tablet off any water that has entered via the ports. There was trouble switching it off. With a dismal note we left the beach. We hit the MCR ( Main coast road) which was an NH and soon found a truck to draft which went good for about 10kms. then we stopped for dinner and had some tasty dosa. It was a quiet dinner as I was exhausted drafting the truck at an avg of 45+kph. On a roadbike it would've been a different ballgame but on an MTB there was lot more confidence just because of the disc brakes. After dinner we managed to hitchhike on a tempo traveller for the next 30kms to panampilly nagar junction. We headed to the room to catch some sleep as we had an early start for tomorrow's big adventure. How would tomorrow be like? More riding in the highly humid conditions ? More drafting? Hitchhiking? tender coconuts?

Wait for the Day 2 report..!!

Just another page from cyclist's diary - After dark sufferfest !!!

As the whole world slips into a slumber I get a chance to enjoy the uncanny peace with no motorbikes or cars or auto-rickshaws which are bothersome otherwise. The plans are made all of a sudden and all I can do is nod in agreement whenever I get a chance to hop on the saddle. As it is customary for the Cleated WArriors to ride out every weekend for a workout, this time only two of us had the chance to ride together (Opendro and I). Why? We were starting our ride in the evening. With the ride pre-checks complete I then headed out to meet Opendro at Jayadeva and he was there on time and I had to take a detour to avoid a couple of signals and ended up riding an extra mile. I almost always love the night rides even inspite of the extra risk factor. The primary reason is that the elevations can't be seen so one just keeps pushing. There is so much difference when the same route is tried during daytime when one can see the undulating highway and it is certainly a mind over matter situation. In no time we were at silk board darting in and out of traffic like an excited squirrel seeing peanuts.


18:49 hrs - Start from silkboard and maintained a steady pace till bommanahalli from where we switched from service lane to the highway. As we neared the next signal at kudlu gate  the signal was still green but we could see people and two wheelers crossing ( just like it always has been and no respect for signals) we switched on the strobe on the ultrafire's. Magic Magic..!! Every one stopped on their tracks and only realized that the lights were of cyclists and not a silent ambulance. This repeated on the next couple of signals and finally we were out in the open as we neared the end of the E-city elevated tollway. We started riding at a steady pace of about 35-40kph and reached the Bangalore tollway. It was surprising how with the help of a companion you end up pushing harder. 


19:34 :: 45 mins to reach from Silkboard. I was happy with the time as I normally take about 5 mins longer. There are some nice downhills where one can maintain 45+ without drafting and increase the average. I didn't push too hard as we also had a return leg and I don't prefer taking the bus or any other means to get back to Bangalore. We took the Hosur flyover could see the bustling traffic beneath with the typical melodious horns from TN(tamil nadu) buses. The terrain was mostly downhill and we enjoyed maintaining decent speeds and after we had covered 55kms we could see McDonalds and I thought we had arrived but then we still had a few more kms to go and I saw a board that mentioned 27kms to Krishnagiri. As always, the comparison was the distance to my office which was just a km longer. I thought we are so close to Krishnagiri.


20:41:: We reached A2B and could see the KPN and sharma buses stop for dinner. Curious onlookers but luckily didn't have to put up with the questions (how what when where why). With opendro sponsoring the refreshments, I managed to refill the gatorade for the return trip. The start of return ride was slow but then we picked up pace and chatting most of the way back. The first mini milestone for us was Hosur and then Karnataka Tollbooth. Both were reached without much drama. As we stopped at the toolbooth for some pics and a break to keep the glutes happy, Opendro updated Facebook about the workout and we ended up laughing. The comments were most awaited since this was the first workout at dusk that extends thru midnight. After we crossed the KA toolbooth it was all familiar territory and at one point Opendro did wonder how many more kms to go before we see the E-city elevated expressway. I gave him the exact landmarks to look out for rather than the kms as it was a familiar territory for my practice runs.


23:30 :: Back to silkboard and headed towards Jayadeva. We bid adieu as we parted ways and I just had over a km to reach home and so did Opendro. All in all a good fun run. 


Meagre pics owing to poor light conditions ::

At A2B (Adyar Anand Bhavan)  the u-turn point !!

Pretty good for a camera phone at poor light conditions.

 A short break for the Glutes...

 

 Opendro busy updaing Facebook.

 

 At the KA tollbooth on the return trip

My first XC race - Turahalli..!!

Yet another one in the basket of firsts. My first XC trail ride/race. However whats the point if something spectacular or ridiculous doesn't occur that you can brag/shrug about. My mind wasn't as excited as it would've been had it been a road race or a brevet ride and I managed to get generous sleep before the race on 18th March. Opendro and I reached the venue at 7 and could see quite a big crowd. After getting the tags we decided to checkout the trail to understand it. We headed out and soon Opendro disappeared and I was busy chatting with team veloscope as they were on the lookout for a flat stretch to capture some stunning pics. After directing them I tried to catch Opendro but he was no where to be seen and just about 200mts from the start point I heard the whistle blow and then as I whizzed past the finish/start line I knew I just made the day for quite a few folks as I could hear the chuckle and was the laughing stock. I wanted to overtake as many as possible but it was a tough one as the initial part of the trail was loose gravel and mud and there hardly was any grip and the crowd was quite big and I had to slow down and shift to 1x1/ 1x2 and stayed put on the saddle only getting down twice to negotiate a clearance in fear of damaging the rear derailleurs. The first km is very challenging in terms of elevation and loose gravel. Moreso there were a lot of slower cyclists ahead and being a single track trail I still managed to go off the trail just to overtake them and the Trek 4300D exceeded my expectations. Picture this if you will, I'm riding a trail which has the legacy of one experiencing multiple flats and I probably was the only rider who wasn't carrying any backpack or saddlebag for any repairs in case of a flat or mechanical issues. The one thing I was worried about was the bottle holder (Bontrager)as the Btwin's would've been worthless in such a terrain. The bontrager held it snug while I managed to scoot over mud, rocks, gravel, weaving in an about, dodging trees and other cyclists. Quite a bit of confidence as started overtaking some known riders. The first 1.5kms is the uphill and the rest is mostly downhill. Starting off with half a km of dirt/loose gravel. A the steady climb followed by escaping into the thicket with some steep dips and then out on the flatland to turn around and head back into the forest. From here it was a fast section all the way till the finish point. One can experience the WRC style "bunny hop". What i mean is you ride a small mound at a good speed ~25kph and lift the bike up in such a manner that you land on both wheels in sync. Felt stupendously excited and enjoyed the thought of doing multiple loops. A sweatout session for the first half of the loop followed by the adrenaline rush through the second half. As I finished the 4th lap they flagged me down and I though my position wasn't even worth looking at because there were a lot of riders who had already crossed the line to finish a 5th. But later I found out that the first rider had already lapped me hence I finished with just 4 laps. The only number matters to me is, after starting late and 200 mts behind, how many riders did I overtake? I await the official results and till then here's somepics of the event ::

 The only guy (Vasu Mishra) who did the trail ride on a ROADBIKE !!!

Trying hard to overtake... waiting for the right moment...!!

 

 Yep probably the right time.

 

 The best snap of mine so far from Veloscope this season.

200 mts after the turn where I saw many guys fixing flat

 

Enduro3 - A stupefying Fiasco !!!

I feel that the adventure demon that possessed me has finally let go after what my body and mind went through on 25th and 26th. Thats it no more adventure races like these.. No more going to another state to even attempt any rubbish like this. Ladies and Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts as you are going to be rocked by the rest of the blog.(no no, not with that bout of excitement but by my rant of the Enduro3 at Pune).

 Initially the plan was to attempt the Brevet 600 along with the tusker, Kiran Kumar. But as usual the overhaul happened just in time when Opendro got us into the Facebook chat about this event called Enduro, which involves 145kms of cycling, river crossing (rope or swim), trekking, mountain bicycling, rappelling, kayaking. Naturally any sane adventure loving nut, would think of attempting such a thing. The website certainly managed to bait hundreds of teams and I with Opendro and Kiran were among the many fish up for the grabs. So we ditched the Brevet and Opendro registered us as a team and booked return tickets from KSRTC club class multi-axle volvo. Yet again this trip saw many firsts and here's a few ::


1. First travel by the multi-axle club class volvo.
2. First travel to another state and especially for a multifaceted adventure race.
3. First time night ride among the mountains on a proper dirt / gravel track. (Pure adrenaline rush).
4. First proper VADA PAV which was yumm...!!!
5. First night ride/downhill trail ride with the super good ultra-fire flashlights. 




And so the journey starts with a training the earlier weekend with Suma rao with a dose of rappelling. Rappelling = check. 
Next to ensure the bikes are fit, I take the bike to Opendro's house where with his help, restored the shine. Bike = Check. 
Swimming, kayaking, trekking - Will see as we go along = check. 
The website had a list of mandatory equipment per participant and a separate checklist as a team. Left our bikes at wheelsports Chamrajpet who helped us box the bikes to get it ready for transport. With the bags packed we met at KBS/Majestic and boarded the Bus to Pune. Mind loaded with thoughts I managed to get some sound sleep. But the happiest of the bunch was Opendro as he gets ~ 8 hrs of uninterrupted bliss..!! We checked in to hotel Shri Ganga near Wadgaon bridge and unpacked the boxes and assembled the bikes. We left hotel to explore Pune and headed towards Swargate and then stopped at Hotel Fountain in Shivajinagar carb load session. Nice hotel with great food with a place to park bikes. After spending about two hours we had to look for the briefing point at a place called Parvati. We were asked to assemble at police grounds the next day between 6-9am to register and collect the kit. On the way back to hotel we stopped to have pani puri Open skipped but Kiran and I feasted. A slowish ride to the hotel and we carried the bikes to the 2nd floor for final checks for tomorrow's race. Kiran and Opendro caught up some sleep while I was busy battling mosquitoes and managed to get probably a half hour sleep. We were ready by 5:30 and reached the venue and teams were trickling in. Thats when we met Sarva who was last time winner (I think runner up) in the Open mix category and this time secured 3rd place. There was transport option available about 4 - 5 kms from the flag off point to the base of singhagad. The participants have to climb till the start point which was about 1-2 kms from base. The road was treacherous trail was taxing and we could hear plenty wheelspins. The whole sight resembled a cyclocross section. Most of them stopping and pushing bikes. But us three mashed it till the first control point after which we lost steam and pushed the bikes or rode at 1x1 gear ratio. The gradient was quite tough. Towards the end of teh climb was the fort. Next challenge, carry your bikes and trek to the fort and reach teh viewpoint which was the rappelling point. Topped up water supplies and had some lime juice which was very refreshing. There was a wait period of about 1 hour after which Opendro managed to finish it in about 15 mins.

Once we exited the fort we saw no path to ride down, instead it was a treacherous trek route and we had to take our bikes along. Trust me, words do absolutely no justice to the toughness of carrying the bikes and hopping off the rocks without proper foothold. about 200 mts from the base Opendro had a flat and we got busy fixing the same. Thats when two organizers reached out to us enquiring if all is well. Took some pics flat fixing was done in about 10 mins. opendro fixing the flat tube and I installed the new tube with kiran filling air. All hands at work..!! We could see the next control and we left Got the card stamped. Next was about a 10-15 km ride on a broken tarmac. Then yet another passage control. Stam again and we turned off the main road to take the village road to climb a few hills to reach the next control point. Yet another stamp and we got to know we were 3rd and we ripped during the down hill (dirt/gravel road)at speeds over 30-35. The Trek 4300 truly proved its legacy. Get off the saddle, keep the hands in an angle with elbows streching outwards to absorb any shocks due to the terrain and you have a pure bliss of riding an MTB .. ever..!!! Being a roadie it is hard to comprehend that a whole new world of cycling can be so much fun. Its another story that the bike is an "unrideable" condition now but more on that later. A huge surprise was how the tusker (Kiran) was being helped by Opendro who was pushing his own bike and Tusker's on the uphills when we got off the saddle. With teh dusk we could feel some cool air finally, after braving the hot sun. The next task was to trek with the bikes for about 5-6 kms. Better said than done. The next control was hidden in the bushes atop a mountain and as we crossed the same I bonked and couldn't carry on more. So Opendro and Kiran stopped as I had a quick nap. By then we lost the team that was in front of us whom we kept as a guide. Then as we were trekking dowhill about 200mts we were lost and decided that we'll wait for daybreak (about 2.5hrs). We were near a village so asked for directions to Shirkoli and started riding the trail to reach the river crossing. Once there opendro swam the of about 100mts to complete the river crossing. He also did ask the organizer pointing to the safety vest "Is this mandatory?" to which we had a hearty laugh. Once done we had a 20km of trek which took almost 4 hours. We got to know it is on road after passing through the PC (passage  control) we went off road got down the mountain to climb another. By now you must be lost and thinking " up and down and up and down and repeat. Our state there was pretty much the same but the rolling terrain had us. Heat played the spoilsport and the terrain. As you feel excited going downhill you loose the steam as  soon as the uphill is in sight..!!  More depressing news await as we reached the kayaking point. It was cancelled and they took us via boat to the other side of the river. :-( Thats it we've had enough The last control we figured that we were 4th and saw no point in going forward as the last stage is 8kms of trekking with the bikes again. Returned to Pune via a tempo hired by Ravi Ranjan and team so we could also catch the night bus. Booked the room for 4 hours. Refreshed and ready for dinner we went back to the same hotel in shivajinagar. My condition was such that my shorts were hanging dearly and would've dropped if I jumped. We finished a sumptuous dinner by 10 and reached hotel to vacate. One last task remains, Boxing the bikes. This probably was done quickest about 20-25 mins for all three bikes. Gladly the bus waited for more passengers to board but we were the only 3. Slept peacefully to be woken only at Hotel Kamat in morning for breakfast. Idly vada puri kesari bath. Yeah that's not the menu but what I had for breakfast.
Back in bangalore as I write this blog i've taken a decision not to quit any race in future but be better prepared. In the open mix catergory i've seen guys on bicycles towing the lady member of their team. Hats off to their courage and strength in doing so..!! Though I can blame the organizers for a shabby work there's little that can be done at this point. But quite  a lot of learning from this adventure..!!