Monday 10 March 2014

Bangarpet 200 Brevet Randonneurs Mondiaux

10th March 2014.

My nail had grown quite a bit. Today morning I thought of trimming it. When tried doing that with nail cutter, was not getting any strength on both the thumbs. They were totally numb.

Don't worry. I attempted a 200 kilometers brevet on last saturday 8th of march 2014.

28th february 2014. I was riding from home to near HSR layout BDA complex for a meeting. Crossed silk board junction and was heading towards the BDA junction to take right turn. A dude was driving a car and slowed down next to me and he was trying to figure out which brand cycle I was riding. Once he got his answer he started shouting 'Dahon' 'Dahon' addressing to his co-passengers and it was so loud that it caught my attention and already he had created a pile up just by slowing down. Then he accelerated and a tempo driver came diagonally just couple of inches close to me to tell something which I did not understand and when he was overtaking me the tempo's rear end hit my handlebar - because tempo is narrower at the front and that idiot could not judge it. Thus I fell. On my left side. Gloves were on to protect my palms. Jeans protected my knees with a very minor bruise on left knee. Slight bruise on left arm below elbow.  My half sleeve shirt got torn out totally just above the left side pocket. I fell on my left ribs. So due to heavy body weight, it got an impact and the inner structure was shaken and paining if there was any jerk. Behind there was a nano and a motor bike. They could miraculously stop just in time otherwise I would have become a photo on wall by now. The lady in the nano was very nice, she stopped the car, came out, gave me some water to drink and the bike guy also was quite nice, he stopped and talked to me and was there till I left. That tempo fellow fled away. My leather messenger bag strapped across got some cut. Cycle I guess was fine. Immediately I rushed to BDA complex and bought a new t-shirt and discarded my lovely shirt and went for the meeting - was 5 minutes late. 

Could have been anything but did not get so unlucky this time.

I needed a good ride to come out of this trauma.

Brevet.

Brevet !

200 kilometers !

With ribcage pain !

Yes.

Fine.

So it was a brevet of 200 kilometers. Bangalore - Bangarpet - Bangalore.

I do not race. Just because I'm not good enough for races. I love to see people racing. I like touring and long rides. But most of the rides I do not finish. I intend to do brevets. I've attempted my first brevet four months ago in Mysore. It was a 200 kilometers brevet. And I did finish it. Then I attempted 300 kilometers brevet. Due to a cramp in my right calf, I had to abondon after doing almost 160 kilometers. So the track record does not look good at all. But I'm quite fine with it. There is no target to chase. There is no goal to achieve. If I can enjoy my rides and it helps me to get involved in some thing good then it is absolutely fulfilling.

So 200 kilometers Bangarpet Brevet Randonneurs Mondiaux. Completing the ride on time or before time was not there in my mind at all. I just went for a long ride. It was so relaxing. I took my folding cycle. Road bike would have been difficult to ride as it would put more pressure to the ribcage due to the posture and I was not up for pushing the MTB. And also I wanted to check how a foldie behaves on a long ride. Short distance brevets are good game. You get to see more number of riders with all different capabilities and when you vary your pace time to time then you start playing hide and seek with the fellow riders across the length and start building up a very unknown kind of a relationship which sometimes is temporal and most of the times long lasting. One has to accept the fact that when it is a long ride, there will be a mix of good and bad sensory experiences. For example, the place where we started from, in front of a fire station on sarjapura road, beside a gutter with full of foul smell and mosquitos. Early morning certainly it was not desirable and it does not go away until you hit the inner country road which heads towards chandapura junction. Across that stretch you get some really clean air and chirping of birds. As I was not too sure about doing this ride till friday night, I was totally un-prepared or rather unconsciously I wanted to be like that. Surrendering yourself into an uncertainty is thrilling. I left this ride totally on my intuition. Did not fix any cyclo-comp on the cycle. Did not switch on strava on phone. Did not activate google gps or alike. Was not wearing a watch. Totally depending on cue-sheet and intuitive judgement about distances. I could figure out my speed as I do not push too hard on the ride and try to maintain an average riding speed of 20-22 kmph, it was easy to keep a mental check of distance travelled and riding speed. From the last unsuccessful brevet ride, I had learnt that nutrition and hydration is a major part for the rider to be in the ride for long. I wanted to improve on those two aspects and thought lets see if I can correct few things in this ride. In the morning I did not drink too much of water to negotiate the morning temperature and fluid outflow. Slowly started sipping electral water and plain water in a smaller quantity at a rythmic interval and it seemed to be working. Normally I used to get cramps in my legs early on the rides but this time around there was no sign of cramp at the beginning and I could cruise easily till the first control at around 35 kilometers. Lost a handsome 20-25 minutes just by standing in the queue for control slip at the ATM and that costed me quite dearly at the end of the day. However it was a stupidity not to think some alternative at that moment to save time and move on. At Hosur there is a food joint called Saravana where Idli - vada - sambar - chai is a great combo and I did not miss it. I highly recommend that restaurant for the riders. Specifically for the sambar. After a sumptuous breakfast I was very happy and that happiness took me till Malur easily on a newly carpeted road. At Malur intersection while having a fruit bun, met with couple of riders and pushed off in a while. By then I had crossed nearly 65 kilometers and got lot of energy in legs to push on a relatively flat terrain and it lasted till Tekal railway station where I stopped for coconut water along with others. After Tekal, road is quite textured and that was hitting me accutely at times till Bangarpet. I had be extra cautous so that I dont hurt my ribcage and as a result it was slowing me down. In all the villages on the way, we were quite entertainers for the school kids. In-between I stopped for a water break along a paddy field. The setting was quite dramatic. One side there was a series of mountain of bald rocks and an railway track adjacent to it and then the road along the paddy field on other side of the road. I was standing under a bunch of coconut trees and there was a gentle windflow and out of the blue a train appeared with a gentle speed and the locomotive was creating a perfect sound - mesmerising nostalgia. Still we feel so good about small thing like a train going pass you and left a painted canvas in your memory - why do we need a camera ! Let few images be there just for you in your memory.

Bangarpet.

The brevet is named after that.

Nothing much to talk about the place but certainly food joint is a crisis over there. By the time I reached there it was 12.30 in the afternoon and the nice breakfast was all gone down under and a great hunger was poking from within. After searching in the town, finally got a food outlet where I could manage to get a meal. I was hungry. The food was extremely spicy. And it was just not going through. I'm not so fussy about food and if I get something to fill my tummy, I'm generally happy and ofcourse I've a great desire for good quality food but there is absolutely no problem to hold that desire for appropriate time and be adaptive for the moment. But I feel really irritated if I get to eat something very hot or spicy or too cold when I'm extremely hungry or thirsty. And the meal was very spicy for me - there was a layer of brick coloured powder on top of the rasam and that blew up through my head. Finally could eat little bit of plain rice with curd. And on the way got some nice sugar cane juice. Left the Bangarpet town by around 1.20 pm and hit the highway. Absolutely hot but on this stretch there were lot of tree shades and pleasant wind. After a good patch of road and relatively less elevation gain, could reach the OMR national highway at around 120 kilometers mark. The next control at Emerald Isle resort was looking a bit tough but not impossible. Started gaining speed on the highway but at this portion after Bangarpet I was riding alone and that slowed me down a bit. Stopped next to the road for watermelon - it felt just good at that moment. Some relief to the burning powder which had gone inside sometime back at Bangarpet. On this part actually I could have gained acceleration on a road bike and made up for the lost time. Foldie was good fun to ride but the only thing was on the down slope, I could not capitalise as much as I could have done otherwise on a road bike. On the way saw few riders were sitting and chatting and pulled them along till Emerald Isle resort. This was the place where we had a fantastic Individual Time Trial race just two weeks back and the marking of the finish line was still there. I was looking for a place to go flat and take a power nap. Did not get a better place and finally slept over the road divider between the main road and the service road. After around ten minutes resumed riding. Almost 155 kilometers was done by now and the pain in ribcage was bothering me. Time was becoming imbalanced and my core was just not supporting me to push harder. Everytime I started pumping, felt a shrill pain in the deep inside.

Easy.

Easy.

Easy.

At this time around I felt, I'm still not prepared for the brevets. I might be able to pull up couple of them randomly but that is something which I do not want. I want to create a platform where I'm comfortable and enjoy the ride and can finish brevets at any terrain at any condition. Long way to go. One thing I was feeling good about is, my hydration was quite good this time. But nutrition needs to be thought through much deeply. It may be good to attempt multiple brevets in future without any expectation and just to be familiar with the routes and it will give me a better clarity about planning the entire ride. Nutrition, Hydration and building up core strength would be the focus to build up a sustainable platform for doing brevets over and over again. Its addictive. Every brevet rider would say that every brevet is a torture but the same rider will come back for the next one with a smiling face. What a beauty. Its one on one. Its just you and yourself. Its pure test of oneself. With these thoughts I was close to Chikka Tirupathi. The equation was simple. I had one hour and 25 kilometers to cover. You do it or you do not do it. Its a choice. I chose not to do it. Its not because that I was completely not able to do it. But I told myself that, this is not the last brevet I'm riding. I texted Vasu that it is looking tough for me and not healthy to push anymore. Vasu replied immediately - ' bullshit, just bend down your head and pedal hard as if you are the happiest man on earth and keep going'. I was not unhappy either. I took a decision to do this ride despite of the injury just to check on the hydration, nutrition and stamina part. And ofcourse to try out the folding bike on a long ride. Every single ride is opening up more avenues to improve myself. That is more important than clocking a good time on a finishing chart somehow.

I texted my wife that I'm burnt out and just short of finish line. She replied saying that you have done very good for the day. My day is done at 190 kilometers mark. I'll ride another brevet on another day.

My friend Basker Ramachandran had asked for this ride report otherwise this write-up would not have seen the light of the day. This is for you Basker.