Chintamani Kolar (200 Kilometer Brevet)

Date: 1 November 2016

Total distance: 211 Kilometers

Start Time: 5:30 am

Return Time:  5:15 pm

With: Siddling Swamy, Shashidhar, Prasad Sadashiva, Thimanna Bhat

Altitude Profile:
Lavelle Road – Chikkaballapur – Chintamani – Kolar – Lavelle Road

The 2016-2017 season has commenced and Bangalore Randonneurs has announced a 200KM ride on the first day of the new season. There is a huge turn up as well for the event with more than 50 riders registering for it. I am familiar with most of the route except for the stretch from Devanahalli to Chintamani to Kolar. It should not be a difficult ride and am going for it just to get going in the new season.

The Diwali holidays were on and the ride was scheduled immediately after the Diwali holidays. I replaced the groupset on the Btwin and wanted to test the shifting before I went for the brevet. I went for a ride to Sarjapur and was happy with the gear shifting. The day before the ride I got the cycle ready by fixing the rider number and checking the air pressure on the tires. I was having second thoughts of going for the ride and was feeling pretty lazy. I was restless and was not able to sleep till it was beyond 1 am. I decided that if I heard the alarm then I would go for the ride.

I did hear the alarm and got up. It was 4:00 am, got ready and left home at 4:45 am. Rode slowly and made it to Airline Hotel at 5:15 am. There was a huge gathering and it was a largely new crowd with very few old timers. Mohan Subramanyam was there, I met Vikas Ruparelia and then I met Siddalinga Swamy and Shashidhar from the 600 BRM, they had come along with their Go Green group of riders. The organisers were very efficient in finishing the start formalities and got the ride going at 5:30 am.

Having ridden the brevets I was not too keen on getting involved in a fast start and started only after all the riders had left. I was one of the last to exit the start point and rode slowly through the city with Vikas Ruparelia. I caught up with the Go Green riders at Byapanahalli Metro Station. As I reached the Old Madras Road Flyover which connects to the Outer Ring Road I heard a loud click near the back wheel, I looked down and did not see anything worrying, pedaled a bit, since the cycle was moving I continued to pedal. As I pedaled further I was beginning to lose ground on the riders in front of me. I looked down at the wheel and I could see a wobble. I knew that I had snapped a spoke and that was the sound that I had heard. The though did flash that I could stop the ride if I wanted to, however, having seen Shashidhar ride the 600 BRM with 3 broken spokes, I knew that 1 spoke was not too worrying to stop. I kept pedaling and when I reached the Hebbal flyover I got down from the cycle and checked the wheel alignment. The wheel was not moving unless I pushed it with significant pressure. The wheel was rubbing against the brake pad and was not budging. I got back on and pedaled. I had to use a lot of effort to get the cycle going and I got a taste of how it would be to ride a fixie.

The next 30 kilometers of the ride had me putting in a lot of effort to keep the wheels moving and I was doing a decent job since I kept the pace around the 25kmph mark and managed to catch up with the riders who had left me behind. The airport toll came by and then the Nandi Hills turn. As I rode on I caught up with Swamy and Shashi who were riding with Prasad and Thimanna. Prasad and Thimanna were riding their first brevet and had been motivated by Swamy and Shashi to do the brevet rides. I chatted with them and as I rode towards Chikkaballapur, I heard another snap. I had lost another spoke, I stopped and checked the wheel. Surprisingly the wheel was spinning easily, it was like the second break had offset the effect of the first break. I got back on the saddle and continued the ride. I took the spoke issue off my mind as I knew that worrying about it was futile as I did not have the tools to rectify the problem immediately. I would have to get back to Bangalore before it could be rectified. I continued to ride and since the pedals were rotating and the cycle was moving forward.

We reached Chikkaballapur at 8:20 am and collected the ATM slips. Pedaled further and stopped at the turn to Chintamani at Sandarshini restaurant for breakfast. There was a congregation of brevet cyclists at the restaurant. I had a masala dosa, coffee and refilled on water and then waited for the others to finish their breakfast. It was 9:00 am when we resumed the ride.

I was happy with the speed of the morning ride and expected the rest of the day to progress with the speed reducing gradually as the Sun would come up. However, to my pleasant surprise the Sun was hiding behind the clouds and dark clouds were looming above us. It looked like it would rain and the wind had picked up. It was a head wind which was slowing us down. We did not push very hard and rode at a steady pace, the road condition was also not good. There were many sections where road work was in progress. I was slowing down significantly in these sections since I did not want to do any further damage. As we got closer to Chintamani, we were closing in on a few riders who had not stopped for breakfast and were beginning to tire. The landscape changed from vineyards to small hillocks and as we got closer to the Control Point, the clouds were threatening to open up. We stopped and packed our phones into plastic bags and got going again. Within 2 minutes of restarting it started to pour and it did not take long to get drenched. Stopping was not an option and we rode in the rain. It rained for about 15 minutes and just as it stopped raining we reached the Control Point. It was 10:45 am and the rain had slowed us down just a little.

We got the brevet cards signed and ate delicious rice bhath which had been packed from a nearby restaurant by the organisers. Relaxed for some time and then got going again at 11:15 am.

We entered Chintamani town which was very crowded and it was a relief to get out of the town. The road changed as soon as we took the right to head towards Kolar. It was a single lane road with trees lining both the sides of the road. It was a very nice ride and the gradient of the road was a gradual downhill. The only negative in this section was that the Sun was up and the heat was up. I picked up speed in this location and was pedaling hard and enjoying the road. After a while when I turned back, the others were not behind me. I slowed down and kept looking back. They did not come by for some time when I realised that they would have stopped for a break. I searched for a tree and sat down waiting for them to catch up.

They came by in 10 minutes and I was back on the saddle. It did not take long for me to get going again and in about 5 kilometers I was alone again. I turned back and rode almost for a kilometer and saw Swamy, Shashi, Prasad and Thimanna resting under a tree. Prasad and Thimanna were feeling the effect of the heat and were tiring. Swamy and Thimanna wanted to have lunch, Prasad, Shashi and I were not hungry and wanted ride beyond Kolar before stopping to eat, however Prasad wanted to stop for a coffee. The options were wide ranging, however, one thing which was common was that no one wanted to ride without making a stop at Kolar other than me.

We restarted and rode for about 2 kilometers when we came across a Sugarcane juice stall. We stopped and had the juice. It was another break and the guys seemed to be rejuvenated after the drink. We rode the remaining 6 kilometers to Kolar quickly and got into Kolar town. We saw a Canara Bank ATM and went in only to find out that the ATM was not printing receipts. Back on the saddle and rode in search of another ATM. Reached another Canara Bank ATM and took the ATM slips. Back on the saddle and half a kilometer later we stopped for lunch. It was 1:15 pm, we had done 142 kilometers and had a further 63 kilometers to go.

I was not hungry and since the stop had been made I ate a Chapatti and drank butter milk. I was apprehensive of filling myself since the road from Kolar to Bangalore is uphill and I did not want a heavy tank to weigh me down. Half an hour later we were ready to leave.

A kilometer later we were at the flyover and when we exited the flyover we were on the NH which leads to Bangalore. It was hot, however there was a tailwind which helped to keep the speed up. The discussion at lunch was around riding at 10-15 kmph for the remaining distance, however, we were riding at 20-25 kmph with the occasional slowing down. We did not realise that an hour had passed and we had covered 23 kilometers in the hour and stopped at a bus shelter to relax and rejuvenate ourselves. Till here we had ridden like a broken train with a gap between the riders which involved slowing/waiting for the back markers to catch up. We decided that from here on we would ride in a group and also that we would not take the flyovers and would take the service road instead.

The ride to Hoskote was pretty quick because of the wind being on our side. The climbs did not seem difficult at all. I remembered struggling on this route during the Palamaner 300BRM and was left wondering why I had struggled so much. We were beginning to see the Skyscrapers of Bangalore in the distance and making good progress when the guys wanted to stop to have tea. So another 15 minute stop before we hit the road again.

We reached Hoskote and the ride from Hoskote into Bangalore was about riding on the service road and having close shaves with buses since they were riding at break neck speeds on the service road. We made it to the KR Puram toll and hit traffic immediately. We weaved our way past traffic and finally reached Airlines hotel at 5:15 pm. A lot of riders had already made it, gave the brevet card, got it stamped and signed up for the medal and then said my good byes and rode back home.

Ride Details:

From	To	Distance	Ride Time (hrs)	Total Time (hrs)	Departure Time	Arrival Time	Avg Speed
Lavelle Road	Chikkaballapur	67	3.00	3.00	5:30	8:30	22.33
Chikkaballapur	Chintamani	38	1.75	2.25	8:30	10:45	21.71
Chintamani	Kolar	37	1.50	2.50	10:45	13:15	24.67
Kolar	Lavelle Road	69	3.25	4.00	13:15	17:15	21.23
		211	9.50	11.75			22.21