Kaigal

Date: 15 July 2017

Total distance: 243 Kilometers

Start Time: 3:20 am

Return Time:  16:20 pm

With: -

Altitude Profile:
Koramangala - Kaigal - Koramangala

I was looking up for places near Bangalore for the weekend ride and came across Kaigal waterfalls. It is a perennial waterfall in the Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary located in Chitoor District of Andhra Pradesh/Seemandra. The pictures looked good and the thing that got me hooked was that it is a perennial waterfall, meaning that it flows through the year and gets augmented in the monsoon season. Although the monsoon has not been great, I expected a waterfall however small and decided to ride on Saturday. The place was about 120 kilometers one way and based on last week's ride I knew that I could handle the distance. The plan was to start at 3:30 am so that I can return in daylight. I set the alarm and slept early. Although I did get to bed early I slept only around 12:00 pm after twisting and turning in bed for over an hour.

I woke up promptly when the alarm rang at 2:30 am. Took a quick shower and got ready and fixed the accessories and water bottle onto the road bike. I was quick to get ready and was out of the house at 3:20 am. I did not wait for the clock to strike 3:30 am and used the 10 minutes as buffer time.

I did not take long to get into my stride and was riding quicker than usual. Last month when I had ridden to Kolar Gold Fields I had reached Kolar in about 2.5 hours and the target was to do the same today if not better. As it was a familiar route I kept pushing hard. The speed was faster than usual and I did not want to run out of steam after reaching Kolar and kept reminding myself that I have to ride to Kaigal which is 50 kilometers from Kolar and not to Kolar. I backed off the pace a bit, however the pace was still good. Surprisingly even though I backed off the pace a little, I reached Kolar in 2.5 hours.

I rode towards Mulbagal which is 30 kilometers from Kolar. Based on my speed till Kolar I knew that I had the opportunity to try to ride 100 kilometers in under 4 hours. That was motivation enough to keep pushing. With a downhill gradient I was doing well on the pace front and was knocking off the kilometers quickly. 15 kilometers from Mulbagal the gradient began to go uphill and the pace dropped. The legs were beginning to feel the effect of the morning ride and I was struggling a bit. It took an auto riding slowly to re-energise me as I began to ride quickly, first to overtake the auto and then to stay ahead of it. The small drop in pace had its effect and did slow me down, however it was not sufficient to stop me from doing my first sub 4 hour 100 kilometers.

I took the turn from Mulbagal towards Kaigal and within 3 kilometers hit the 100 kilometer mark. The clock showed 3 hours 36 minutes. I was ecstatic at the time and stopped to take a screen shot of the time. It was a quick stop and I continued the ride. The road was not very good, however it was downhill and I was able to continue the pace. A little time lost on account of checking the map even as I rode to make sure that I was on track. Before I knew I was onto the Palamaner-Krishnagiri highway and as I turned left to get onto the highway I saw that the road was going further downhill. A quick 5 kilometers and I crossed a bridge under which there was no water. Alarm bells were ringing when I saw a dry river bed and it struck me that I should prepare for the worst at the falls.

I reached the Kaigal village and a kilometer later I was at the turn to the falls. It was a gravel road and I rode towards the falls. About a kilometer later I was at the entrance for the falls. As there was no one around I lifted the cycle over the barrier stones and pushed the cycle from here as the path was very rocky and could not be ridden. Just a few meters and I started carrying the cycle. Although the cycle is lighter than the Btwin Triban 3, it was still heavy for me. As I was going downhill I did not feel the weight and was making quick progress. I came across flat sections where I could push the cycle, however the problem was that the route to the falls was not marked and there were multiple routes. I choose one and in a couple of minutes I was at the river bed. I parked the cycle and headed to the river bed. The river bed was dry. It was a big letdown.

I lost interest in going to the falls and seeing just rocks. However, as I had made it this far I wanted to see the location. I got back to the path and followed the path only to reach the place where I had parked the cycle. I went back to the river bed to see if there was a different route. I could not see any. The interest was waning and there was no one around to ask as well. I decided that the trip to the fall will not be fruitful and opted to return. Carrying the cycle uphill was difficult and I had to take a couple of short breaks to catch my breath. Before long I was back at the entrance and then onto the road.

I was very disappointed with the location and was feeling low. To make matters worse there was a strong head wind which I had to contend with along with the uphill gradient. The disappointment of the location was eating me up and I was struggling to pedal. I lost interest to experiment with the route and chose to ride back on the same route. I rode about 10 kilometers before stopping at a bus stop to rest for a while. I ate a bun and sipped on water and watched as the trees swayed in the breeze and prepared myself for a long day on the saddle.

It was 9:20 am when I got back on the saddle. The kilometer stones showed that I had to ride 20 kilometers to get to Mulbagal. Although the speed was better than what I was doing before the break, it was still slow. There was a steady head wind and intermittent gusts of wind which almost brought me to a standstill. I passed through small villages and made slow progress to the highway. In 30 minutes I had covered about 8 kilometers, the energy was beginning to dip and it was very tempting to wave to a passing tractor and ask for a drop to the highway. The next half hour was about watching the direction in which the trees were swaying and predicting if I would have a tail wind or cross wind when I get to the highway and about weighing my options about continuing the ride. When I did get to the highway I had a head wind which was a hit on the motivation front. I had almost decided to wave to a truck or luggage carrier and ask to be dropped to Bangalore or closer to Bangalore. I saw a Saravana Bhavan hotel and decided to stop there for breakfast and take a call on continuing the ride.

Although I did not want breakfast, the stop was more to gather my thoughts, however as I had stopped at a restaurant, I ordered a plate of idly vada. I refilled on water and sipped on Thumbs Up and ate the idly slowly. I checked the distance stats on Strava and saw that I was not doing too badly. The problem was that the ride to Kaigal had been done very fast and as I was not able to match the speeds now it was reflecting badly. The onward ride had been done at 27.5 kmph average, whereas the return ride was being done at 18kmph. A look outside and the trees swaying showed that it would be a head wind on the return ride. I had 100 kilometers to get back home. Although it was going to be tough riding, I did not want to give up. I decided to ride till Kolar and if I was not able to ride any further I would stop the ride.

It was 11:00 am when I started the ride from Saravana Bhavan. I started slowly and picked up the pace a little after the initial warm up. Not that the pace was increased significantly, but it was slightly better than what I had been riding at before the breakfast stop. I had a couple of enquiries about the ride from people passing by on bikes and that motivated me to keep going. By the time 30 minutes had passed I was confident that if I make it to Kolar then I would be able to ride all the way home rather than stopping as I could set smaller targets since there are towns in between Kolar and Bangalore, however between Mulbagal and Kolar there is only Tamka which is almost near Kolar. I rode with Tamka as the target and every kilometer ticked off was an energy booster. I kept sipping on water as the wind was proving to be a major deterrent even though the Sun was hiding behind the clouds. Every time my shadow appeared on the road, I was hoping that it would disappear soon since the Sun in addition to the wind would make this ride even more difficult.

I was drawing comparisons between today's ride and the Palamaner ride, on the Palamaner ride I had a head wind on the way to Palamaner and then from Kolar to Bangalore. This time it was a head wind on the way back. On the Palamaner ride even though I was tired I was able to pedal faster on the way back as there was no wind from Palamaner to Kolar. I did the usual test of the wind speeds where I tried to coast on a downhill and noticed that the cycle came to a standstill if I did not pedal and cursed the wind as I continued to pedal. Amidst the speed comparison and counting down the kilometers to Kolar, I managed to reach Tamka and then to Kolar. It was 12:20 pm when I reached Kolar. I had only 70 kilometers remaining and was not feeling too tired. I decided to continue riding.

I was not hungry, so did not need to stop for lunch. Further with a couple of hours of riding I would be near Hoskote which is 25 kilometers from home. I decided to ride without stopping for lunch and get back home for lunch.

As soon as I made the decision not to stop for lunch, the wind speed increased and pedaling became very difficult. It felt like I was putting three times the usual effort to keep the cycle moving. It was very slow progress and one that brought me to my knees. However by this stage I was determined to complete the ride as I did not set time expectations to complete, rather it was about completing the ride. I did plan to get back by 2:30pm - 3pm when I had started the return ride, however after experiencing the wind I had revised the target to 4:00 pm. With the wind speed increasing after Kolar I did not set myself a time target, it immediately made me more relaxed as I could take rest stops if things got difficult.

The ride from Kolar to Narsapura was difficult since it was very windy and there was elevation gain. I had to keep sipping on water and although the energy levels were not low, I was still struggling to keep the pace up. I had not stopped for a break since the breakfast stop and it was now 2.5 hours of riding since. I had covered 38 kilometers in the time and wanted to drink coconut water. However, as coconut water was not available and I had run out of water, I stopped at a bakery and drank jeera soda instead. Filled on water and took a 15 minute break.

The remaining distance was down to 60 kilometers. The wind had reduced a little and riding became easier from here. I pushed a little bit, however every time I tried to increase the pace, the wind seemed to know about it and came back to slow me down. Fortunately the Sun only made fleeting appearances from behind the clouds which kept the temperature cool. I was sweating it out, but more from the effort rather than the heat. As I got closer to Hoskote it was getting windier and I was hoping that after I get to Hoskote the wind would get blocked by the buildings and riding would be easier. I made it to Hoskote at 3:00 pm and my hopes of the wind getting blocked evaporated. However, as I was closer to home I was able to call upon additional resources and was able to ride harder than I had been riding earlier. I was able to ride quickly past Hoskote and got into the city. The long KR Puram bridge was completed with relative ease and I made it home quickly after that with the usual stops at traffic signals.

It was a good ride, a fast onward ride and a strenuous return ride. The location was a disappointment. However, after having completed the ride, I was happy that I stuck with the ride and had a good workout. Guess I have extended my record of riding in head winds from 80 kilometers to 120 kilometers now. Hopefully it will benefit me in the coming rides.