My exp: 400k

[R. Venkatachalam]

Fourteen Poets / 400k Yelagiri / No-Road-Brevet / Discover India brevet / Climb-Kill brevet... whatever.

If you want to ride one of the best climbing 400k brevets, with roads, rolling roads, bad roads, no roads, very good climbs, strong headwinds, want to curse the organizers throughout and also want to discover India simultaneously, this is THE brevet to ride.

When Sree, Murtuza and all other IISc folks say:

- Its completely roadbikeable

<Read: There may be roads on the route that you can actually ride on a roadbike, which may be 3% of the total brevet distance> :P

- Its completely rolling from hereon

<Read: Long climbs with heavy headwind and short downhills filled with potholes, nett result - average of 10kph>

- There will be some headwinds

<Read: Pack up and go home>

- The climbs are beautiful

<Read: You will suffer, and we like that>

- You will be going through some inner roads through scenic villages

<Read: You have to create your own roads, the villages haven't been assigned a pincode yet so naturally, even mud roads don't exist, forget tarmac>

This brevet is best ridden on MTB with slicks or a hybrid. I *think* only me and Opendro were on roadbike, and worst of all, I was on cleats.

<<Alert: Longish mail>>

First up: Million thanks to Opendro. He could have finished this ride in 20 hours or even lesser, but he pulled back in the last 150 kms just to stay with me while I battled a ITB strain. I owe you big time mate, if not for me, you could have got better sleep yesterday reaching home early, and could have won the duathlon. <Opendro didnt sleep for 2 days, finished 400k, participates in the Duathlon within few hours of completing 400k and finishes in top-10!!!!>

We started at 10 pm on Friday night. No words can describe the efficiencies that IISc boys have brought in to the entire organization part, right from registration app, online payment, cue sheet, printing prefilled brevet cards etc. You just need to turn up on the brevet day and ride, ashtey!

There were about 20 folks who started the brevet I think. The route is simple - Bangalore, Yelagiri <with a 20km deviation for a control in between>, climb yelagiri, kuppam, kolar, and back to Bangalore. Bangalore Chennai highway is a known road, so is Kolar Bangalore. I had driven through palamner route to chennai once and thought the parallel road connecting Yelagiri Kuppam Kolar would be of similar nature. That is where the twist was!

Opendro pushed me hard in the first 150 kms or so. We average about 29 kph gross while doing the first 100 or so, despite really poor traffic and diversions due to flyover constructions. Opendro insisted on bringing food along, so I had packed about 10 rotis and he had got some 15 aloo parattas, so we kept eating while riding, and it was a non-stop ride. Sreeju and Vijay were hammering along, but Shreeju got unlucky when his RD broke. He had to quit before reaching Hosur I think.

We lost some time finding the first control which was at 120 kms or so. The Lakshmi Vilas Bank ATM security guard, who was snoring when we opened the ATM door, jumped out of the door looking at us. I think he wanted to be sure that he can run away incase we raze down the ATM and take cash :P

We didn't take breaks, except for refilling water once, and the target was to start the climb by 5.30 am or so. But a flat on my rear tyre meant we lost about 40 minutes trying to figure out what went wrong (which we couldn't find anyways). The climb started by 7.10 am, after searching for the right roads through the villages. <Discover India started here, bad roads from the highway till we reached the base of the climb>

The climb was beautiful. With about 200 kms done, the climb indeed posed a challenge, but the young turks like Opendro and Vijay (just about 30 years apart) finished the climb under 1 hour. 14 hairpin bends over 12-13 kms. The 10th hairpin came after such a long time after 9th, that I thought I should throw my bike down the hill out of frustration. The 13th and 14th were also hard to come by, distance and elevation wise. Each hairpin bend is named after a tamil poet, and it was nice to see the names there - Avvaiyar, Kambar, ilangovadigal, Thiruvalluvar, Barathi and so on. The climb was scenic and almost no traffic throughout the climb <occasional bike / bus, but nothing like what we see at Nandi on a saturday>

By the time I eventually reached the top, Opendro was taking a power nap and Vijay doubled up as the sales guy for the tiffin center there, doing a eureka-forbes sales pitch saying how awesome the food was and we had to eat only there and nowhere else. We did, and the breakfast was awesome. Pongal, vada, idli, poori, coffee... 340 rupees for 4 guys, which is a crime given the few dozen Poori set that Vijay cleaned up. Sandeep also reached the top at about 9.30 or so. He has lost a few tonnes riding all the brevets! The food fueled us, and most of us started at 10 am, with 212 kms done (220 for me and Opendro since we lost out way a bit), 190 in 15 hours seemed a sitter, with the climb conquered.

We came down, against some rattling downhill, and at the Info control, the guys said - Its going to be rolling from hereon. I need to take some English lessons, for myself, as to what rolling means to different people. Vasu of TFN fame, when he says its all downhill, that is actually rolling. When IISc guys say rolling, it means something else. You can't roll on those roads, in whichever direction it may be.

Crux - The next 75 kms came in 5h30m, for most of us. Opendro kept stopping for me since I was really depressed by the uphills, bad roads, headwinds and rattling small short downhill stretches. My left knee ITB started straining because of all the shocks on the bad roads, and I couldn't uncleat since I was slipping on bad stretches. The thoughts of giving up kept recurring, but Opendro kept pushing. Whenever we met Ashok, he had a encouraging word or two for me <Thanks sir> - we had butter milk, curd, slice/maaza etc that kept fueling us through the stretch. That 75 kms was *tougher* than the Yelagiri climb, and we expected few people to drop out, getting to time station from Yelagiri base to Bethmangala before 6.20 pm would have been a challenge for anyone who left Yelagiri after 11 am.

We reached the bethmangala control, 304 kms, by around 5-ish. Vijay's tyre beading had taken a big hit because of the roads, and one look at it and we knew he will have to quit soon, unless Sandeep 'mobile-Bikeshop' Reddy comes along to give him a spare tyre from his magic bag, which didn't happen. Vijay did try to ride on it for some time before his luck ran out and he was forced to quit <Guy to watch out for - a very fast and strong rider, 19 years, sub 3.15 marathoner - and is not a part of any cycling team yet! Nope, he said no to CW :P >

100 kms and >7 hours, seemed easy, but my ITB started paining. Started putting more pressure on right leg and Opendro slowed to 10 kph at some stretches motivating me to just keep moving. The palms were becoming numb after taking all the shocks. Finally reached Kolar highway at about 7-ish, with about 75-80 kms to go, ad 6 hours, we had ample time, given that now, the roads truly exist and are definitely rolling as per my definition.

The speed was slow because of my injury, but we kept taking break every 20 minutes to relax the ITB and that helped. At one point, the asking rate was going up, so we ripped about 25 kms in almost TT mode to bring down the average. At the toll before hoskote, I told Opendro I am quitting... The asking rate was about 30 kms in 2h30m or so. He asked me to take a 10 minute break, and we decided to take 1 km at a time and see. Every km seemed hard to come by... and finally, we reached the end control with 20 minutes to go. Sree helped me get an auto back home, and Opendro cycled back home, probably crashed for an hour or so, and attempted the duathlon today!

 

In the end, when I think of those 27 hours, what went really right was the first 150 kms or so, where we averaged close to 27-28... That gave us time to negotiate the bad roads, and battle my injury later on. In the morning, all I have now a small strain, and a lot of numbess on the palm and foot, joints... It was truly bone rattling, on a road bike with 160 psi tyre pressure, racing wheelset and cleated all throughout.

For all the aspiring brevet riders, this is one climbing brevet you ought to do - but set expectations absolutely right - MTB / Hybrid / tourer on sandals / shoes are the best. No 23c tyres or cleats, just doesnt work.

Best Regards,
R. Venkatachalam

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

Thats one hell of a way to announce your re-entry into cycling. I guess there will be some burn in a re-entry, whether its a cyclist or a satellite coming back to earth

Chiddu

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[deepakvrao]

You re start your cycling career with 400kms?

[anil s kadsur]

Venkatachalam,

One of the best ride report what I read in recent times. The best thing is reading this at the comfort of the house and trying to visualise.

Most humorous ride report can't stop controlling laughing then I realised today didn't do the abs workout and this compensated for it.

Congratulations for finishing it still.

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

---

From: "R. Venkatachalam" <r.venka...@gmail.com>

Sender: bangalor...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2013 00:32:20 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [BBC] My exp: 400k

[Nalla P Konar]

He restarted slowly few weeks back with about 150 km of total ride this year & took to 400 km brevet as team jolly ride. :)
Chiddu: nicely put about  re-entry.

--

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

When Sree, Murtuza and all other IISc folks say:

Who's Murtuza?

 

[R Venkatachalam]

May be in got the name wrong. But one of the iisc guys who did the reccee of the route when apparently roads did exist

On Jul 7, 2013 1:57 PM, "Chidambaran Subramanian" <chi...@gmail.com> wrote:

When Sree, Murtuza and all other IISc folks say:

Who's Murtuza?

 

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[R Venkatachalam]

Doc, 

The route was too enticing,  on paper.

Moreover I was doing a bit of long walks and jogging in the interim.

Also,  brevet as a format gives a lot of time to complete. 27 hours is a lot of time.

The only regret is the bike choice I think.
I definitely suffered on the climbs due to lack of miles,  otherwise I think 400 is not a huge distance I guess.

Rgds,

On Jul 7, 2013 1:33 PM, "deepakvrao" <deepa...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[Nalla P Konar]

I guess Venkat meant Mustafa.

[Sreepathi Pai]

To be honest and fair (not only to the guys running the show this
time, but also to me :) ), I was not involved in any brevet this
season.

Lovely writeup! Glad to have the detailed ride reports back.

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Sreepathi Pai

[Venkat Rajmohan]

Very nice write up and enjoyed reading it. Still me thinks that 400 out
of the blue considering the commute rides and jogging was definitely a
tough task irrespective of the bike! Well I remember you doing the
400kms bng-vellore brevet in your mtb on butter smooth roads:-p

Cheers,
Venkat Rajmohan
From: Sreepathi Pai
Sent: 07-07-2013 14:24
To: Nalla P Konar
Cc: R. Venkatachalam; Chiddu Subramanian; Deepak Rao;
bangalor...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [BBC] Re: My exp: 400k

[Yogesh Sundaramurthy]

Brilliant comeback! And a very entertaining read :)

Regards,

Yogesh

Sent from my iPhone

--

[Meera Velankar]

He was looking super fit and super cool in CW jersey and i kinda knew that he will finish this ride in good time.

[Shankar Shastry]

Wow. Awesome write up and welcome back Da Lam cyclist :D

[Arvind Ganesh]

Nice report, Venkat. Congrats to all finishers. 

-Arvind

[BikeyVenky]

Excellent read and ride DaLam!  

And say what? 400 not a big ride to get back on the bike? Sheesh... 

Yeah, when you have someone like Opendro for company and to help, nothing is too big a challenge I guess!

Take care of that ITB thing. 

On Sunday, 7 July 2013 13:02:20 UTC+5:30, R. Venkatachalam wrote:

[Parag]

Great ride , and fantastic report Venkat.
Misery loves company, I was a fellow sufferer on a roadbike.
Sunil and I missed the Bethmangala control by 10 min, as we got lost and misdirected. My cyclocomp was not working from the start, and Sunils Garmin gave up the ghost halfway between Kuppam and Bethmangala, so we had to rely on asking locals every few minutes, and one of the turns they sent us off on was completely wrong. There was no road to speak of after the misdirected turn , but that was true for most of the afternoon (grrrr..), so we did not figure out we were offroading in the jungle for a good half hour and reached Bethmangala at 6:25 pm.The key attraction of the Yellagiri climb was done anyway, and the last highway part did not sound enticing, since we had DNF'd ,we decided to pack up and take the bus back from Bethmangala.

PS- The villages enroute dont have PINcodes, but they certainly have Paincodes ;-)

[Opendro]

Thanks mate. You ought to give more credit to yourself for fighting out the injury.

Though it was bad roads, we two differed on opinions along: I welcomed village roads for brevet (not the metalled ones though) and you preferred highway. Yeah, some stretches (in fact quite significant considering the fact that we couldn't do faster than jogging speed in those stretches) made us really think whether we would ever finish the brevet.

One more correction, Vijay said that he can do marathon sub 3 hours. He does 5 km in 16 mins regularly. So, I would rather believe that sub 3 hours is not a big deal for him though he is a very naive and does not know about most of the running events! Vijay, you should participate in these runs. You will have fun and your pace is a prize material too. You have redefined what a good running pace is for a non-sport person.

[jai.r...@gmail.com]

5km in 16 minutes is nearly world class. 19 years means a lot of time to further improve the timing for the marathon distance!
Awesome Vijay!

Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

---

From: Opendro <ope...@gmail.com>

Sender: bangalor...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2013 18:58:42 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [BBC] Re: My exp: 400k

[Shreyas Kumar]

Superman Opendro has inspired a lot of people including our own da lama (no lai in between).

Opendro (off topic), I'm a lot like you too, but the degree of course varies :) however much one might like, people like you are one in a xxxx (few millions?).

Dai lama, well done da (Monday morning PJ kick). Not much happening here other than hot winds and am jealous.

Great ride and great write up. Now don't stop again.

[ashutosh tripathi]

amazing write up
enjoyed reading every bit of it
superb efforts indeed

i just didn't understand one thing, what does ITB means, can you please explain

[anil s kadsur]

Congratulations vijay!!!

"Vijay said that he can do marathon sub 3 hours. He does 5 km in 16 mins regularly".

Doing 5 kms in 16 mins and saying I can do marathon sub 3 hrs, "sounds like I sprint (cycling here) 10 kms in 17 mins and telling I can do 100 kms in 2.30 hrs"

No way based on running 5 kms pace predicts someone's Marathon's finishing time. It is only an indication he has potential to fare better.

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

---

From: Opendro <ope...@gmail.com>

Sender: bangalor...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2013 18:58:42 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [BBC] Re: My exp: 400k

[Opendro]

It is different Anil. If you can sprint 10 kms in 17 mins on bike, I bet you can comfortably do a 100 in, say, 4 hours.

3 hours marathon will in fact be a yawning pace for someone who clocks 16 mins to 5 km. I can bet on that.

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome

--

[Boddu Vinay]

Really a nice write up of 400 k

Congrats finishers

Wanted to know the brains behind choosing bevert roads around Bangalore? 

Chiddu, Hari or Arvind?

Regards

Boddu Vinay

[Abhijit Kshirsagar]

On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 2:24 PM, Boddu Vinay <bodd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wanted to know the brains behind choosing bevert roads around Bangalore?

Do you want to know who chose these "berverted" routes, or why?
~Abhijit

[anil s kadsur]

Opendro,

Wish vijay does that and wish him all the very best. Would like to know when he does that.

very truly,
anil s kadsur
http://kadsur.blogspot.in/

---

From: Opendro <ope...@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2013 23:38:58 -0700 (PDT)

To: <bangalor...@googlegroups.com>

Cc: <anilk...@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [BBC] Re: My exp: 400k

[Boddu Vinay]

Wanted to know who chose these berverted" routes?

Regards
Boddu Vinay

[Arvind Ganesh]

No one person behind the Bangalore routes :) I've only set one 200k BRM route so far. You can thank the IISc Randonneurs for the 14 poets route! 

Pasting Ashok T's report from Facebook - 

Fourteen Poets 400 Ride Report ( A long one..)

Enjoyed the Fourteen Poets 400km brevet, my first one with hill climbs. Completed it with 1:20 hours to spare. Hill climbing was a breeze, the village roads turned out to be the most difficult as there were no roads! In detail now…

Started on Friday @2200 with Mahesh Kumar and Parag Patankar from IISc Gymkhana jostling the BLR traffic for about an hour only to encounter a bunch of trucks blocking the entry at Hosur. That out the way, it was nice ride on the Hosur-Krishnagiri downhill stretch. Mahesh had a flat at Hosur, thankfully near a well lit place, we took 20 minutes to fix it.The white line on the highway was the guidepost for us on the dark highway, but the white lines missing on quite a few stretches posed a challenge, and this was compounded with the bright headlights from vehicles in the opposite direction. Took a break at Shoolagiri @0100, and could not resist a Choco Frappe at CCD. Sandeep Reddy and Aman arrived just a few minutes later. The caffeine & ice-cream (Yum!) boosted us, we reached Karimangalam the first control point (123km mark) at about 3AM. Got the time receipt from ATM, couple of minutes of stretching and we were back at the highway. After a brisk 25km ride, we stopped for Tea and biscuits at a roadside tea shop joint at the Krishnagiri turnoff to Chennai, it was delicious. 

The weather was brilliant and we (Mahesh and me) had the best dawn ride reaching the Info control point at the highway turnoff and got the cards signed by Nayan/Nirmal who were patiently waiting for the riders. Thank you guys! Reached Ponneri the base of Yelagiri at about 7:15AM. Hot idles, vada and coffee, refilling water and we were set to climb the Yelagiri Hills at around 7:45. The highlight of this ride "the climb consisting of fourteen bends named after Tamil poets" were great views, great weather and not-so steep climb. We reached the top in about 75 minutes. 

Reached the control point ATM, took the time slip, took a pic and did a U-turn, stopped at the Aavin parlour where we palmed of two yummy flavoured milks each (Vanilla-Malt and Banana). Our good friends Vijay, Opendro, Venkat, Aman were having a hearty breakfast at a nearby open air restaurant. Bidding goodbye to them, we commenced our descent. Met Sandeep who was just coming in followed by Abhishek and Parag who were still climbing. Stopped at a view point, enjoyed the view from the top, took couple of pictures. Met Vijay and Aman and we all had a easiest 12 km ride requiring us to only brake. Later we saw Hari, Vignesh, Meera on the way up.

Back at the same Info control point, it was Nirmal who stamped our cards, The time was 10AM. We were happy about our progress and thought the next control point in about 75 kms should take about 3:30 hrs, in good time for lunch. Boy, we were to find out how wrong we were! The next 75 proved that the climb was a walk in the park!

The next 30kms of village roads (scenic though) was "rolling" with headwinds and took us forever. Thankfully the sun was not too hot. Around 11:45, we stopped at a roadside shop and drank "colour" (the local cola), Rasna drink in sachet, bananas and candy. Denzil had taken a nice hour's nap having reached much earlier and we broke his reverie. After a 15 minutes break we were back on the road.

The next 25km was teeth-shattering as there was no road! Potholes, gravel/stones to prepare the road for tarring was what we had to ride on. A vibration test for endurance. We were later to find out Venkat who was riding cleats had absorbed all the vibrations and developed a ITB problem and the front tyre of Vijay's road-bike blew exposing threads. Sadly Vijay who had a great ride had to abort after some time. 
Reached Bethamangala around 5PM (the last control point befiore the end) and boy we were famished for Sugar! Had a cola, Mango juice, Ice-candy, Vanilla cream, ORS juice.

We have done about 73 KMS in last 7 hours - unbelievably slow. Endurance requires you to stay positive, and the we were hoping that the last ~25kms to Kolar (before NH4) would be better. Well it was at least a road! with potholes scattered along the entire stretch. And then about 7:30 PM we hit the NH4 and all vibrations came to a halt. Mahesh and me stopped for a dinner at Shanthi Sagar on the other side of highway. Mahesh was dehydrated and could hardly eat. I have a heartily meal of dosas. Twenty minutes later and we are back on the highway and Denzil joins us. About 8:45, we decide to have a power nap for 15 minutes and then a Coca-cola. It is a battle with the wind. NH4 from Kolar is about head-wind. 

BLR is about 60KMS from there. We see Venkat and Opendro on the highway easting dinner. Venkat's knee is painful requiring him to stop frequently. Amazing grit - Hats off to you Venkat. I am feeling good and decide to sprint. All of us (Mahesh, Denzil, me) rotate the pedals fast stopping every hour to hydrate. Reach K R Puram, wait for 15 minutes for Mahesh/Denzil. Did not know that they had taken a break for 15 minutes. I leave and ride fast to reach IISc at 11:40PM. Aman had reached earlier about 15 minutes ago and the of course Karthikeyan had reached 3 hours earlier! 

Waited for Mahesh and Denzil who came in 15 minutes later and then leave, reaching home by 1:25AM. A hot shower and off to sleep at 2AM, to wake up at 6AM ready for a great Sunday.

Thank you Mahesh for the wonderful company. Denzil, it was pleasure riding with you. Venkat, delighted to have met with you, sorry all I could was give you was false positives of good road ahead. Vijay - a bummer that your tyre blew up. You were burning the road. Aman, pleasure to meet and ride with you. Opendro, glad to meet with you. 

A great practice for the upcoming 1200 ride to Kolhapur this week. Getting better at readjusting sleep schedules. 

P.S : My first long ride report. Hope you looked it.

[R. Venkatachalam]

Ashok - glad to have met you on the ride, you are an amazing sport and played along to give me some false hopes... :) The curd was indeed a good idea!