A hill ride for the harder core - "K to K - 100 K"

[Satish Vangal]

Hi all,

Last weekend, my Coonoor neighbour Jacob and myself rode from the base of the Kalhatty climb, up to Ooty, then down via Coonoor to Mettupalayam, and back up to Kotagiri. Total distance, just above 100 km. And here's the killer part - total altitude gain, 10,000 feet! 1200 metres for Kalhatty-Ooty, and 1600m for Metupalayam to Kotagiri, plus another couple of hundred in ups and downs. But also the reward of 30 km of continuous downhill from Ooty.

So if anyone feels like attempting this, with all the nice round figures - 100 km, 10,000 feet - come on up and we will take you out to dinner and ice cream at the end! Jacob (also known locally as the Nilgiri Tahr) did it it in 8 hours (total time) on a road bike, I took 11 1/2 hours on my MTB, with plenty of siesta stops on the 2nd climb!

Satish