My first brevet - 600KM

After i registered for the brevet, out of excitement about the event, i wasn't able to sleep properly.

Did some morning practice on my new bike B'twin sport 1, but i knew, it wasn't sufficient. 

Alright, so after a long wait of a week, finally the day same, got up at 3:30AM, called Aman, met him at silk board by 4:30AM, and started the ride towards IISC.

Reached the venue, completed the formality, and we were ready for the ride.

6AM a group of some 15 guys started pedaling, attempting to challenge, the landscape of three states KA-TN-AP-KA.

En route, people were starring at us, some even clicked pictures, i was kind of enjoying the attention.

And after 30mins of starting, we lost the other guys, who were leading us.

Luckily the 4 of us who were left behind, one guy Girish, knew the route, and he helped us cross the confusing city bylanes, and reach the Banashankari-kanakpura road.

Now here the showcase of road bikers started. People were riding at furious pace, I even saw few guys who were doing their morning ride on this road.

The road, is pretty beautiful, it was hard for me to believe that within city limits we can have such  beautiful roads.

Everything was pleasant, till the time we passed kanakpura-harohalli.

After this point the trees started diminishing, sun shined hard, and I was already starting to feel week.

I avoided having breakfast at kanakpura, simply because i wanted to finish the control point first.

Had some electral powder, which was enough to push myself till the first control point at Sathanur.

Now here while having the tender cocunut, the locals were getting pushy, i was feeling uneasy with, ditched the idea of having food here, and started riding towards kanakpura.

Now the real kick ass Harohalli-Jigani belt started.

I was warned about the route well before by chiddu, but i felt anyways i have to do it.

Here i was accompanied by Manjula and Rajeev. Riding in a group is always a pleasant experience.

Clock was ticking real fast, and missing the next control point at Attibele was unacceptable to me.

I had no idea, where the other riders have reached. I called rajni just to confirm the location of other riders.

And i figured, that they are probably just around 1-2km ahead of me.

After passing Anekal, i started to ride at a good pace, and guess what at 4:40PM, i made to attibele,

but locating the ATM and  swiping took some time, my slip showed 4:53, just 1 minute more than the closing time of the control.

This made me very tensed, i thought of calling shripatti and ask him about the same, but i was convinced by fellow riders, that i should continue.

Had sambhar-rice, and within 15mins, our journey towards TN started.

Riding on a busy highway was a little scary at the beginning, simply because of those horrifying sized trucks, honking and making all sort of scary sounds.

The ride was pretty cool, as it was evening, no head wind problem, smooth road, and all riders were together.

While on our way towards Ambur, a very unpleasant event happened, Nirmal crashed, he had a deep wound on both of his hands.

Sohan did the dressing of wound, Rajni and Vasu tried stopping few vehicles, but in vain.

Finally convinced an auto guy, who helped to take nirmal and his bike to brindavan motel.

So here on we started riding again. I was feeling damn hungry, as soon me and Aravind reached Ambur station, we were trying to locate this motel. But nowhere to be seen, this pissed me so off, i was convinced to eat in any road side hotel here.

Anyways, started the ride again, and finally after 10km of cycling we reached the motel.

It was very relaxing, ate sambhar-rice again, slept for 30mins, rajni woke me up, saying we gotta start our return journey. And within 5 mins, everyone was back on saddle.

It was damn cold in night, it took me some time to get used to this temp. outside.

Reaching vellore was boring, long stretch on road, nothing to be seen, it was getting monotonous.

Finally at 04:38AM, i swiped my card, well before the dead line.

The route from Pallikonda to midway to palamner was a visual delight. Me, Mohit, and Parameshwar were together most of the times.

It was full of trees, had ascend, but not very steep, just the gentle ones.

 

Suddenly, it looked as all good things came to an end, and bad steep uphills started, with no greenery in sight. It was a killing route.

Sun showed no mercy to us, and Andhra welcomed us, by throwing some of the climbs, where we had to eventually drag our bikes, i had no energy left to ride atleast over this stretch.

Met some forest officers, who inquired about our tour, wished me good luck, i refilled my bottle and left.

The roads were so bad, that at some places i had to simply lift my bike, and cross the bad stretches.

Now my wait till eternity started, i just wanted this uphill ride to finish.

I believed that once Palamner is crossed, atleast if not descends, i'll get flat roads to make up the loss of time.

After reaching Palamner, me, Rajni, Mohit, Aman, and Param, ate so much of watermelon, i guess we made the day of that vendor.

But.............., IISC guys are smart, they surprise you by throwing some of the most challenging terrains, when you're least prepared.

As dreaded, the entire route from Palamner to Mulbagal was mostly uphill.

Rajni, Aman, Mohit, and Param took the lead, followed by me and Vasu.

it was so damn hot, i was frustrated because of the heat, time running out so fast, and the pathetic speed, at which I was riding.

So the result, i reached the control point 14mins late. Got the timestamp at 01:00PM.

Now i was hell bend, next control point should be on time, no matter what, so devised a strategy, 88KM to divided in three segments 30-30-28.

So first 30KM - Done in 55 mins, great job !!!

    next 30KM - 01 Hour, 05mins, Ok, can be excused.

    last   28KM - All messed up, i was somewhere in Chikballapur, not understanding which way to go.

Local language problem, didn't drink water for almost 2 hours, my future was pretty clear, its all lost.

Called Rajni, and shripatti for direction, then a local today me, few cyclists have passed from here, your destiny is 7KM from here, THAT'S IT!!!, i started cycling like a mad man, and made it to HDFC ATM  at 18:56, 20mins late.

Without much wasting of time I started my ride towards the end point.

But after reaching devanhalli, I started hallucinating, felt so sleepy, i was dozing off on my bike.

After some time, I felt as if I am lost, no idea which place is this, how far is hebbal flyover, and the clock showed, 09:20PM.

My phone indicated low battery, i wanted directions, but whom should i call.

But to my rescue, came Aravind, and Sohan. It was such a relief, when i heard Aravind calling me from behind, we three started cycling from here.

Reached hebbal on time, but here again I got lost because of the traffic.

Now this was really frustrating. So i decided enough, talked to an Auto guy, told him where i want to go, showed him the address, he asked for 150bucks, finally got ready for 100 bucks.

I told him you ride ahead of me, i'll follow you on my bike, he suggested he can fit me and my bike in his auto, i just asked him to do as i said.

That's it, 7-8mins later i was at the IISC gate, abhijeet came to help, it was such a relief to see my fellow cyclists there.

Many times i thought, now toh no chance of completing it, looking back even i don't know how i managed to do all this, but some how it happened.

If you ask me, can i repeat the same thing again, probably no.

Physically, i was so tired at the end of it, i remember, i slept inside IISC campus, sitting on ground.

But i am happy, finally after so much of struggle, I completed it.

Map

Direction list

The trip distance clocked in 2 days