Tri State 600 BRM

- I woke up at 5AM on 3rd Aug 2013 with full of hope and energy. Got ready and left home around 6AM and reached the start point at 6:30AM. Lot of riders mostly from Chennai had already reached the spot.
- Vijay handed over the cuesheet and route maps.
- Vijay and Hari did the preliminary checks, stamped the brevet cards.
- Started the ride at sharp 7AM.

- Till NICE road I was along with the group. Afterwards I rode alone.

- Had breakfast after Harohalli when I had covered 50KM. It was piping hot (tatte) idlis and coffee.

- Reached Sathanur at 10:35AM. While clicking the snap Akash and Raghul arrived. We three of us took the snaps.

- Hariharan was having snacks near the spot.

From then onwards, Hariharan and I started back riding almost together.

- In between Kanakapura and Harohalli stretch my hand pump flew off. I could not see any reason how it could happen as the road is very smooth here.

- Stopped in between near a tap. Washed face and filled the bottles.

- Caught up Hariharan after few kilometers down, and decided to have lunch/snacks at Harohalli.

- When we reached Harohalli, there were several guys who already finished their breakfast. Haraharan and I had Idli vada and started off towards Jigani.

- The initial stretch of the road was not that good, however the road along the climb is in good shape, which helped us to climb it much effortlessly.

- We caught up with Karthik Padmanabhan in Jigani and we three rode together till Anekal. Karthik went ahead after that and we caught him at Attibele control around 3:45PM.

- Karthik stopped there waiting for his Chennai friends. Hariharan and I wanted to have food. Karthik suggested about the Yashotha Bhavan in Hosur

- Stopped at Yashotha Bhavan. While we ordered parathas, it started drizzling. Had two plates of parathas and coffee. Waited 5 extra minutes for the drizzle to stop.

- We caught up with Denzil after few Kilometers down from Hosur. From then onwards we three rode together.

- Here one person on the luggage tempo asked me the purpose and persisted to draft me. I had to tell him that our inspectors are on prowl who will disqualify me seeing it. Do you want me to forgo the 250KM of ride? He smiled sheepishly and went away.

- We stopped by restaurant next to Mufasa's around 9:30PM. Had fried rice and tea

- We reached Katpadi around 1:30AM. Searched for 30 minutes for the ATM and finally we found out at around 2AM. Took out the ATM slips. Tried to sleep next to ATM. The mosquitoes were not kind on us and hard pressed to have their dinner.

- Decided to leave the place after 30 minutes. Denzil suggested going to Katpadi busstop where we can get some food.

- Hariharan went past busstop. We both searched for bakery and stopped at only available sweet shop and had laddus.

- Hariharan called me. I asked him to wait for us. Got laddus for him too.

- Again we rode around 15KM down and stopped near petrol bunk at around 3:30AM as Hariharan was unable to control the sleeplessness.

- I decided to sleep only for 30 minutes as I will have 2 hours of buffer time for the next climbs. Hariharan wanted to sleep more and he asked me to leave whenever I wake up. Denzil too asked me to wake him up. I slept till 4:10AM. Tried to wake up Denzil for few minutes :-) He asked me to leave.

- This 30 to 40 minutes of power nap had given me such a relief from knee/bum pain, I could ride Palamner climb easily at later stage.

- I rode down almost 5km, I found Karthikeyan and Kalpesh coming out from CCD. I started to ride with them. It was a big relief, as I need not to search for the routes again in the night and blindly followed them

- We missed the route in Gudiyattam and rode on another road for a kilometer and came back to the right route towards Palamner.

- After a while I stopped for tea. Rode down further and stopped to have parathas that I had carried along with me. I had 3 parathas here and threw rest of them as those started getting fungus.

- I rode down another 5km where villagers asked me to stop. I did not care as it is common practice (hooting, shouting, calling, riding along, suggesting to draft etc..). However they persisted this time, so decided to stop. Then they said 2 paiyas are there. Though I am challenged in Tamil, I understood what did they mean and came to see Karthikayan and Kaalpesh having breakfast.

- I too ordered Idly/vada, but could not eat all of them. Karthikeyan and Kalpesh went past from here

- The sun was bright while climbing the Palamner, however later weather turned out be awesome for the ride.

-  Somewhere in the climb the screw of my mudguard was fallen off and Sandeep told me about it when he overtook me.

- He gave me the spare screw (thanks to him) as I did not had one.

- Had bananas and thumsup at Palamner.

- Palamner to Mulbagal ride was toughest one which gave me the anxiety that I will not be able to complete the brevet.

- Due to Seemandra stike, the trucks were queued up for kilometers. This  helped me to ride without hassles.

- However once crossed the border, the bad roads, headwinds, climb and zooming trucks from opposite side made the ride hellish.

- Finally reached Mulbagal at 12:40PM to find out both ATMs (SBI and Canara Bank) were closed. Took a snap here instead of searching for the other ATMs. Asked for the guidance with local people. Had bananas, coke, dates and continued.

- After 2KMs of ride, Karthikeyan and Kalpesh overtook me. I started feeling sleeplessness and badly needed tea.

- stopped near by shop, who told me to ride another 5KM for the tea shops.

- Had tea and felt better and kicked off from there.

- The tail-cross winds nicely helping the ride, I started to feel that I will be able to reach ontime, found Sandeep sleeping on a sidewall of a small bridge.

- I was taking rest every 30 minutes. In Chintamani, I had a very good tea, which helped me to ride next stretch without much sleep issues.

- I zoomed between Chintamani to Sidlaghatta. Though the road is narrow, I never bothered about it.

- High on energy with the speed I got, I maintained good speed from Sidlaghatta to Chikballapur, though it was a continuous climb.

- Strong head/cross winds welcomed me near Chikballapur, huffed & puffed last 3KM stretch to this town. Found the ATM easily.

- Karthikeyan/Kalpesh overtook me somewhere 15KMs from Chikballapur and later I was overtaken by Karthik/Arun (Chennai Guys) as I was stopping in between to fight against the sleeplessness.

- I rode next 30KMs with full of dizziness slowing down my speed, not able gauge in the dark.

- Arvind (from Chennai) joined me, when I reached Hebbal. We rode together till end and reached the Final Control at 10:40PM.  All the finishers were waiting for us.(Karthikeyan, Kalpesh, Karthik, Arun, Senthil)

- Handed over the brevet card to Vijay.

- I took leave from them around 11:10PM as I was too sleepy.

- The next 5km ride to home was very painful.

- It was constant cat & mouse play between Karthikeyan/Kalpesh and me from Pallikonda to Devanahalli. This has helped me to motivate myself.

- Overall it was a very good ride through the scenic places that has helped me to conserve my energy. Thanks to Organizers.

Anchetty 200 BRM - June 2013

This was my first brevet ride. I had maximum of 120KM ride earlier. I reached the start point by around 5:10AM. Found few more riders who had reached the spot. Got my brevet card and cuesheet. Cycle was checked for the mandatory things. I met Sagar with whom I rode Gollahalli 55KM Populaire. The ride started at 6AM. I started along with Sagar and rode fast. Targeted to reach Harohalli by 8:15 and save 1 hour for the climbs. We reached first control point Harohalli at 8:20 AM and continued without stopping for breakfast.

We stopped in Maralwadi and had breakfast, joined by Sundar. From there onwards we 3 rode together, almost along with Puneeth Rao. I was ahead of them where Sagar suddenly stopped and said one of the guys (I think it was Mrinal Kumar) had the flat. As we were not in a position to help, we decided to continue. Somewhere in the climb I rode off the road and fell off while attempting to get back to the road. I hurt my left knee, but decided to continue. I was frequently slowing down to be joined by Sagar and Sundar. When there was about 5 KMs to the next control point at Thally I decided to ride fast and get some medicine to my hurting knee and wait for Sagar and Sundar. I reached Thally at 11:10 AM, and bought the Soframycin and applied to my knee. Sagar and Sundar reached 10 minutes later.

Sagar told me that he had a crash and Sundar helped him. The front disc brake of Sagar’s bike was bent. We rode half a kilometer to get out of the town, took right to Jawalgiri and stopped to fix Sagar’s bike. Sundar helped him to disconnect the caliper before we continued.

We reached Anchetty and asked villagers at bus stop about the Petrol bunk who told us that there are 2 bunks on 2 different routes. We took the wrong route and 100 meters down asked another villager about the Petrol bunk with ATM, who guided us to the right direction. We got our ATM slips around 2PM and joined by around 10 to 15 riders. Sagar wanted to have lunch, where we needed to go back half a kilometer to Anchetty. Sundar advised us against eating lunch as we were about to start the ghat section climb. We rode a kilometer and took almost 10 to 15 minutes break. Ate chikkis, biscuits, snicker, dry fruits and had water. We saved little water for the next climb as we were not expecting any shops for another 25 KMs.

Sundar asked me to ride along with him as I was riding fast. We rode another 6 KMs together, where Sagar asked me to ride ahead and wait at Denkanikottai. I started to ride fast as Sagar and Sundar were riding together. I stopped and waited almost 5 minutes at first hairpin curve for both of them. I started to ride again along with them for few meters and went ahead thinking that I will wait for them at Denki. I stopped in a small village had tea and filled my bottle with water, washed my face and waited for more than 15 minutes for Sagar and Sundar. As I did not find them, I thought I may be losing time and continued. I reached Denki at around 4:30PM and had 3 hours in my hand to complete another 55 KMs. I decided to ride past Denki and stop somewhere and wait. I stopped in between and had some bananas. As I found lot of climbs even after Denki and riding at average of 18KM was an uphill task for me, I decided to continue without waiting for Sagar and Sundar. I rode along with Ashok T for almost 10KMs before I took a break.

At the cross to Attibele, I stopped to have bananas and met Ankush and David. The speed with which I was riding, I thought I will be able to make it just in time and worried about getting the ATM slip, if the machine fails to read the card. At Tally-Hosur Road intersection, one biker brushed my front tire, luckily I could manage to hold on. Leaving behind the incident,  I started to ride fast. Ankush and David rode past me asking me to ride on the lower gears. I tried to follow them, but could not catch up. I found them later at Attibele bus stop. I waved them and continued.  Near Chandapur, I took 2 minutes break to fix the rear light as it was getting dark when Mahesh and Abhilash rode past me. I caught up with them at Electronics city elevated expressway, where I had 40 minutes to cover 10KMs. I reached the end point by 7:20PM just 10 minutes before the control point closes. I am not sure if Sagar and Sundar completed it as I did not had their numbers. I heard that 21 out of 64 riders completed the brevet and rest of them dropped out. I left silk board and reached home around 10PM.

Last but not least Thanks to IISc Randonneurs for drafting such an awesome & breathtaking route.