And we completed the 200K Brevet

So this story begins in Aug. 2015. After completing the 200K Night brevet back in Jan 2015, I got busy with so many other things on the agenda that I completely forgot about cycling….i.e. Until 29th Aug 2015. For the first time ever, the awesome Dipankar Paul arranged for a brevet Medal distribution. And off course, I went along to collect my kickass medal. During the medal distribution, I chanced upon the SR ( super randonneur ) medal. And boy! was that a beauty – almost immediately, my heart was set on adding that specific one to my medal collection. In addition to the lure of the gorgeous medal were the inspiring stories of the PBP ( Paris – Brest- Paris, 1200Km ride) finishers – and I think that was enough for me to completely set my mind on attempting the SR in the new Randonneuring season.

As soon as I got the mail from AUDAX India, I renewed my membership for the new season which was to begin in Nov, ’15. All of 2014 and 2015 has mostly been the season of recovery and now the new focus is to build base miles. Ankush also had his ACL surgery and was off the saddle for the better part of the year in recovery mode. When I spoke to him about this plan to do the SR, it did not take much to get him to jump in the wagon for the ride – it was a brilliant plan – base miles ka base miles and medal ka medal – two birds with one stone you say? Absolutely! When I spoke to Shuveshek, he was also for the idea and so was Shreyas – just like old times, only with a different sport this time.

In comparison to running, cycling is a punishing sport which is constantly pushing your limits – just a little bit longer, only a little bit faster – but if you do enough of it – it can suck you into the vortex like nothing else – add to the fact that it is a lower impact sport and works wonders for your cardio-vascular system -Its really very easy to know how it makes you fall in love with it – if you have done enough.

Sept and Oct went by in a flash with Bengaluru Marathon taking over my senses. And then, it was released – the date of the first brevet of the season – 14th Nov 2015. So we all clambered on the bandwagon and signed up for the event. The first casualty was Shreyas – he met with a motorbike accident which required stitches about 3 weeks before the event. The rest of us were on-board. In hindsight, we should’ve done a few more rides but with a packed schedule and crazy weather – I managed just about 2 x 50K solo rides and a couple of hours on the trainer – the other two riders were pretty much the same. But, “its 200 and its meant to be the ride to clock in base miles- “ho jayega” was the general attitude”

Before we knew it, it was the day before the event. The day was spent with a trip to Wheelsports to pick up lights, charging batteries and picking up some protein bars for nutrition through the ride, digging out the reflector jackets – all of this slipped in between finishing off work. Finally, around 9, Ankush and me sat down to clean the chain, lubricate it and put the ride numbers on the bike. Mum made some delicious pasta as our dinner. We loaded up, went through the route and it was about 12:00am before I finally hit the sheets.

Fast forward to 3:30am and the alarm goes off!! I jump out of bed with a start. Mum has been kind enough to have woken up a bit before and hands us a cup of piping hot tea as we got ready to hit the streets. It was 4:30am when we left the house to head to the meeting point. It was 5:00am as we glided to Airlines and were welcomed by the sight of a sea of cyclists all decked up in their reflective gear raring to start the season. From what I understand, this is the largest turnout for a brevet yet – with around 80 registered riders and a few unregistered riders who thought it would be fun to ride along with the bunch. Shuveshek had not turned up to the start point – he had been really busy the last few weeks so I gathered he wouldn’t be able to make it for this ride. At the last brevet, I had been the only female rider and this time there were 3 more registered so I was absolutely stoked. I managed to spot Sapna, Indu and Shilpee so went over to them and said hello. The runner gang led by Pankaj and Siddharth were also there and as always we clicked a customary selfie amidst a warm welcome.

There was a process in place – payment, followed by a bike check.Once this was complete – by 5:25am the entire bunch assembled at the start point where Alok gave us a debrief and at 5:30am sharp, all the cyclists took off. Ashok had locked the keys to his garmin so we spent a few minutes figuring out how to unlock it and once this was done, we were the last three to cross the start line. About 1K into the ride, on MG Road, Ankush stopped for a bio-break, Ashok and me continued – it was a matter of a few minutes before Ashok flew away on his bike. I continued on – Ankush caught up with me a few kms later as we got onto Old Madras Road and together we rode until tin factory where we took the left onto the flyover to join the Outer Ring Road heading to Hebbal.

This is home turf for Ankush and me, so we glided along a very familiar road – with him leading and egging me on to increase my cadence. He soon noticed a fellow cyclist who had a flat and being Ankush – he stopped to help – ” you carry on, I will catch up with you” he screamed as he moved onto the side of the road. I carried on. As I rode, I went by a lot of familiar faces, riding and chatting with some as I carried on at my pace. We took the right onto the Airport road. As I rode ahead, I heard Pankaj’s voice call out my name and then we rode together  for a while – Sid, Pankaj, Rana and me. We had gone a few kms when I heard Ankush’s voice – ” Stop chilling out man – move move move!” And he was pushing two other cyclists along the same way. Thats when I said bye to the gang and picked up my pace.

And we carried on together – the four of us taking turns to lead – quite like a TTT event. We carried on this way until the Nandi turn-off where the other 2 riders stopped for a coffee. Ankush and me stuck to our plan of taking the first stop after 75K. We stopped for a bit, clarified the directions further, said bye to them and then moved ahead.  We rode together towards Chickballapur – we knew that we had to take a right someplace – but just not the exact right so we kept stopping and asking for directions as we could not see any riders up ahead that we could go and catch to ride with. As we were asking for directions, we saw the organizers – Gautam, Harish and Alok waving out as they drove past us. We knew we were on the right track so got on the bikes and picked up the pace again. As we rode, we soon caught up with Suhas riding along on his shiny new Fuji. We didn’t know it yet but the three of us were going to spend most of this ride together. Before long, we reached the 70K point which was also the first checkpoint. There was a small shop where we refilled our bottles, had some coffee ( yes, he to restrain all the cups of coffee!!!) and took our selfies. Ankush went for another bio-break and came back looking very confident and telling us he has the directions down-right pat. We were getting ready to leave when we saw Pankaj and the gang. Again, we took some groupfie’s together and then went on ahead.

We continued straight ahead, when we were actually meant to take a right – also picked up Rahul and another rider along the way and went on till the end of the road. That was when we realised that we had actually taken the wrong turn. It is then that we retraced our steps back. Yep! we had just done an extra 5K odd that was not required. No harm though! Spirits were high, friends all around – raring to go. We found our way and got back on track – this time there were five of us riding together. Sometime later as we glanced back, it was just the three of us. The next was the manned checkpoint at 105K. As we rode on ahead, we met some more riders – Shilpee and the gang, we rode together, spoke for a bit and then took the slight right to get on the road to Chintamani. Mostly, the topic of discussion was the terrible head winds which were hitting us with all their might. As we rode on ahead, I realised I needed a bio break, so saw a remote quiet corner in the distance and decided to stop. Suhas carried on, Ankush stopped with me – said he needed another one as well. This turned into a refreshment break too- we shared a protein bar and then got back on track after a 25minute break. A lot of the riders we had passed earlier had gone ahead and we were all greeting each other as we rode. Another rider had a mechanical issue, so Ankush stopped and helped him as the rest of us carried on. In the distance, I saw a whole bunch of riders – all in their reflective vests lit up like Xmas trees. I knew we had reached the checkpoint.

Halfway down, these guys were a welcome relief. They had stocked up the car with Chocolates (perk), Chikkies, Enerzal Packets, Water, Biscuits, bananas and Cola. Bright smiles,  Warm welcome and an air pump – they were the pit stop that we all needed. Ankush and the rest of the gang came by a few minutes later.  After getting the brevet card stamped, refilling water and electrolytes and gobbling a perk, we were back on track. We rode straight ahead – it was phenomenal – beautiful rolling tarmac, stunning green canopy, cloudy skies but not a drop of rain – other than the headwinds – it was perfect! We rode on ahead at a pretty good speed with both of us taking turns to take on the head winds. As we rode, we met a few familiar faces  and we had Rahul helping us with directions towards Kolar. We soon caught up with Sreekrishnan and Deep. It was four of us  who rode together until the next checkpoint. I could see that Sreekrishnan was riding hard – it was written all over his face as we were averaging 34-35Kmph that entire stretch. We had about 70-75Kms to go at the next checkpoint which was the Canara Bank ATM. As we reached the check-point, we met Suhas again. We took our selfies and carried on – back to the three of us on the final stretch.

We took the right onto Kolar road and it was straight on from there. We rode together. A little further ahead we stopped for Tender coconut water. I went for a bio-break. We all jumped back on the bikes and continued ahead. As we moved along, I felt a familiar lower back pain and some cramps in my lower abdomen. Damn! There were two days to go but apparently my period had decided to surprise me. I started fading, asked the guys to go on ahead, they started slowing down. Ankush told Suhas to continue on ahead and he himself slowed down to give me company. I stopped at the next bakery to get some water. After filling up, I quickly chomped down my protein bar. Meanwhile, I got a call reminding me there was a file which had to be sent over urgently for an event the next day. We got back on the saddle and went another 7K – Ankush was fading too – we had not eaten anything other than the protein bar. Stopped at the next bakery, ordered a coffee each and stretched out the legs. I sat down to logon and send the email across – but there was a connectivity error. 20 minutes later, we decided to finish the remainder off! We saw Anshuman ride past us towards the finish line.

Back on the saddle, next stop – Airlines. We weaved through the traffic in KR Puram, Old Madras Road, MG Road right uptil Airlines. As we reached Airlines, we saw the gang standing there welcoming the finishers. 9:59Hrs – and its done – would’ve preferred a sub-9 but there is always next time. Suhas was waiting for us. We took another pic at the end point, had a cuppa Airlines coffee and hopped back on the saddle to ride home.

We reached home – not a warmer, sweeter place there ever was – I jumped online to send that file, had a much-needed shower, ate food that mum had cooked for us ( maa ke haath ka khana!!) and then fell asleep. Woke up the next day and both Ankush and me gave our bikes a much needed bath. She now rests in my room – clean and shiny – until its time to get down and dirty!

Bangalore Randonneurs Organisers – Alok, Harish, Gautam:  wonderfully organised event with superb support!! kudos !!- All the riders that crossed the finish line that day – brilliant riding! well done!!! Pankaj, Sid, Rana and all the other runners who have started riding – it feels so nice to see you on the saddle and doing it in style !!! Special shout out to the girls – Shilpee, Indu and Sapna – more power to you 🙂 !! All those that I rode with – some whose name I may have forgotten to mention here – thank you!!! Shreyas – you gotta join us next time!  Shuve – I missed you through the entire ride! Ankush – You are a freaking rockstar man!!!  Can’t wait for the remaining rides.