The Legendary 300

"No, this is not Sparta! This is Kolar!"

A report on my attempt at the 300km Kolar Gold Fields Brevet happened on 14th July 2012.

I was confident of the distance; the challenge would be the night ride. The brevet should be finished in 20 hours, which means that the latest time of finish is 2:00 AM. I had saved around 2 hours during the Sira 200km brevet, despite a haunting series of three punctures. If the monsoon of bad luck receeds a bit, I could finish around 11:00 PM. Then there wouldn't be a lot of night riding either.

The ride was flagged off at 6:00 AM from MG Road. We, four to five bikers with Mustafa in the lead role, ripped through the Old Madras road. All were riding road bike except me on my Schwinn hybrid. With some draft assistance I could keep up with the gang. We must have covered around 15 kms, and I found myself struggling to keep the pace. I slowed down and the gang disappeared on top of a fly over. It got increasingly difficult to pedal. It could be the slope of the fly over, I thought. The climb was through, and my head dropped down to relax. Not again! The rear tire was flat!

I cursed the bad luck, the bad tire, and the courier/customs fellows who were delaying the delivery of my new puncture resistant tires. I pulled over, turned the bike upside down, pulled the wheel off to swap the tube. All the riders who started after me passed by offering help, but it was not necessary. I installed the wheels back, and noticed the brake shoes were rubbing. It took more time to tune the brake. I must have lost twenty minutes.

I resumed the ride, now leaving more space on the left side of the road to avoid the layer of debris on the sides of the highway. I kept watching the rear tire; it seemed to be low on pressure. Filling up with the mini pump is tiresome; you always give up before a decent pressure level is reached. I reached the exit to Malur, where I saw Abhinandan having some snacks at a bakery.

Together we entered the more scenic state highway to Malur. The state highways typically are puncture free zones. The fear of punctures subsided and the enjoyment of the ride picked up. I stopped to pump in a bit more air. I lost Abhinandan by the time I am done. The late starter Vasu caught up with me and rode along with me for a while. He carried on with his amazing speed, and quickly disappeared from my radar.

Soon I reached Malur, and started looking for the Canara ATM which was the designated control. It got more troublesome as localites guided me to either a different ATM, or the Canara Bank. Finally I found the ATM. Vasu was standing outside, sipping a tea. The ATM was down! We went to a nearby ATM, and got slips. Then we headed together to Tekal. The roads were patchy, I could keep up with Vasu, who was struggling to avoid the potholes. The session was very entertaining with Vasu unbundling some of his Gyan. The bad road ended and Vasu went on full throttle. I attempted to draft him for a while, but could not keep up with the insane pace, even with the aerodynamic advantage. I asked him to carry on, and continued with my slower pace.

It was 9:30 AM when I reached Tekal, and I had to stop for breakfast. The only place I found was an ugly looking hotel with a bench and a desk. I asked for a plate idly, and I got a plate of five huge hot and fresh idlies and two vadas. As I feasted on that, many villagers kept shooting questions about the intentions of my ride. Some of them wanted to have a look at the cue sheet. I was a bit hesitant, since it was in English and won't make sense to them anyway. To my surprise, they started reading the cue sheet, and nodded in agreement with the directions and landmarks. Another man who was having breakfast, picked up a conversion with me. He knew all the south indian languages, and we had a nice casual talk in Malayalam. I also ordered a tea, altogether it costed just twenty rupees. I would get just two idlies at my office canteen with that money!!

Other than the very scenic roads and the awesome weather, the ride was event-less as I passed through the villages of Tekal, Bangarpet, Kotilingeshwara, Bethamangala, and Venkatagirikota. I stopped only for refilling my water bottles, eating bananas or asking directions. As the day got hotter, I started looking forward to the downslopes near Pernampattu.  I planned to reach the control at Pernampattu by 2:00 PM, and stop for having lunch here.

The road curved downwards through the green and calm reserve forest. I kept my head just a few centimeters above the handlebar, with an occasional watch on the speedometer. The slopes were tempting, but I did not dare to let the speed go above 50 kmph. Four back to back speed breakers at the end of a pretty steep downhill!! I managed to bring the speed down in time to 25-30 kmph. There was a crowd just after the speed breakers; I wondered what was happening as I passed by. Some of them waved indicating me to stop. I turned back, and went inside the crowd to see fellow riders Abhinandan and Vageesh. What happened? I enquired; and they pointed to Prashant who was sitting there with bruises all over him. He was supporting his left hand in an awkward position. He had noticed the speedbreakers in the last second, and the impact at nearly 60kmph made him lose his balance.

The helpful villagers phoned the nearby hospital, and got an ambulance. The also convinced the ambulance guy, who frowned at the bikes, to board atleast two of them. Abhinandan accompanied Prashanth inside the ambulance, while Vageesh and myself followed the ambulance on our bikes. The road bent down further, and it was effortless to follow the ambulance. Once the downhill was over, a lot of mashing followed to keep up with the ambulance. The hospital was in Pernampattu, very close to the second control. We unloaded the bikes, took Prashant to the hospital. Abhinandan and Vageesh helped with the hospital formalities; I headed to the ATM to take slips for us.

I went back to the hospital. All three were sitting outside, with Prashanth’s arm on a sling. There was no orthopedic, and we would find one in Ambur, a village near by. We were half-minded about whether all should go to Ambur in the bus. Not wanting to ditch the ride, me and Vageesh decided to ride our bikes to Ambur, and join Abhinandan who would come with Prashant in the bus. After a few kilometers of pedaling, I checked the cue sheet. It was a shocking realization that we were not supposed to go to Ambur, and take a deviation to Vaniyambadi instead. Abhinandan’s phone was not reachable, and we stood there for a while confused about what to do.

Finally we took a decision that Abhinandan would manage himself, and decided to finish the ride. We were about 2 hours behind the scheduled time, and about 150 kms to go. Vageesh had developed a knee pain, which was not letting him pick up good speed. We rode at a moderate speed till Vaniyambadi, where we stopped for a super delayed lunch at 6:00 PM. We managed to contact Abhinandan in between; there was no orthopedic in Ambur too, and they were planning to board a volvo to Bangalore. Abhinandan was confused whether to resume the ride. We planned to meet at Krishnagiri, if he decided to resume his ride.

The road to Krishnagiri was another National Highway, and it had a slight but constant upward inclination. With Vageesh’s knee pain worsening, we were doing very low speeds. It got darker, and we started thinking about the possible time we could finish the ride. My initial plan before the ride was to finish before it got too late. But now to finish the ride, I would have to ride till 4:00 AM. I was mentally not prepared to ride sleeplessly till so late. The yet to come steeper gradients after Krishnagiri was also scary. And when the thoughts of quitting occurred to me, the rain poured down, hammering the final nail on the coffin. At around 10:00 PM, and 90 odd kms to go, we decided to quit and took a shelter from rain. The rain subsided after a while, and we started to ride till Krishnagiri, from where we could catch a bus.

No, the bad luck did not stop there. A flat rear tire for Vageesh. He had forgotten the spanner to take out the wheel too. We thought we would pump it up and somehow ride it as fast as possible to take the bike till Krishnagiri before the air leaks off. As the pain in the knee was troubling him, we swapped the bikes. After pumping, I spun the pedals of his bike to 30kmph speeds through the drizzle. After a while of lonely riding, I waited for Vageesh on the road side. The tire was still holding the pressure. It must have been a real slow puncture! Vageesh was probably riding the low pressure for a long long distance, which explained why he was slow. The bad knee was not the villain after all. Had we caught it in time, we could have finished the ride! The realization just added to our frustration.

The buses were hesitant to offer a ride to the two frustrated, disappointed bikers. A Tamilnadu State bus decided to show some sympathy. The bikes were loaded; the bikers settled down near their bikes, to ease themselves into a sleepy ride. Home sweet home was a few kilometers away from where the bus dropped me. It was 2:00 AM. I pedaled though the dark, wet road, convincing myself - there is always a next time!