It had been over 4 months since I moved to Pune for my job
and I had used my cycle only to commute around the city. When I noticed the
Mandhardevi Event on my Facebook feed, I decided that I was gonna do it. It
seemed perfect -a ride through the hills. I’ve always loved the hills. Cycling
through one just puts you in perfect harmony with nature. You realize how tiny
you are in comparison with the mighty mountain! You don’t get that realization
when you whiz up one in a car. At least, I never did. Anyway, having decided to
take part, I did a lot of small rides and a few odd long rides to prep myself
up.
The ride for me actually started from my house, from where I
headed to the start point of the brevet, a distance of around 13kms. It was
COLD! Having lived all my life in the warm and cozy city of Coimbatore, I
wasn’t used to these low Pune temperatures. Upon reaching the start point, I
met up with the other guys who were taking part and we completed the formalities.
There were a few first timers, so I didn’t feel too out of zone. We started at
around 6:20 am and I joined up with a group of around 4 riders led by Kedar
Tokekar of Pune Randonneurs. We were on the excellent Mumbai-Bangalore highway
for about 45 kms. I didn’t really take note of the gradients at different
sections of the road. This was a big mistake, and I would realize this later
on. Kedar was riding really strong and I was happy to be able to keep pace with
him. We soon reached the first control at Bhatgarh Dam and we were over an hour
ahead of the control closing time. We proceeded towards Bhor and since I was
feeling a bit hungry, I stopped to have a quick bite while the others went
ahead. The stretch from Bhor to the base of the Mandhardevi hill was a steady
climb at a gentle gradient and the road was a bit bad.
I had been to a session on ‘Training and Nutrition for Cycling’
by Michael Lehnig, organized by ‘Bums on the Saddle’, Pune (a cool bicycle
shop). He had given great insight into treating your mind and body as your two
friends when going on rides and listening to the signs given by each. A great
rule of thumb that Michael had mentioned was to ‘drink before you get thirsty
and eat before you feel hungry’ during rides. His points made a lot of sense to
me and I tried to adhere to them as much as I could, during the ride.
The ascent to Mandhardevi started and I was only able to
climb at a much slower pace than I had imagined I would be able to. The climb
to Coonoor is around 7% and I had seen online that this Mandhardevi climb is
around 4% on average. So I had anticipated that I would at least be able to
climb at the pace with which I had climbed Coonoor. I could come up with only a
couple of explanations for my pace. Either the climb was steeper than I had
imagined or I was not as fit as I used to be. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter. Guess
I’ve to put in a couple of rides to Sinhagad in the coming weeks :D
The descent from Mandhardevi to Wai was pure bliss. I just
had to follow Deepak Sir’s (Deepak Samuel of Coimbatore Cycling) simple advice
of feathering the brakes during the descent to prevent skidding and also avoid the
rims from heating up. I then reached the
half-way point at Wai. The control point was manned by the awe-inspiring Prasad
Erande (to be World Record Holder – has completed over 14,000 kms in a bicycle
in 136 days!). It was a great privilege to get his autograph on our time cards
and chat up with him for a while.
The climb back up to Mandhardevi was less taxing and I soon
reached the secret control point set up near the summit at a restaurant. I
spent a nice 40 minutes there and ate a good lunch J The descent was thankfully
uneventful except for a few langurs crossing the road in front of me. I did
stop and click a few pictures :)
After crossing Bhor I reached the Bangalore-Mumbai highway
and calculated that I just needed to maintain an average speed of 15km/hr or
above to be able to finish on time. However, I had no idea about the road
gradient ahead and it seemed like it was all climbs. I started getting
apprehensive and was cursing myself for having taken the ridiculous 40 minute
lunch break. Then came the ‘New Katrej Tunnel’ (an excellent 1.4 km long tunnel
through a hill), where the road started descending to my immense relief. Boy,
what a descent it was! The road was super smooth with hardly any bends and all
I had to do was take a good aero position. I was soon coasting at a speed of around
55km/hr. The descent lasted for over 8 kms and took away all my fears. I felt
super energetic after that stretch and continued on at a brisk pace to finish
my first 200k Brevet at 7:27 pm, 13hours and 7 minutes after I had started
(well within the stipulated time of 13hours and 30 minutes).
A big thank you to Divya Tate and the folks at Pune
Randonneurs for organizing this wonderful brevet! Looking forward to all the
exciting rides you guys have planned for the upcoming season :)
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