Riding Nandi

All of us enjoy milestones. As Sachin (Tendulkar) would quote “I do not play for milestones, but they are nice to know”. I would reword it as “Playing is for mornings and milestones are for bed time when you have closed your eyes and waiting for sleep to take over, that’s the time you enjoy and savor the highlights for the day”. I did pass by a milestone, climbing the Nandi on my bike ‘Btwin Sport1”. It was a total of 121 kms from my home with about 8 kms of steep mountain climb.

This has been a milestone that a few thousand bikers of our city have passed by, but still remains as one of the most cherished rides. It is also a part of almost all the training plans for bigger rides like the Brevets, GMC, TFN etc. May be it’s the nature of the whole ride which excites people with very good approach roads and good steep climb which is regarded as tough even by the pro bikers who have mastered it. Our Bellary-Hyderabad highway is probably the only evidence that we are a fast developing country with its wide lanes, gives even the bikers a nice thin lane to the left. Vehicle zip past at a comfortable distance giving us the safety assurance. BBMP has decorated the median to ensure the entry into our city is decent, so that the tourists plying to city from the airport are in a good frame of mind to tackle the chaotic city center. Once you take the deviation to Nandi, a surprising well maintained wide road with trees and farms on the sides and to the front a magnificent view of the Nandi which is dense green at the bottom and rocky on this top.

My day started at 4 AM, having to use brains from first moment to cover up the alarm sound, when touch screen on my iphone would not respond to switch off the alarm. 45 minutes to prepare for the ride which includes frantic searching for my shorts/jerseys, 3 or 4 times the stairs to pick the forgotten stuff, waking my mom for a few 10 buck currency notes, quick breakfast of milk-Biscuits-Banana, loading my back pack and water bottles, pumping my tires to the right psi, resetting my cyclometer and was on saddle by 5:00. Was greeted by a cheerful Casper (alex’s pet), first time she added me into her friends list. By the time we got settled on the saddle, we had passed hebbal and into a couple of decent climbs into UAS campus. The road was already starting to get busy with the airport support staff waiting for the buses, managed to grab their attention with my cycling outfit and jazzy LEDs on my bike. The one I enjoyed was the stare from the Kingfisher airhostess fully decked up in a steamy red outfit waiting for her cab, How I wish I had a tandem bike! As usual picked up some topic to chat with alex where he shared some info on how concrete is manufactured, loaded into the mixers on those big trucks and also how the massive trucks with V-shaped tanks carry dry cement powder optimizes over the olden days of handling it in cement sacks.

We decided to give a quick first stop near the trumpet exchange near the airport which is about 25 kms. Alex did quick math to see that we had averaged around 26km/hr on the saddle. My back was a little sour with the heavy 2-litre hydration pack and the bent posture on my new sport1. After a couple of quick stretches we were back on saddle and were cruising in good weather conditions: cloudy bright with no head winds. Before we could hardly finish our small chat on prestige villas and commercialization, we were at the nandi base riding at similar speeds. Venkat and Opendro cheered past us with their bikes loaded on the roof racks of their car. Alex was clear that we should not be climbing the Nandi in an empty tummy, so stopped at the hotel at the base. Distance – 53 kms, speed-25 kmph, Time-7:15AM, Energy levels – High. Venkat and Opendro were getting ready for multiple climbs, when we intruded with close look at the super light ‘Giant’ that Venkat is very proud of and allowed him to brag a little about his hi-fi saddle from Taiwan, his ultra-performance racing tyres and wheels, cleated pedals, ultegra crank shaft and “god knows brand” of gear shifters. A plate of expensive idli-vada-coffy was enough to push us to start the climb.

The first half of the climb is steep and after a couple of kms was hardly able to push, while Alex looked comfortable trying to pump me with “all in mind, push push” etc. By the time I saw the 4 km to Nandi milestone, we were some 1100 mts from sea-level. Neither the sight of beautiful green valley/hill range/flora-fauna nor the smell of fresh air/cool breeze could help me in pushing further, thus had to stop as Alex cruised on. Rest of the climb was a real struggle as the vertical climbs and the pin bends started. I had to stop at almost each pin bend in spite of the easiest gear ratio of 1-1. Am not sure of the reason: energy levels were good, not perspiring too much, no muscle cramps, but JUST COULD NOT PEDAL. Alex’s fundas kept rewinding in the brain, trying to see if my mind can pedal when my limbs rested, but even this did not work. Even a long break of 7 minutes and gulping the entire litre of electoral did not change much. Struggling to find reason on why my muscles were not even responding, I realized it is still a long road of regular training for me before my muscles can stand upto this task.

At the 2 km milestone my knees yielded with a couple of clicks. We had to pedal back another 60 kms thus decided no more pushing and started pushing the bike and pedaling when I could see some decent length of road. Alex completed the climb in 45 minutes, which includes a few minutes initially when he was busy giving me fundas. It took me 65 minutes to reach the top, but will take much longer before I can conquer, in the sense pedal all way up the nandi climb. Both of us were disappointed that we got almost no attention, the culprits being a dozen of super bikes carrying the logos of Harley/Suzuki/Yamaha etc. Everyone including us were busy admiring and posing with the bikes, meanwhile the owners enjoyed such attention more than their bikes/rides.

Downhill was not as enjoyable as I imagined, mainly because of the posture and the position of my fingers on the brake lever, which made it extremely hard to brake. Fingers started to pain and thus took it rather slow and apprehensive after hearing stories of bikes overrunning the curves ending in crash. In no time we were back at base and alex suggested to ride back only on a full tummy. The rice bath did not even tickle our tongues but served the purpose of filling our bellies. Back on saddle, Alex noticed my seat post was low and may be reason for my knee pain. He was right and I was able to cruise with not much further damage to the knee. We were pedaling back in our zone being cheered by some kids on school bus. Kids live their life like the way it is meant to be, they just cheered and shouted when they saw something crazy, they play giving their everything to win, they eat only till the point when the tummy sends a signal to brain, they wake up only when sun shines. Compared to adults who remain silent to dismiss when they see something crazy, already lost the game before even starting it, eat till the throats send a message to the brain and wake up only to alarms.

We next stopped back at the airport junction for some water and stretches, highlight for me was that I was able to push ahead to get out of sight of Alex and thus was waiting for him to catch up for almost 3 minutes. Weather was still holding patiently for us to return back and we cruised at some 26 kmph to reach our Bagalur junction for some tender coconuts. At the final parting junction at Hennur at noon, Alex encouraged my speed on the highway, but I was still wondering how the names on nandi wall of fame page ( http://bumsonthesaddle.com/nandi) have managed to climb it in less than 30 minutes.

As I got down my bike, I could not hide my hurt knees and lower back which got my mom irritated and went on with her regular advice to take biking in a sane manner. In an insane way I snubbed her and went on with my recovery stretches quoting the pain is not even a speck of dust in comparison with fun in long distance biking. In the end felt good as a ‘cyclist’ who enjoyed every bit of 121 kms in spite of the failure and pain