KGF 300 BRM Ride - Fields of Gold

Gutsy Group of Guys n 1 Gal Going to the Fields of Gold,
Some Young, Some Old('er), All with hearts that were Bold,
Reccees,Ride Strategies, Hydration,Nutrition, Paleo and Vegan.
All Come Undone, like Mufasas "Vegetarian Sandwich" of Chicken.
Ending Chorus:  Its Been a Hard Days Night, If truth be told

Kakak Kanak te Sau Guna Madakta Adhikaye
Ik Khaye Bauraye, Ik Paye Bauraye  --- Kabir

The KGF 300 is a deceptive ride , and this episode did not disappoint. The deception started well before the flag off. I was riding with Manjula, and at 5:35 am she insisted the start point is Prestige Meridian, and not MG road metro station, but I persisted and we did get to the station on time. While the bike check was on, there was a loud "phat" sound, and 30 panicky bikers were suddenly leaning over to check their tyres, luckily it was a lighting display going bust across the street. Had a chat with Arvind,Sreepathi,Siga,Ashok and then we were off. It was pretty warm compared to last year, and no sign of fog so I had left my jacket at home. Once we crossed the KR Puram bridge and got outside the city, the fog started rolling in, it was quite thick near Hoskote, and my glasses were getting fogged up too. I heard at the end point that Manjula got deceived into riding 20 km extra beyond Hoskote, and this ultimately led her to abandon the ride as she was running out of time.

Just before Malur, Ashok and I were chatting and suddenly both of us hit a speed breaker, something dropped from his bike, and my chain popped open at the quick link. I found one part of the link immediately, tried to look for the other one for a few minutes without luck. I was carrying a spare missing link, so popped that in, and continued with the ride. I stopped at Malur for a hearty breakfast with Mudit and Purshottam, while Ashok stuck to his strategy of cycling steadily with only very short breaks for snacks and carried on.

The Malur-Bangarapet stretch was a bit worse than last months 200 Brevet, there was road building in progress, and a few stretches were just gravel, forcing us to dismount and walk. We caught up with Ashok, and the four of us rode along for a bit before we had an unexpected stop. Rafi had stopped at a stand selling Orchard fresh grapes, and all of us feasted on them. The five of us started off at a good pace,with Mudit and I trailing slightly, but I had an abrupt halt 5 minutes later. An oncoming bus swerved into my path at the last moment, deceiving me into thinking that the entire road belongs to the bus, making me jump off onto the shoulder where a jagged stone was lurking, resulting in what is best described as a "Punch Flat" instead of a pinch. I was running at  the full rated 120 PSi, and when I pulled out the tube, it has a 1 cm long longitudinal tear and a half cm lateral tear. Swapped to my spare tube and repacked this one to fix at the next long break, but that proved impossible, the tear area was just too big for a single patch to cover. Sohan had caught up with us when  I was changing the tube, so the three of us rode together

The post Venkaragirikota stretch is where one starts looking forward to the long descent, but there is a series of rolling climbs that really test ones patience, making us kids again, asking "Are we there yet" (nerdy version - scroll down a bit on the page to see the cartoon). The descent when it comes, is an anti-climax, and is followed by two small but steep climbs near Pernambut. We caught up with the rest of the gang here and rolled into the Second control point and stopped to eat some bakery stuff.In the heat of the mid-afternoon, the thick green canopied Pernambut- Vaniyambadi road is very refreshing, and a few of us tried some pacelining in this stretch, and we caught up with Sandeep just before Vaniyambadi.

We stopped for a late Lunch at Mufasas, except Ashok who carried on. Four of us placed our orders, went to wash our hands and as soon as we returned, Purshottams sandwich was waiting for him, the rest of our food came  only 15 min later. Purshottam ate his sandwich, and even offered Mudit a bite. Then Sandeep asked the waiter about his chicken sandwich which he had ordered ages ago . The waiter sheepishly confessed it was mixed up, and Purshottam and  Mudit were no longer "strict" vegetarians. The comedy of errors continued, I had ordered an Omlette without any chillies, and Karthik ordered a regular masala omelette  When the first omelette arrived, we asked the waiter, and he confidently told us this is the chilly omelette  Then he got mine after a few min, and the first bite had me gasping for breath, opening it up showed tonnes of chillies inside. Seeing that Karthick commented, "ah that is why my omelette tasted so bland". Sohan trundled in and asked "what food can I get quickly", and was greeted by a Chorus of  "Chicken Sandwich" and raucous laughter from the gang which baffled him till we explained the ongoing snafus.

The Vaniyambadi -Krishnagiri stretch was done in quick time, two MTB riders Adiraj and Dhruv also joined up with us. We saw Ashok and Sandeep taking a tea break, we crossed the intersection and then we took a break at around 7 pm to meet Gana and wait for Sohan and Karthik to join in. The gang had now become 10+, and we rode the Chinnar/Shoolagiri climbs to Kamat and stopped for a nice long dinner. After dinner, it was 10 pm and the cold hit us like a blast, even the minor climbs to Hosur were proving tough on cold bodies and full tummies, and all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. Struggled to e-City, and from there got a burst of speed, not it was not second wind, it was the nice down slope to the end point reaching around 12:40. The welcoming committee of Sreepathi,Mastafa, Arvind,Vasu and Anita were hanging out with the finishers, exchanged some banter with them till about 1 am when my phone rang , dear wife inquiring if it was 11 pm yet ,which is what I had told her as my ETA before the ride ;-)