Ranebennur Redux :600 Km Brevet Ride Report

Ride report of the 600 Km BRM done on 30 Nov/1 Dec 2013

1:30 PM Tumkur Tollgate. 

Just 50 Km left to the end point, nearly six hours to do it, life was looking good.

BLAST... My rear tyre rolled over a metal shard, and the tube burst with a loud bang. The metal piece had cut a nearly 2 inch gash in the tyre, pierced through the Tuffy tire liners, and cut the tube beyond repair. Took the spare tube, and a rubber patch and somehow booted the tyre. Tried inflating it, and it was bulging badly even at 60 psi, finally dropped to 35 PSI where it was still bulging but somewhat rideable, with the tire liner keeping the tube from protruding out of the gash. Gingerly got on, and watching the road like a hawk, slowly rode on, afraid of even blinking, lest I miss some debris or bump which would mean the end of a long hard ride just short of the finish line. Did not even stop to eat or drink (and another key thing which I realized at Dinner that night), just pedaled steadily like a crazed man, not sure if I was going to complete this ride. Being a Randonneur, I was trying to tell myself "When the Going gets tough, the tough get going" etc inspirational stuff, but what came through in the black mood was "When the Going gets tough, Life gets miserable".

The ride planning started with me worrying about the lights. During the previous weekend Huliyurdurga 200 BRM, my LED headlight had started flickering , and I suspected a loose contact. Given the nearly 2 nights of riding on the 600, I wanted to make sure the lights are not dodgy. So the ride bike prep for this ride started with a strange set of biking tools- Multimeter and soldering iron. Managed to fix the light, but given the hectic work week, could not look at the rear wheel, there were some clicking sounds I had heard couple of times during the Machinabele dam climb the previous weekend, but did not hear on the flat stretch later in the ride. Took a quick spin on friday evening, lights and the rear wheel seemed to be fine, and I was all set.

Eight of us started off on Saturday 3 am, and we pedaled steadily and quickly got to Tumkur, and stopped for a stretch and pee break. After a minute I was ready to leave, Chiddu says "Damn, forgot I am wearing bib shorts, and a Jersey on top", and then had to do a big exercise rearranging his clothing to do his business, while Sandeep,Sohan etc caught up with us. He had to endure a lot of good natured ribbing from the group about the bib shorts for the rest of the ride. As we neared Sira, the intermittent clicking sound started coming again from my rear wheel, I slowed down a couple of times to figure it out. It seemed to be from the rear hub, I was not carrying a cone wrench so was not in a position to open it up and check. I kept worrying about the sound through the ride, it got worse, till Tumkur when the worry vanished from my radar.
Learning- Quit worrying, what  you worry about is not what really hits you.
Second thoughts- Worrying is good - the Lights worked properly, and on opening the rear hub this weekend, I found a scratched Ball bearing, replacing it in time has hopefully saved the hub.

Got to the Hiriyur control at 11:30 where a procession was going on the road . As we stopped at the ATM, we were surrounded by hordes of curious onlookers, most of them had abandoned the procession, to talk to these strange looking characters. We were peppered with the usual questions- Is this a race ? Is the cycle driven by a battery ? Do the bottles contain petrol ? We quickly got our slips and headed off to a restaurant where the 6 of us had a long and leisurely lunch, the highlight being the Shahi Lassi. Post Hiriyur , the group split up, with bunches of people riding at different paces, and taking breaks to cope with the terrible heat and humidity.The Ranebennur 600 is yet another example of a ride made harder by Chiddus Contrarian syndrome. Just before we started , he famously opined, this ride would be much easier than the monsoon ride ( I did that one too, so I have some basis for comparing). Cyclone Lehar and its aftermath proved how terribly wrong he was.Intense heat and humidity, and strong headwinds on the return journey made it comparable in toughness to the June ride, just the wind was in the opposite direction, and we only had to fight our way out to the halfway mark back then. During the ride, in the mid afternoon, Chiddu and I were asking ourselves the usual question, "Why do we do these rides and suffer" with no good answer, till I heard Sheila Dikshit's post election conference statement "Bewakoof hain na".

Just short of Chitradurga, Sandeep, Sohan and I took a nice break under a tree, saw Chiddu and Karthik go past at good speed. After the break, Sohan wanted to take the bypass, I wanted something cold to drink, so I went through the town, and I did not see any of the others till late evening. At 5 I got to a nice looking "Golden Punjabi " Dhaba, stopped and messaged the others, but got a response from only Sandeep who was just behind me. I saw Sohan go past, but he did not hear my shout, and the Dhaba owner told me he saw two others go past while I was washing my hands (Chiddu and Karthik probably). We had a long break over scrumptious Aloo paranthas, Bhurji and Lassi, in true Punjab style. The Dhaba owner had moved here from Punjab 30 years ago, but they have not lost the authenticity of the food, or the dialect, speaking rustic Punjabi among themselves. I told him about my having done some schooling in Chandigarh, and ability to converse a bit in Punjabi.

Sandeep and I and started off at 6:30,reached the Ranebennur control at 8, and joined the rest of the gang for dinner. Karthick and Chiddu took power naps, the rest were just relaxing over the nice homestyle Khanavali dinner of phulkas and sprouts usal. It was a relaxed and happy group, of all the starters, only Ravindra was not there, and it looked like all of us would finish the ride comfortably by early morning since we were a good 4 hours ahead of the schedule, with Karthik even planning to go finish some work in office after the ride.

Post dinner we started off in a group, till the first Dhaba break for Chai and food. After that the group split up. Karthik and Chiddu were feeling sleepy and kept nodding off, and Silvester who was riding with them kept trying to find alternate company, but we were far ahead of them. Sohan, Sandeep and I rode together and took a power nap on the cement floor outside a closed shop around midnight and then continued on. Sandeep and I reached Chitradurga around 3 Am, had a snack at the bus stand, then another Chai break at the Guilalu toll plaza, and on to Hiriyur, getting there at 6. Took the ATM slips, and rode on to Kamat Sira for a hearty breakfast. It was hot and humid and completely sapping doing all the climbs towards Tumkur. I tried a wet handkerchief, it would dry in minutes, but at least it was shielding the face from the scorching sun even in a dry state. Sandeep took a quick power nap by the roadside, I could not, and got spooked by a bus that went pretty close to Sandeeps head, so I hauled him up, and we started off again. Luckily the long downslopes near Tumkur made the pace get better, along with with a cooling breeze, and we stopped for snacks and water in Tumkur just before 1. With plenty of time, we were in a relaxed mood, intending to just slowly pedal in the heat and get done with the ride. Started off, crossed the Tumkur Toll gate and BLAST.....

Pedaling like a madman, I was watching only two things, the road surface, and the number of Km left to the end control. Finally at 4:40 got to the CCD, and realized I had made it, and even more surprisingly, I was the first one to arrive. In the next two hours, the rest of the gang also made it, except Karthik who dropped at Chitradurga, and Ravindra who quit at Hiriyur. Slowly pedaled back home, and got drenched in the rain as I went past Lalbagh, the same rain which had tantalized us with its promise throughout the ride, but only delivered humidity to torture us when we were desperately looking for a hint of coolness in the afternoon slogs, and finally when it came, was an unwelcome cold torrent mucking up my clothes and bike.

At dinner, Son (glad to turn the tables on me) "Papa This is cheating"
Look at you, I am always told "Please wash your face before eating"

The slow slog after booting the blasted tyre was anything but brief,

And I had forgotten to use Sunscreen and my trusty Handkerchief,

No wonder the Sun had given my Nose(Red),Cheeks(Black) a terrible beating.