Kottai 200 Brevet Ride Report : The Ad Hoc Train

Kottai 200 Brevet Ride Report : The Ad Hoc Train

I was huffing and puffing up the slope, in granny gears when I saw the Sign. I was stunned. Maybe I was hallucinating , but on second thoughts, hallucinations happen on the second night of sleep deprivation on long rides, not on a mere 200. Maybe I had misread due to the sweat pouring into my eyes. I turned to the other 3 venerable members of the Ad-Hoc train. They could see it too. On a 7 % gradient up-slope near Rayakottai was the board

 " Go Slow. Dangerous Curves " 

 I gasped out "I am trying" , while Sunil quipped " I am just trying to go, damn the slow". 

I have been lazy about writing up the rides lately, restarting after a years gap so many of the 2014 memorable rides like the Yellagiri 400, Anchetty 200 are missing. Hope to be more regular this riding season.The Season starter Kottai 200 ride fulfilled all the criteria I have for a prefect brevet ride: scenic route, pleasant weather,good food and great company. It is a beautiful route, with good road surface, and we were fortunate to have cloud cover till 10 am and after 3 pm. I had a great set of people in the Ad-Hoc train, with lots of interesting conversations, and ample breaks to enjoy the view, and the eclectic menu items like farm fresh peanuts and tamarind of the trees.

The start was very smoothly managed by the organizer and volunteer group of Sandeep,Anita,Arvind,Sohan and Karthik, with some nice innovations around queue management. The 78 riders were processed smoothly,and we started off on time.

When the ride was announced, one group decided to do a super quick ride in 50 % of allotted time, and called themselves the Superfast express, with plans to have no halts, and just slowing down to eat on the go. As expected, the immediate rejoinder to that effort was the announcement of the Super Slow IVC special train, which promised to stop every hour for Idli/Vada/Coffee. And then for the undecided there was the WTF express. I had no plans to join any of them, but luckily I fell into my own Ad-Hoc train.

The big bonus for me was riding with the ad-hoc train,which as the name suggests was completely unplanned, we all started at different times, we came together at Hosur and then rode all the way to the finish chatting and reminiscing of the old times.The Gang consisted of Chiddu,Mudit and Sunil, ,it was a lot of fun chatting and riding together, all of us have roughly the same pace and outlook on riding and enjoying the scenery. Thanks guys for the great riding company and stimulating conversations. 

Bangalore -Krishnagiri was a fast descent , got to the control at 8:45 and had a nice breakfast of fluffy idlis. Then we rode past the lovely Krishnagiri lake, with a fresh cool breeze helping us make good progress on the gentle climb towards Rayakottai. There were fruit orchards on both sides, with papaya, cheeku on the trees, and some lovely flower cultivation patches of Dahlias too.The Tamarind Tree lined stretch  was like the Pernambut part on the KGF300 , it brought back interesting memories, I have finished KGF 300 the last 3 years with each of the ad-hoc train team one by one, and we had a good time chatting about some of the details of the rides. 

Rayakottai- Bevanatham was a bit slow, with the sun coming out, and the road being patchy in a few places. A few village kids very kindly offered us peanuts, freshly pulled up from their fields. It is always amazing to see the zest and joy kids show when they meet riders, it cheers up the lot too. We took a nice long break at the Bevanatham board control at Noon, with some hydration, snacks, and stretching. One bad side of the brevet riders who were ahead was visible, trash strewn below the board, clearly left by the riders: Gatorade sachets, Juice tetra packs, Cake wrappers. Amidst the debris , Chiddu also found a pair of Sun glasses ! I do hope we riders are more conscious of keeping these beautiful rustic routes in the same pristine condition we have enjoyed. Starting after the Bevanatham control, we came to the Hill, about 5 minutes later. We were debating climbing the hill or not, given the blazing sun, the  decided to drop the idea. But the debate then triggered another welcome halt of 30 min (barely 5 min after a 20 min halt !) at the base of the hill.We saw some mountain goats clambering over near vertical rock faces. There were a lot of tamarind trees, so we plucked some tamarind and ate them with generous doses of salt. I also put some in my bag which I gave to Sandeep and Suman Paul the amazing guy, he turned up to cheer the riders at end control despite both hands being fractured.

We were expecting some climbs after the initial "board one" , and kept looking out for the climbs, but somehow they did not materialize. After a while Chiddu became the "bored one" and started complaining about the lack of climbs. Sandeep who riding his first brevet, and was on board the train at that point said, " Look at the splendid views etc" . Chiddu tried the best to brainwash him saying " Boss, yeh scenery etc sab theek hain, but to enjoy the brevet it has to have some meaningful (read painful) climbs". 

Post the break started the "This part of the route is Influenced by IISc", experienced Bangalore Brevet riders will know what I mean ;-) Mercifully it was a short stretch , and we rolled into Denkanikottai at 2 pm. Took our ATM slips, and since we were not hungry enough for lunch, had some Curd, Egg Puffs and Juice. The cloud cover was back by then, and we had a quick ride to Sagar juice junction in Attibele by 3:30 PM. Had a round of the juice ,we actually looked up the cue sheet to ensure we were having the recommended one. The final stretch was unusually traffic free given the Karnataka Day holiday, so we had a peaceful ride to the end control by 5 pm.