Ironman in Making

Ironman in Making
Target - Ironman Zurich 2016

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Trekathon Win

After months of training for the Rugged Sahyadri race in Kolhapur, I had one last week to prepare before the race. So me and Sushil were thinking of doing some light running and tekdi climbs so as to be ready for the race. But then a last minute decision led us to take part in this "Trekathon" (trekking +marathon) race held on 25th August. We did not want to do it at first as it meant blowing off all our steam too soon. So Sushil and me decided to do the amateurs category of the race, which was just 5 km short of the open category. 15 Km in total of which most was rolling terrain!! The race route was all through the nature trails of Hanuman tekdi, vetal tekdi, Pashan tekdi, etc. I had never done these routes. I was a little doubtful because, I wasn't much in touch with my running. Lots of cycling and no running. But Sushil on the other hand has been a runner all his life. Anyways, we think it would be good training for Kolhapur. 

Trekathon Publicity Poster
The race start was from NCL (national chemical labs) Pashan. Reached early as usual and realized that its gonna get delayed as the volunteers themselves hadn't turned up yet. It took them 2 hours to get their act together. Was hungry even before the race started. Met Divya and Prashant (fellow cyclists), who were gonna do the whole 25 km in the open category. Also met Hiren Patel, fellow cyclist who just became the first and only Indian to complete the London-Edinbugh- London, a 1400 km ride, in 100 hours. He was in my category as well. Tough dude that. 
  

(Left to Right) Sushil, me and Hiren Patel

 Just before the start of the race me and Sushil started to warm up. That's when we saw some pros, man they were all scary runners, the army-men with their buzz cuts n muscular legs, the national runners who were mostly countryside folks were typically dark skinned and extremely thin with powerful legs. Most of them were doing the half marathon. The open category guys started first. Then we started at about 9 am ( the scheduled start was 7.30 am). We were supposed to run to the real start point which was about 1 km from the gathering point. We were given a swipe card to present at each control point of which there nine in total.     

The Gathering Point (NCL Amphitheater) 
  
As soon as we started the runners were faced with a climb. Me n Sushil did short work of it. We got about a 30 second lead right there. No idea if we were faster or the other guys were slow but sure as hell all that training was showing its worth. All was well until the first control point. Then things started to go south for us, especially me. I have had this asthma like condition since I was a kid. Not a full blown asthma, it attacks rarely but it hits hard. The last attack I had was about 7-8 years ago in my twelfth. So my bronchi (air vents to lungs) dilate and its difficult to breathe even when I'm at rest. Now Imagine you are running top speed up a steep hill and you were told to breathe only though a straw the size of a needle. Yes its that bad. 

It stuck me right there when I was climbing up. Breathing became heavy and laborious. Sushil turns back to look at me and he's surprised! I am covered in sweat, all red and very very uncomfortable. He's like what the hell happened to me. I mean we had hardly even getting started. I dint tell him anything , just told him that I couldn't breathe properly. I still manage to maintain a steady speed which was getting harder and harder after every step. Two teams overtook us. Hiren's team had the lead now. behind them is some other team. I dont remember much of the race after this. I just know I kept running despite and my lungs screaming out for air. I remember the road being very very uneven, twisted my ankle once, fell into a ditch once, my new shoes were biting into my inner sole. Yes I was in pain. I recall I kept looking back to check if anyone else was gonna overtake us. No one did. We three teams had put up a good a lead. Meanwhile Sushil was doing all the work of getting our control card swiped and stamped. He kept his cool and motivated throughout. Slowly I started to get used to that wheezing, the pain and the lack of oxygen and told Sushil to increase the speed. Soon we overtook the second place team. Hiren's team still remained just out of reach. We kept seeing them around the corners. 

Sushil left me, caught up to them and found out that both of those guys were stuffed as well. He told me to pick up the pace just a little bit, but I could barely maintain the one that we were doing. I just couldn't go any faster. One of the control points was up on a steep hill. I got stuffed there. I mean I was almost crawling, using trees to pull myself up. It was embarrassingly pathetic of me. It was very frustrating because I knew I wasn't tired or anything, it was just the lack of oxygen slowing me down. Cursed a lot. Never had I wished for my inhaler more. Such bad timing. Only because that I did not want to let Sushil down, did I keep going. Every inch of me wanted to give up. 

Then out of nowhere I saw Hiren's back. There was only one control left now. An easy flat plateau to the control , a small climb after that and then a nice downhill to the finish. I was contemplating coming second and how pissed Sushil would be. But try as I might I couldn't go any faster. Still we somehow managed to close down the distance to them. Hiren too was looking in a bad shape. Then we came across a fork in the road. They took right despite left being the correct way. We had come the same route before. So we go the right way and reach the last control before any other team. Sushil had already started celebrating, now we ease up a bit as Hiren's team are nowhere to be seen.        

The rest of the run we keep a steady pace making sure we are not overtaken. Completing the race comfortably in the first position!! Hiren's team arrived 10 minutes later then the rest. Took me about 20 minutes to recover my breathing. Then had a big Rs. 500 worth ka 12 inch subway (extra cheese, extra chicken, extra ham, extra turkey). 

Trekathon Result Sheet

Hardest 15 kms of my life, the climbs made it much more difficult plus the highly uneven trails and the punishing pace we set.  

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Training Session. Pain in Pabe; Torture on Torna

On the holiday of 15th August I had planned this training session with Sushil my Rugged Sahyadri team-mate. Will be competing along side with him for the first time. So we had to do a rigorous ride to get size each other up n gel as a team. Was carrying a 12 kg bag to simulate race day. All this in preparation for the Rugged Sahyadri; an enduro style race in Kolhapur. 

We met en route to Sinhagad. Started off steadily for about 40 minutes till we got warmed up then I took the lead and started hammering. Time to show Sushil my prowess for sprints and flats. 

There are 2 types of cycle racers, 

1. Sprinters (like me) who are heavy and powerfully built, we are fast on the flats and long easy climbs. We can go super-fast on downhills as we remain stable due to our weight. What we suck at are the climbs.

 2. Climbers (like Sushil and Sid) are small n weigh very less. Due to their lightness they can go up those steep heavy mountains as if it was a nothing. They can gain a lot of lead if you let them easy off on the flats. They suck just as much while coming down and cannot keep up during long flat sprints. 

So I hammered him until Pabe ghat. A very very deadly Category 2 climb. As soon as the climb started Sushil hammered up and I lost him among the hairpins. He was on a much lighter hybrid cycle plus he was a climber. Beat me by 3 minutes to the top. The climb was killer, an indication how merciless today's session was gonna be. It was extra hard with that heavy bag on my back. 





 
Archive photo of Pabe Ghat
Hammered through the beauty of Pabe Ghat


Pabe Ghat
Pabe Ghat top (Archive)


The descent was sweet and the flat road towards Velhe (base village of Torna) acted as a nice recovery patch for us. A small breakfast at the village. We were just in time for the flag hoisting ceremony where the entire village had gathered. Sang the national anthem. And then up we went towards the Fort. Cycles we locked up in the village. 



We were practically running up the steep n slippery slopes. Another killer workout.was covered in sweat and pain in 10 minutes. And on top of all this me and Sushil were wearing 1Kg ankle weights on each of our feet. Man every step i took I wished I had never gotten out of the bed. My heart was ready to explode any minute. Everyone we overtook was amazed and we heard comments like, "crazy army people" "look at their legs" "but we started way earlier, how did u reach so fast?" "we overtook u while cycling on our motorbikes" etc etc. was so out of breath to even reply to them. Almost gave up, but then I saw Torna's main door. Couldn't slow now. Sushil who was always one step ahead of me and slightly faster kept egging me on. Reached the top and almost puked blood. I could taste is at the back of my mouth. 

Steep climbs of Torna

Jacked I was. 10 minutes recovery walk n jog on the fort and we started going down as fast as we could. 
Passed a lot of people who couldn't believe our timing. Some thought we dint even reach the top. But we egged on as fast as the slippery terrain would allow us. Lost my balance n slipped twice n fell on my soft bum. Dint hurt myself (fortunately), reaching down took us same time time that we took to go up. had a real nice chicken thali at the base. Hogged like a pig. One hour break, before we had to tackle the other side of Pabe ghat, which was longer and steeper than the side that we climbed while coming. 




                                          Me and Sushil hogging after climbing down from Torna

So full we were (2 extra helpings of rice) that the climb was next to impossible. Plus the heat was also unforgiving. No cloud cover. Legs were protesting and stomach too. felt like the chicken was gonna come out with every hairpin. Kept on however till I reached the top. This time I almost was able to keep up with Sushil. This had taken everything out of us. The rest of the ride back home was slower. We were too tired to hammer. kept a steady pace till we reached Sinhagad base. And then we had another short but fast interval ride where we were speeding at 40 kmph until our legs hearts and lungs gave up and we couldn't take anymore. 

Reached home battered and completely done. Achieved our our aim of getting "jacked like a work horse". A nice 12 hour sleep and I am feeling strong!!! 

Total- 

90 kms of cycling and 10 kms of trekking in 6 hours. With one hour of rest. 2790 feet of total altitude gain. 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Enduro Glory Part IV Of Great Strengths and Plum Cakes!!

The trek back was what everyone was thinking of when we were descending. Now we were faced with the terror of actually climbing it back up to where we had parked our bikes. The journey from the village to the start of the ascent was a tricky one and easy to get lost. Just when we thought we had lost our way we see lights coming from none other than Sid’s team. They were a good hour and a half behind us. But they had saved us twice already now.  Greeted them and soon we started to climb. It was here that Padi and Nachi both got rogered. They even have a heated argument on which direction to go. So now I am almost carrying Padi to the top. Somewhere midway to the top Nachi gets so bonked that he can’t take another step and I was feeling absolutely, perfectly strong and fine.  So I take his big haver sack and put it onto my front side. So now I have Padis small backpack and my big and heavy haversack (on which hung all our 3 helmets) on my back plus Nachi’s haversack in front of me. Despite the added 30-35 kilos I had no problem in climbing and carrying Padi to the top. Both the Joshi’s were really bonked, I mean they were even slower than me with all my load. So strong and determined I was feeling that I finally make it to the top with the siblings in my tow. On our bikes again we retrace our tired n sore arses to Mangaon. Here we were notified that if we reach Thangaon in the next 30 minutes we would actually get a 30 minute bonus off our time. However the distance between the 2 villages was about 11 kilometers through some pretty heavily rolling terrain. We reached Thangaon the main base camp of the organizers, taking 45 minutes or so. It was dawn by the time we reached there.
At the camp the teams had to select one person from their team who must swim in the ice cold waters of the Pashan lake. Naturally It was me, being the best swimmer. Stripping down to the bare essentials I swum straight across the small channel and came right back instead of walking all the way around back to the camp. The swim really freshened me up but flared up my saddle sores and scratches. All teams got a compulsory 3 hour break at the camp. The Joshis dozed off immediately without further ado. I however roamed around the camp and talked to some pretty volunteers. Wouldn’t have woken up if had slept. About 2 hours later Sid and his team arrived. Padi had packed a nice big plum cake for us to eat. We took it out and started eating it, which surprised everyone because even the volunteers were running low on food and there we were gorging on cakes!!! Hahahaha, boy were we happy. A little pre mature celebration.  
 We had developed a nice cushion for ourselves. Now the finish point was only about 1-2 hours of comfortable riding. We knew if everything worked out fine we were going to win it. We had a little scare when Padi’s bike got a flat, but it was well within our rest time so we quickly took care of it. We were interviewed by one of the TV NEWS crew while on it. Nachi quickly did the rifle shooting and we were soon off.  We were taking it easy on that ride and were soon caught up with Sid’s team who were fighting for the second place with the third placed team. Rode with Sid for the rest of the way. Reached the finished at around 10 am and that’s it !!!! We had won the only adventure race in India!!! We had won the Enduro!!! One of the most difficult races!!! Many even fail to complete!!! We had done it in 22 hours!!! Despite everyone doubting us!!! There was Santosh Pawar who had come to receive us at the start point, had a quick lunch there and got dropped home by Aniket Mahashabde. Slept for 24 hours straight.

Both Teams of Lifecycle!!

Making Faces on Local TV!!

Team Lifecylce Racing acknowledging the crowd!!

Dedicating this blog to Padmini, one of the strongest girls I've met!!

Thanks to Lifecycle, Joshi family,Ashok Captain, Santosh Pawar, Sunil Chatekar and all others who helped in supporting us for the race.  

Cheers

Enduro Glory Part III Of Beautiful Sunsets and Yucky Waters

Reaching the top of the mountain was a great bliss. Severely exhausted we threw ourselves on the ground. Just before I sat down I had a severe cramp on my left forearm. My fingers were getting clenched all by themselves; I could not stretch them no matter how much I tried. It hurt like hell. I just sat there for 10 minutes until the muscles relaxed and I could stretch my fingers again. I had almost panicked and thinking of quitting at this juncture. This had never happened to me before (as I had never pushed myself that much before). Here we met a local who told me about this secret water hole just off the path. While the other 2 rested I ran off with him twice, thus filling up my whole stomach and all the other reserves with water. If it wasn’t for this we would most likely to quit here.
Now on top of the mountain we were supposed to tread with our bikes on the narrow ridges towards the 3rd control at “Dighi Top”. So we keep following other competitors as overtaking or riding wasn’t possible. Here we cross Prashant Tidke and his team from the open category. Prashant is desperately riding with a punctured tire. At one point the path moves away from the ridge and starts to descend down from our left side. I have doubts about this route, because the control was supposed to be at the top of a mountain. So I climb on a small hillock and notice another route that leads to the control point. I shout and alert all the others who were blindly going down the wrong path. Later I came to know that it was here that Sid’s team had lost their way. So trudge back to the right path and arrive at the control. Here we find out that we are the first ones to report from our category. This was very encouraging.

Sunset From Dighi Top

Dighi Village as seen from the top

 It was time to leave the mountains and start descending. I wasn’t sad to leave them but I was definiltely going to miss the beautiful scenery from the ridge, especially that of Raigad, Lingana and Konkan Diva fort all together painted in golden hues by the setting sun. I promised to myself to come back in leisure.
Riding our bikes down the mountain was definitely a pleasure after all the hiking. But the roads weren’t exactly paved, lots of sharp rocks were scattered along the dusty, uneven road. The lights came on as the sun set and soon we reached the lakeside village of Mangaon, another check point. Now it was total dark with no moon to guide us. We had to rely heavily on our lights which thankfully were brighter than we needed. All three of us now were going real strong with only slight complaints about sore bums n backs. However, water was still hard to come by. We could not risk going down to the lake as it was very dark and no path could be seen. Fortunately we came across a small pond with water still in it. It looked all green with heavy algal growth but that did not stop us from drinking that water. Yes we were that desperate. Even filled up the bottles.

Continued in Part IV

Enduro Glory Part II How we almost Quit


We were still preparing the day before the race. All the stuff was divided into two haversacks. Padi’s stuff was divided into mine and Nachi’s bags. She was supposed to ride without a bag so as to keep her going strong. On the race day morning we all gather at the meeting point which is the Kataria High School , Mukundnagar near Swargate. We were flagged off by Raj Thakeray with dhol and tashas playing on both the sides. That was awesome, going though an arc of supporters, fans and dhol players.

Me, Nachi and Padi just before the flag off

 We cycle for about 3-4 kms till Mhatre bridge put all our bikes in the truck and go to the start point which is about 40 kms from the city; just outskirts of Panshet village. Lifecyle’s other pro team consisting of Ludmila Lamont, Sushil Dhende and Ashok Captain were also with us. All the guys jumped in the truck and enjoyed what was to be a rough and bumpy ride. The girls (Luda and Padi) were following us in a car.

On the way to Kadwe (Start Point)
Its noon by the time we reach the start point. Everyone is reaching there one by one and crowding the little village which hardly gets so many visitors. Plus all of us in bright and flashy cycle clothes n gears must’ve been an alien sight to the natives. We were going to up a show for them. We had a little lunch and the race started soon. It was a staggered start, with only 5 teams being allowed to start every 5 minutes. So our plan was to stick together no matter what, we did not want Padi to lag behind us somewhere. Just about 2 kms after the start we hit what I think a category 3 climb; long and hard, made worse by the hot sun bearing on the riders. Nachiket the leader put up a steady pace which even Padi kept up. She was strong on the bike, better than most girls I've seen. What felt as a slow progress I found out that we were stronger than our competitors who were getting dropped by the dozen. Nachiket wanted to push up the climb to gain a good lead, so I started giving Padi boosts which was taking a lot out of me, the cat 3 climb had started to feel like a big ass category 1 climb. Despite this all three of us never got of the saddle and were one of the first teams to reach the top. We pushed on never stopping towards our first control point, a village called “Vihir” after descending the hill.
Took the right on the fork and pressed on. We were now pretty much settled in our saddles now and doing some nice progress through the countryside. On our right side loomed the big mountains and on our left loomed yet bigger mountains. We passed through jungles and ravines. The raod wasn’t bad at all; it was paved for the ST buses to ply through. But this was only until our next control point at a village called “Ghisar”. It was about 3-4 pm that we reached there. We were now running low on water. We reached Ghisar and could see the control point volunteers about 200 meters ahead. I saw a lady offering water to us but our leader Nachya told us to press on, saying that we will find water at the control. We did not. I had to run back to refill our rations. This annoyed me more than it should have.
After this the route became more n more like a trail and we started going back up a mountain. This is where the bike and hike section started. Most of the terrain required us to carry our bikes on our shoulders and climb. Padi with a sore shoulder had diffculty pushinng the bike up the slope. So me and Nachya had to go up a little, dump our bikes and come right back down to carry Padi’s cycle. Every step we took caused a rapid spike in our heart rates. It was tough, making though the dense shrubbery, against gravity, slipping a lot, scratches everywhere all along with extreme heat. To make things worse, we lost our way right at the start of this bike and hike section. We could not see other competitors or the footpath amongst the bushes. It was all hopeless until after a bit of wandering we accidently stumbled upon the path when we saw our competitors from our category going ahead of us. They were none other than Siddharth Gadekar, Avanti Biniwale and Nikhil Shah. Frustration was apparent as we realized that we had just blown our lead. These guys were one of the strongest contenders to win. I did not lose my cool and tried to encourage my disheartened team mates. Me and Sid kept bumping while overtaking each other. Both the teams now neck to neck were pushing real hard. The hill was unrelenting, we were dangerously low on our water rations and we were nowhere close to the top. The To keep up with Sid’s team I had to work extra extra hard by pushing Padi and constantly going back down to get her bike. As if the pain and heat wasn’t enough me and Nachya were preventing ourselves from exhausting our last water reserve so that Padi wasn’t dehydrated. Lack of water and getting lost and overtaken took its toll on us and we slowed down. We had to stop several times to sit and recover. Never did we leave a teammate behind. Padi was trying beyond her normal capability and showed great determination to continue even though any other person in her situation would have given up. Sid’s team was not to be seen. They were clearly better prepared than we were.

Continued in Part III

Enduro Glory Part I Prelude


Before I begin my rambling about the race, I would like to introduce you to Enduro3 adventure race. 

Held once every year, it is one of the main attractions of Pune. The route is changed every year but the general area and finish point is same, being Panshet. Sponsored by National Education Foundation the race is claimed to be one of a kind adventure race in India.The race mainly has team participants of 3 persons whihc can consist of all men, all women or mixed. Apart from it there is the open category which is the longest and the hardest. Then comes the amateur which is not as hard as the open category but still poses a lot of challenge. Then there is the corporate, family, kids categories. the race encourages female participation by offering highest price money to mixed categories. More info can be obtained at the following link - 


The decision to take part in the race was as spontaneous as deciding to eat out on an evening. It was contemplated about for a month but never considered seriously by me or Nachiket. It was on the insistence of Padmini just before 2 hours to the close of applications that we decided to participate in the amateur category. Thus Team Lifecycle Racing was born, thanks to the sponsorship of Lifecycle Mall.  We would be a broken team, as all of us were recovering from injuries. 

I was recovering from my knee injury from the Mumbai – Pune race that was just 2 weeks prior to the Enduro. Nachiket had a bad knee as well and Padmini had a sore shoulder. Except for Padmini the only female member from our team, nobody else had done the race before. Nachiket and I were both been until recently sweating it out on our roadies. We were totally out of touch with our MTBs. Padi too wasn’t in touch. I had anticipated doing the race a month before and had trained alongside Ludmila, climbing Sinhagad with our bikes on our shoulders. That was plain crazy, carrying a 15 kg bike awkwardly on your shoulders and negotiating your way up the steep slopes of Sinhagad that too nonstop in about 45 minutes.

Sinhagad Training with Luda

Anyway with hardly any time to train as a team before the race, we sit and discuss logistics and strategies for the race. An evening with the Captain came a long way in preparing ourselves. Me and Nachya went and bought stuff for the race just 2 days before the race. Cleaned our bikes and made sure everything was ok. During all of our team meetings our main objective was to not get lost and at least complete the race that was the aim. Winning we hadn’t even considered. We were just going to give it our best shots. Little did we know that we were going to win the damn race.





Monday, August 5, 2013

50 th Mumbai Pune Race. The Pain Bringer!!!


My first ever cycle race was the 3rd Pune Bicycle Championship in the October of 2012. It was a hill climb of about approximately 12 kms.  Out on my just 20 day old MTB I managed to finish among st the top 10. Knowing where I stood was a real eye opener. I started training every day after that. The tour to Goa was child’s play even after riding 100 plus kms for 5 consecutive days.  There was the 400 km brevet in December which was tough but I felt I should increase the difficulty level a bit more. So then I was thinking of taking part in the historical Mumbai – Pune race which was to be held on 13th February 2013. Problem was, I did not have a road bike until exactly 3 days before the race. It was Dad’s idea to take part in the race.
 Now with the sparkling new cannondale carbon 6 under me (but no mileage with it) I went to Mumbai along with Nachiket Joshi. He was a great help in providing me almost all the help right from race logistics to jerseys. Sunil Chatekar was almost like our Team manager providing the car support.  Nachiket n Sunil had taken the car along with our 2 bikes ahead of me to Mumbai. I joined them later in the evening of the day before the race. Spent an hour checking our bikes n tires for the right pressure. Then nachya got our race numbers, which we cut em n put em on our jerseys n bikes in the most aerodynamic ways as possible.  I borrowed nachya’s Tour of Nilgiris jersey. Slept in early, after a heavy dinner of spicy chicken curry. Couldn't sleep for abt 2 hours, too anxious for my first National level race.



The night before. All set for the race. 56 - Nachi, 16- Me


Woke up early and left for the starting point, Gateway of India. The race was supposed to flag off by 7. We reached there around 20 minutes early. And the site there was impressive, the sun was just coming out if its shy morning form, but rarely do you get to see so many pro riders gathered in one place in India. It was a bit intimidating for me, the riders, their bright jerseys, their even brighter rides!!! The atmosphere was that of a tensed crouched up tiger, all awaiting to explode with their bikes. So we quickly assemble our bikes n wait where all the riders had crowded. Nachya as usual went off greeting his contacts. Then we waited more for the chief guest (Chagan Bhujbal) to arrive who was as usual late. He came, gave a brief speech, posed for photos on a poor competitors’ cycle (ruined the settings on the bike).  Anyway we were off soon towards chembur which was 20 km from the gateway. This was the neutral zone, meaning the timing is not included in the race, its just a warm up for all the riders. Took us about 40 minutes to reach the actual start of the race (R K studios, Chembur). I ended being right on the first line at the flag off. The race starts and even before I realise there are guys attacking left and right, like full throttle. Keeping up with the lead bunch was impossible for me. So I settle myself with the second peloton. The pace was still gruelling at around 37kmph but I hung on with the 25 odd bunch. It was my first experience riding in a peloton. It was scary, the riders were sledging and intimidating others. They even tried to push weaker riders off the road. I was focussing myself to keep cool n fighting to be in the peloton. Well I mean I never had a chance to win, but the experience was proving to be very worthwhile.
 After about an hour into the race just before Panvel, someone ahead of me slipped n crashed and with him he took down 10 others including me. I saw the crash happening about 20 feet ahead of me but keep in mind we were riding at about 35kmph on inch wide tyres. Avoiding a crash wasn’t an option, slowed down as much as possible n crashed into someone s rear wheel. Then as I was in midair falling, someone crashed their front wheel full speed into my left knee. And that my friends is the end of the race for me. I mean i couldn't get up for 5 minutes, the pile up was crazy. Everybody intertwined like crazy. Somebody eventually helps me up n then I feel the force of impact on my knee. Its gone, intense pain when I put pressure on it. Without giving it much thought I pull out the pain killer spray, apply a generous dose while riding. So now I knew I had lost a lot of lead. So I find some stragglers and stick to them. Riding gets very painful and each pedal takes a lot of effort but i don’t let up. I actually get into full speed trying to catch up to the second peloton, but I guess the guys must’ve attacked just after the crash. And before I realize I am at the dreaded khopoli ghat. I hit the wall, coz i had drained myself completely trying to pursue the peloton. The climb was pure torture for me, just after the first hairpin I fall off my bike holding my knee. More spray and I continue to climb the infamously steep Khopoli ghat. I am sticking to the wheel of this thin guy who seemed to be a good climber. Halfway up I get to see the familiar faces of my race supporters. Surprised to see Nachi there, as he had quit 15 minutes into the race, due to mechanical problems. 


Nachi waiting for me on the Khopoli climb, notice me clutching my wrecked knee

There was Sunil, Kedar Tokekar who had come all the way from Pune to provide me with water throughout the race. Nachya showers me in ice cold water, I put more spray, get full bottles of water all without stopping. Also get a bottle for my climbing mate as I think Id be needing to pace with him till the end of the race. Climbing the ghat was very very painful with the damaged knee. It had started to bleed a bit too. Dint give a damn about it, wanted to complete the race no matter what.


A little respite from the heat
 I reach the top and there are nice people offering water, so I get another bath and head towards lonavala. No more climbing now, the rest 60 km was all nice n flat. Being a sprinter this suited me, I soon left my climber mate behind to settle at a steady 36-37 kmph. The knee had just gone numb, no feeling that it was even there. I could see people giving up the race all around me. I keep going and pass a huge group at Talegaon. After the Khopoli climb I lose my supporters, they miss me going past them and had to complete the rest of the race without any water and other support.
Had to ride the rest almost alone. The winners must have had already wont the race by now. I arrived almost one hour later than the first guy (Omkar Jadhav), who did it in 4 hours n 12 minutes. But it was a battle won for me, my fight with myself for not quitting would help me become a better cyclist. Anyway I found Dad at the finish line, who took me home. Ate whatever lil I could. I was feeling like throwing up. And slept for 20 hours straight.  
The moral that I learnt that you cannot get race experience no matter how hard you train. Riding in a peloton is a whole new level of cycling. Road racing takes a lot of courage and is not for the faint hearted. You cannot win (or even complete) a race like this all alone without help from your fellow riders and supporters. I am determined to bank on this experience and come back stronger next year. 
Again I owe deep sense gratitude towards my fellow riders Nachiket Joshi, Sunil Chatekar and Kedar Tokekar for their support during the race. Also Kaushik Bhalerao for supporting on his motorbike.

Cheers


My Baptism to the Religion of cycling

A little insight on how I got the keeda to cycle. 

My time in Australia, led me to a lot of cycling mainly for the purpose of commuting. There were weekend trail rides but never more than 50 kms. I did a bike maintenance workshop with Cannondale (hence my affection for Cannondale cycles), they also introduced me to some really awesome mountain bikes and terrains to ride them. This was the spark to ignite the cycling passion in me. Sadly, I had to leave my adopted country for homeland!!
  
Back in India, I was looking for a job and applying for PhD was getting boring and monotonous. There was nothing much to do apart from that. So to keep in shape and get over the boredom I started doing medium distance cycling in the September of 2012. I bought myself a kickass MTB, the Cannondale Trail 5 29er. With her extra large wheels and alloy frame shes built like a tank and can take hits like no other. Everyone meet the mile-eater "baby", yes that's her name. 


Baby, at the base of Tikona fort, on one of my 100 km rides.

 I was just another newbie cyclist while trying to distract myself from a bad break up. Cycling was the perfect medicine for me, did wonders to my physical as well as mental health (saved me from depression). I started randonneuring (long distance cycling), touring along with weekend getaways.
My first “long ride” was up Sinhagad n back. Took about an hour to climb it. Came to know later, that it wasn’t really that bad for a newbie cyclist. Next week went to the dreaded Pabe ghat n down the other end towards Velhe and came back to Pune via the Khedshivapur using the highway, a total of 117 km in 10.5 hours (with Parikshit Kulkarni).

At Velhe, base village of Torna fort. Torna can be seen rising exactly behind me. 

  It was something I never even dreamed doing and I never got so tired that I had to get down from the bike. These rides led me to do the 200, 300 n 400 km brevets. My first brevet the 200km; the lavasa lonavala loops, finished it in a strong 10 hour time. In  a month I had improved my cycling a lot.
Then there was also the "tour of Deccan" from Pune to Goa. It would prove to be my first ever trip to Goa n that too on a friggin cycle!! The route was to use all the coast hugging roads along konkan. It was a five day tour with 40 other riders young, small n old!! The tour involved cycling for about a 100 kms everyday for 5 days. It got tougher by each passing day. Saddle sores were showing up and the roads got worse as the scenery got more beautiful.

With all the Tour de Deccan riders at Guhaghar beach

With the going getting tougher each day, many fellow riders started to quit cycling and preferred to sit in the back up vehicle. But me with a very selected few other riders including Ludmila the Russian who I met for the first time on the ride, never quit and completed the whole tour without getting into the back up. Reaching Goa was a bliss. It dint take me long to realise that I was’nt really bad at cycling. Along with all the encouragement from my new found cycling buddies I started to think about taking part in races. 
My first ever cycle race was the 3rd Pune Bicycle Championship in the October of 2012. It was a hill climb of about approximately 12 kms.  Out on my just 20 day old MTB I managed to finish amongst the top 10. Knowing where I stood was a real eye opener. I started training every day after that. The tour to Goa was child’s play even after riding 100 plus kms for 5 consecutive days.  There was the 400 km brevet in December which was tough but I felt I should increase the difficulty level a bit more. So then I was thinking of taking part in the historical Mumbai – Pune race which was to be held on 13th February 2013. Problem was, I did not have a road bike until exactly 3 days before the race. It was Dad’s idea for me to take part in the race. Managed to finish in a strong 5 hours despite a crash and injuring my left knee. Later on a podium on the 4th PBCh and a win at the Enduro put me forth as strong rider, got a lot of respect and was a force to reckon with!!!
 One great aspect since taking up cycling was that I managed to inspire a lot more people to take on cycling seriously and manage to mentor a few youngsters, who might be the racers of tomorrow.
I owe a deep sense of gratitude towards Nachiket Joshi, his family, Divya Tate and Ashok Captain for the cyclist i am today. 

Cheers