In continuance to Rugged Sahyadri Day 1.
Got up real early the next day by about 5 am. Was feeling really good. No sores, no pain nothing. Went out for a stroll. The sun wasn't up yet. The moment I stepped out of my room, I saw the most amazing night sky ever. The moon was shining away in its half crescent glory. And stars, so many stars!! Just stood there in the cold with a dropped jaw looking at the heavens. My morning couldn't have been better. Went and checked out our cycles, the most crucial thing. After a satisfying check I went for a little walk down the road. The resort was almost in the middle of a forest on a mountain slope. Then another amazing thing happened, a big peacock blocked my way. I was like why have I not come to this beautiful place before. Swore to come back in leisure. It started to get real cold and with just a single layer on me I went back and woke up Sushil.
Watched the sun rise as we had a big breakfast of bread and jams. Nothing better to load up on all the carbohydrates we'd need for the day. We oiled up our machines and went for a short warm up ride. The machines worked perfect and so did the bodies and with a morning like that the mind was way ahead and raring to bring down the house.
The start was delayed again. The volunteers who got up same time as us had to be placed along the route which went right up to the historical Pawan Khind. So we had while our time. Me and Sushil sat in the Sun getting baked but it kept us warmed up for the race which could begin anytime. Of about 124 (15 open category) teams starting on Day 1 only 5 teams were starting on day 2.
We were flagged off by around 9 am. Our plan was to stick with the Karad team as finishing with them ensured our total lead. The road started out good for about 3-4 kilometers, on which me and Sushil had to take the the lead and pull the whole group. Kept a steady but hard pace, so that only 2 teams were left on our tail. There was this one time when Sushil was hammering up ahead and the group was struggling to keep up. We were passing through a sleepy village and onto our path came a herd of buffaloes. The bigger ones moved to the side and gave us way, but a super cute little calf, never seen a peloton coming in at full speed panicked and kept running on the road away from us. But we were too fast and no one wanted to stop. Sushil and I avoided it easily, but just as Kshitij Belapure ( from the Karad Team) was about to overtake it, the poor beast slipped and fell flat right in front of him. He just about managed to stop before trampling on its legs. All this happened in about 3-4 seconds parallel to me. Disaster just averted, but we got some earful from the villagers. But the beast was fine (except for a touch of cyclist phobia at such a tender a age). After that we hit the suckiest of the off roading patches. The road was bad,but not bad enough to get down and run with our bikes. So we pushed on praying against a flat tyre. The speed which was breakneck, was now almost down to zero as we negotiated our way through big rocks and ankle deep mucks. It was on this patch I had felt the most urgent need to relieve myself. Although many pro riders relieve themselves while riding, I however had no such inclination. Stopping meant losing a lot of ground on the group which was not letting up. Told Sushil that I had to stop, who told me not to but I dint listen to him. I slowed down and got to the back of the group. Stopped (and never felt so good before) did my thing and started off again. Was back into the group in 10 minutes. No one even knew I stopped, otherwise life would have been hard if they had attacked (i.e they would have hammered and prevented me from getting back into the group). Another disaster averted.
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| Refer to the map above for control names |
Our first check point was near Khotawadi school which was present on the other side of the Masai plateau. This meant we had to climb up towards it. The climb wasn't too tough, so all of the lead bunch i.e 3 teams and 6 riders reached at the same time. After this we took a jungle path down from the side of the mountain where half of the time we had to carry our bikes through some thick shrubbery. Never was I scratched so much by thorny plants before and little did I care for the scratches. We just kept on hammering. Slipped and banged my head on my bike, got a nice lump for that. The woods began to thin out and we came across a flattish countryside with the mountains on our left. We kept to the same path which went to a village. All six of us lost our way for a while where we could not see any marking/flags/volunteers. But luckily someone spotted a flag and we were back on track. Then we approached some dense woods again. The jungle was so beautiful and peaceful and there we were bashing our ways through it. Reached the second control, an old temple situated deep in a jungle, surrounded by huge trees complete with a creek running beside it. Its rustic beauty seemed to be straight out of a book on ancient India.
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| Me waiting for Sushil at a control point in the woods |
Me and Sushil reached there just less than a minute earlier than everybody. We got the stamp and thought that this was the best opportunity to attack, and attack we did. I was in the lead. Took Sushil on my wheel and went crazy. Caution-less riding, getting off only if it was impossibly rocky. Built up a lead of about 2 minutes on the chasers. Now with the lead everything was looking good until there came a fork on the road. Left one climbed up the mountain into a jungle and the right went down the mountain to a village. There were no marking or a volunteer there. So me being in the lead took the right one which was more prominent and well trodden. And in couple of minutes our doubts were cleared when we saw yellow arrows (as opposed to white one that were used all throughout the race) along the route. Our suspicions cleared we raced down the mountain, skirt a village take a paddy field way into another jungle. This is where we get our first puncture. Sushil's rear tyre had gone flat. We put on a new tube in about 5 minutes and I still couldn't hear anyone following us in the quiet of the jungle. All through our way we keep seeing the ubiquitous yellow arrows. We push on asking for Ambewadi while completely forgetting about the unnamed TC-8 in between. About 45 minutes later we reach Ambewadi only to find that there's no control or any sign of a race going on. Sushil tried calling the Race director, no coverage in this wild corner of the world. It was right there in Ambewadi that it dawned to us that we were lost. I realized soon enough that where exactly we lost our way. Sushil was clueless. Amidst all the frustration It was my turn to get a flat. Again I changed the tubes asap as Sushil chatted up a villager asking for directions. We just traced our way back, i knew exactly where to go, but Sushil kept asking some villagers who pointed us towards the main road instead of the jungle path we were looking for. Had a brief falling out moment right there in the village, but we just about maintained our cool and he followed me. And we soon got back on to the fork where we got lost. We had lost almost two hours due to this detour.
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| Team Cosco Fitness from Kolhapur who finished third overall |
Just as how there are no words to describe that winning feeling, similarly there aren't any to describe "to dominate and then lose a race". The word disappointed is not enough to describe how I felt. Just took off my shirt and sat in the cold stream of water near the control. Washed away all the dried blood and sweat. I wasn't even sure if we had made it in enough time even to be second cause we had a lead of only about 45 minutes on the third placed group.
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| The boys from Karad (Sangam Health Club) who beat us to finish first. |
The end control was in the middle of nowhere, with just 3 car full of people. Ate everything my hands could fall on 4-5 chapatis, 2 sandwiches (one of which had a little mold), an apple, biscuits, chocolates and still was not enough. Me and Sushil then borrowed a motorbike from some volunteer to check out Pawan Khind. We dint want to miss out as we both hadn't been to it before. We got lost again on our way to it, obviously not a good day for us.
All those volunteers then joined us at the Khind. Which at first glance doesn't seem much. You have to go right down a about a 100 set of stairs to reach the actual spot where the legendary Bajiprabhu Deshpande had held off the Moghul hordes. Luckily we only had to deal with hordes of water falling down the Khind. Yeah there was a huge water fall. Danced and took pics with all the awesome volunteers who did a very nice job. The race director Akash Korgaonkar was also there.
By the time we left back to Kolhapur it was dark. And we were about 70 kms from it. Our string of bad luck still hadn't run out yet, about 30 kms from Kolhapur the vehicle that was carrying us had a flat. Another hour wasted there, when we were sitting there in the cold, hungry and tired. Finally reached town by 9.30, went straight to a hotel and had mutton in heaps!!. Sushil's relatives who had joined us will never invite me to their place after they saw the damage I did at that restaurant. Then got dropped home and was about to sleep when my cousin drops in and starts an avalanche of questions. I brush him off and slid off into the void. Not caring that its my birth day in another hour, I just shut off my phone and drop dead.
The race was really very well organized and had a truly classic setting to it. The race true to its name gave us a very very rugged experience. I would recommend this adventure to all the thrill seekers out there. Get out and experience the truly Rugged Sahyadris.
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| Me and Sushil with the trophies |
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| Gotta love that Medal |
Cheers
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