There were some lame celebrities who gave some lame speeches and we were off. It was a neutral start, meaning the race hadn't started yet but we were gonna do a ride around the town to the actual start point which was outside near the base of Jotiba hill.
They let us go in group starts. Me and Sushil were in the first bunch. Our main competitors got to start 10 minutes after us. This was bad because they would have the advantage of knowing our speed across the whole course. They would be able to check our arrival times at each of the check points on the route. There were around 13 checkpoints on the first day 70 km route.
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Route Map of Day 1
Note - Refer to this map while reading for ease. |
Right after flag off me and Sushil pushed on the accelerator so that most of the crowd was lost on us. Only 2 teams kept up with us. The college kids on roadies were fast, we barely managed to keep up with them. But soon enough we hit the dirt. We had to go off roading around a small lake. There were huge grass growing on the paths so going was slow. Sometimes the bikes came to a jarring halt after encountering a boulder. One of our pursuers tumbled head over heels after bumping onto a huge rock. Some patches required us to carry our bikes and walk through deep mud. We went steady never going too recklessly fast or too slow and were the first to reach the first control. After the control there was another 2 kms of heavy off road tracks. There were volunteers at every turn so getting lost wasn't a concern.
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| Off roading along the lake |
Soon we got back on the tarred road which was a relief only to get hit by our first climb. The famous giroli ghat that goes upto Jotiba temple. It was nothing as compared to some of the ghats we trained on. Soon we crossed the second check point too. The roadies zoomed past us on their lighter bikes. Thank god they weren't in our category. After more climbing we reached the top (3 darwaze) and started our decent from the other side towards Panhala.
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| Me and Sushil leading the way on Giroli Ghat |
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| The Steep climb to 3 darwaza entry of Panhala fort |
This is where the off roading section began. We had to climb down steep rocky terrain along with our cycles. Nothing was easy. To maintain our lead we were pounding all the time. No stopping to take a breath. The terrain was so rocky me and Sushil both twisted our ankles at least 10 times each. My ankle is still a bit sour. Plus the pedal of the cycle kept banging against my lower calf. Man it was painful. About an hour of descending, we finally came onto a proper road. Never felt so good to see a road before. Rode for about another hour over rolling terrain towards Masai resort, which was going to be our end point for Day 1 but not we had pass it twice before we finish. Again We were the first to reach. After passing that control we had another big ass climb which put us on the most beautiful plateau (masai plateau) I have ever been on!! For a while all my pain vanished, the scenery was just unreal. Vast plains covered with beautiful white n blue flowers. It was a pity I couldnt relish it properly. We had to ride through these beautiful field of flowers for about 1-2 hours towards the other end of Masai Plateau towards Masai temple. It was here that I found a small worm wriggling inside my shoe. Dunno how it got there, but we did go through ankle deep mud and water.
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| Riders on the Masai Plateau |
After crossing Masai mandir we had to descend down the plateau towards a village called Kumbarwadi. Mind you all this was off roading, not a hint of asphalt or tar anywhere. Felt myself getting hungry, gulped down a couple of sandwiches while still riding hard. The road after kumbarwadi was worse!! Couldn't cycle at all. had to hoist the cycles on our shoulders and trek for at least a couple of hours. Man!! my shoulders took some banging that day. Just outside Pishvi village which is cradeled in a dense jungle on a mountain slope a huge 5 feet jet black cobra slithers way too fast on to my left leg and then away from me. The snake was gone before I could say "Aichya Gavaat" (which I did shout out). My heart beat had shot up like anything. One of the most scary moments of my life. Without stopping we reached Pishvi and reported at the control. I had then started to doubt myself. Why am I doing this? What if the snake had bit me? But the bumpy road down from Pishvi to the main road made me forget those stupid doubts.
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| Off roading section |
Another moment of euphoria to reach the main road!!! But this wasn't the end of woes for us, because by now we were pretty much tired with all the constant hammering and we thought that we'd have had a comfortable lead on the others. We also could not observe anyone else following us. After another hour or two of riding we reach Khotawadi school. Refill our water rations and get going, no rest. This is when the going got tough. Both of us were winded. Now stood before us a huge mountain that we had to climb all the way back again to get onto the same height as Masai Plateau. All that descending now hard climbing!! It wasn't easy. I wanted to stop and rest with every pedal. I just kept saying to myself that losing wasn't an option and beared away the pain. My back, my lungs, my ribs, legs neck they were all protesting. Our pace was as slow as a snail in that ghat. It was very demoralizing that last ghat. Every time you thought you had reached the top there was more to climb. What could have been 40 minute climb in normal state took us about one and a half hour. We were stuffed. To my surprise Sushil the strongman too was showing cracks. A small descent after the climb and we were on a flattish road towards a village called Sanjivani. I recovered real quick, however Sushil was stuffed . I had to pull him all though all the flat road till we reached one last off road section. We had to climb all the way up-to the plateau. Another hour of trek with cycles of our shoulders. Every step was hard to take. Very low on energy we were. At the top we had to take a tar road which led all the way down to Masai Resort. But this wasn't the end yet. We had to drop our cycles here and trek up a hill report at its top and come down to end our first days race. So we run up the hill at least for 10 minutes (relieved to get rid of the bikes) till we got stuffed. Then we crawled our way up to the top got the stamp and descended to another side of the mountain. Had to run towards Masai resort check point to stop our clock. Did that and just sat there on the road. Resting, breathing, cursing ourselves back to recovery. It was in exact 11 minutes did the second team arrive. They were the Karad boys. They had started ten minutes late. So we had just one minute separating us from the, at end of Day 1.
We were disappointed as even after all that hammering, led to a lead of only one minute. Those boys were real tough. Keeping up with us even after 3 flat tires. We fortunately had none. Did some stretching and then laid down with my feet up against the wall. This helped in recovery of my leg muscles. Then had the most epic dinner of all time. They were serving masala rice and curry. Only if hunger could be described in units!!! I was hungry in the range of a 1000 tons, a million kilometers, 1000 megawatts. I have never eaten so much before , surprised myself with my appetite. Must have eaten at least 1.5 kg of rice in a period of 2 hours. Don't ask where it went. Cleaned up the bikes, had a talk with our fellow racers. Lots of cycling tales were exchanged, it was fun. Everyone was tired and slept off early by around 9.
Cheers
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