Tales from the Saddle......: June 2014

Team Lifecycle Racing, Pune’s only cycle racing team did another clean sweep in the Bangalore based Bangalore Bicycle Championship (BBCh) race series. This time the team raced the most prestigious and heavily competed Nandi Epic 100 km race. The team took away all the first four podium places in category 2 with Michael Lehnig taking the first and then after Siddhartha Gadekar, Nakul Singh and Nachiket Joshi filling up the podium respectively.

The Nandi epic is a 100 km race starting to the north of Bangalore near the airport. The route goes all out towards Hyderabad for about 40 kms and then back the same way till a right turn for a steep finish at the renowned Nandi temple situated on a hill at a height of about 1500 meters from mean sea level. The boys were all keen to take on this bull of a climb which the locals dub it as a very tough climb with some comparisons to Pune's kickass Lavasa climb.

(http://www.strava.com/activities/154158795 - Strava Race Profile)

Actual Race Route logged on Strava

Nandi Hill covered in the clouds captured by Chenthil Mohan

The Hairpins of Nandi by Chenthil Mohan

The racing field of BBCh is divided into 2 main categories, Category I and II. A time trial (TT) is carried out at the start of every season and the fastest 40% riders go into Cat I and the rest go into Cat II including those of us who missed the TT. But there's an automatic upgrade into Cat I if the same Cat II rider gets on the podium twice. With only 2 races under our belt, there are already 2 TLCR riders qualified to compete with the big boys of Cat I (Nachi and Micheal) with Sid and Nakul already halfway there with one podium places each. It wont be long before the whole team will be competing in Cat I which had been the teams primary goal.

The Race -

Part I

The race day weather couldn't be more perfect; overcast to hide the Sun's sting and a cool morning breeze. More than a hundred riders had showed up in their colourful race garb at the race HQ. I hadnt seen so many riders since my first road race, (the Bombay- Pune). We had reached the start well in advance to have enough time to fix flats, click team photos, collecting bib numbers, warm up our legs, excrete out excess water that we had been drinking since 48 hrs except for Nakul who was peeing 2 seconds before the start whistle. Nachi even got some socialising done.

Team Lifecycle Racing all geared up to race. Pic - Raghvendra Mohan

The race started with a "mass start" i.e all category riders started together. Mind you we were going to be on the highway for almost 80% of the race route. The traffic was light but was still there, and with a 100 odd cyclists going together even the three lanes were not sufficient. Soon a line of trucks and cars formed behind the peloton which was cruising at an easy 40 kmph. Despite this easy pace some of our TLCR riders were having issues. Sushil had a flat within the first 15kms and quit the race. Sid suffered a chain-fall twice and had to break a lung each time to catch the peloton (which was not easy with the heavy cross winds). From my point of view when Sid had his first chain slip, it looked as if it broke so I thought he was out of the race and nothing I could do to help him. So I dint bother to stop for him. It was not until an hour later that I saw him back in the peloton. Apart from this most of the TLCR riders did not have any trouble till the peloton reached the turn around point even with the certain surges caused by attacks from SKCT and Firefox riders. Wary of peloton crashes in my previous races I was able to stay at the head of the peloton away from any crashes, just behind the leading SKCT/Firefox/Wheelsport riders who were driving the pace.

Riders Taking Up the major chunk of the Highway. Pics by Raghvendra Mohan

Drama at the turnaround point -

The turn around point was kept at a distance of 45 kms from the start, however the peloton made its own way and made a U - turn 5 kms too soon thanks to a miscommunication from a race marshal who was signaling a pothole hazard. With the peloton taking a very fast U turn and then riders attacking at the front it was too late, rather impossible for the marshals to stop the riders. Even I was confused as my odometer said only 40 kms odd had been underway. But I dint let that confusion get in the way, I surged ahead with the peloton and caught up with the attack along with Mike, Sid, Nakul, Nachi and Aunsh from TLCR. The rest of our riders got dropped here. PT had a slip here due to some bad turning. Rohit as I was told later crashed somewhere on a speed-bump just before the turn.

Part II

After the turn around things were heating up like crazy. There was to be no respite. Attack after attack caused a surge so intense that the peloton which had a 100 odd riders was now split into a long line of scattered cyclists, many riding alone into the wind desperately trying to get into the bunch. A fierce attack by one of the Trek-Firefox riders caused a two man breakaway. The bunch after that contained about 10 riders including Michael, Sid and Nakul. I had a vicious cramp when the speed surged, so I couldnt stay with this chasing group but settled down to the third group containing me, Nachi and Aunsh. Other TLCR riders could not be seen. Even cruising with this bunch was getting difficult for me, both my calves were cramping severely every time I tried to hammer. So I had to settle and just survive the race, however even that was getting difficult. There was a sudden attack and I could not bridge the gap and soon found myself getting dropped by even the third bunch. The distance between me and the bunch went to about 100 meters and I knew things were not looking good for me at all. The race just took a turn for the worst for me when a female rider actually caught up to me and settled on my wheel. I just could not believe it!! This female was holding up with me even when I was hammering at 40kmph to get back into the bunch. That was the motivation I needed to get back into the game. Legs screaming I stood up and gave everything I had and this is what it took to get me back into the third bunch, finally shaking off the female rider. I found out later that the female was one Vicki Nicholson a 50 plus rider from Bangalore who finished first in her category by slamming her closest opponent by a whopping 28 minutes (Earned Respect and a fan, Vicki, if you read this).

Back to the race, I had now managed to get back into the bunch which had 2 of my team mates (Nachi and Aunsh). By now only about 2-3 kms remained until the race turned off the highway towards the Nandi Hill. I thought it'd be easy going now, but another cramp and I slipped from the group. This time I could not catch up to them again. I just about managed to keep them in sight. But even that became difficult once we turned into Nandi. After the turn I started to feel good, the cramps stopped and I went into a real high cadence spinning. I soon hit the twisting uphill road of Nandi and crossed many riders who could not handle the climb. This gave me heart and energy to hammer up with more speed. I wasn't even going all out and still crossing riders left and right. Soon enough I caught up to Aunsh who looked broken and was struggling to remain on his cycle. I could have overtook him and finished 2-3 minutes earlier but I knew Aunsh had a better chance to the podium. So I took him on my wheel and shouted encouragements. Boy did that work!! The transformation in the 15 year old boy was magical. He found his legs and started going for glory. We crossed the finish together. I just collapsed after the line as the cramps took over of my calves again.

Aunsh (in green) on the Under 18 Podium

Cat II Podium Painted Green!!!

(Click here for ---> Official race Result)

The pain of losing soon overtook from the cramps. With all the hardwork and training I could not perform better due to silly muscle cramps. Going home without anything to show for very very disappointing for me. However, this pain was soon masked as I learnt that TLCR had got all the first 4 positions on the Cat II podium and Aunsh making it to second position in under 18 Cat. I finished 6th in Cat II and 22nd overall. PT finished fifth in the masters category, meanwhile the rest of the TLCR riders finished within the 4.5 hour cut off time.

Despite the loss I came back with very invaluable race experience, a weakness that I need to work on and the success of the team. We had definitely made an impact in Bangalore. A big thanks to all our sponsors - Lifecycle Mall, On the Run bars, Uberactive Ventures and to all the supporters mainly Sunil Chatekar, Neha Lehnig and Priyanka Dhende who came all the way to Bangalore for helping us race. Also deep gratitude to AC and Michael for helping us train the right way and motivating us. Last of all a big THANK YOU from the team to Nachiket Joshi without whom this wouldnt have been possible.

Cheers.

About 2 months ago some of Pune's best road bikers finally came together and started training together. Sid and I were trying to get this started since a year. At the core of the group was Sid, me, Nakul, Apurv and Mahesh. The training rides were sparked by the use of the app strava. The chance of getting on the leader boards and being the KOM motivated everyone to get up and train. And before we knew, the rides have became a habit. Everyone showed tremendous improvements in their cycling. I always knew Nakul and Mahesh as a fairly average weekend riders, but when I actually rode with them, I was baffled at their tremendous improvement.

We were joined by the youngsters like Aunsh and Rohit, Michael the awesome triathlete from Germany as well the veteran PT. And soon enough we were raging all over Pune and its outskirts on our shiny new roadies. Then as you'd expect with testosterone high males, we started our own "pirate racing". The friendly competition provided another huge boost for everyone to train and improve themselves. We were doing so good that we even managed to awaken the long dead cyclist in Nachiket. He too started training with us, and with hardly any miles under him he went on to grab a podium at Bangalore Bicycle Championship ( BBCh) . It was he who proposed that the whole group should take it up a notch and go down to Bangalore for the Criterium held on 17th May 2014.

After The First Pirate Race

The criterium or crit is a race held on a small closed road circuit which is usually flat. And the race is run by time and not by distance or laps. The Cat II race lasted for 45 minutes with riders doing multiple laps of Bhartiya city circuit of 1.4 kms each.

With hardly 2 weeks in hand, we started our interval training for the Crit. These hardcore sessions were very consuming on the body. An hour of interval training in the morning guaranteed that I slept in office. The week before the race was spent on total resting, I used the bike only for commuting. Everyone was nervous and anxious for the race. On the Thursday before the race, we got Vinoo Chari's awesome pickup to transport the bikes. We managed to fit in 5 bikes on it and the rest 3 went on Mahesh's Polo. Thursday evening and night was spent in wrapping and loading the bike, which was a very stressful and tedious and thanks to Sunil, AC and the LC staff who helped with it. AC gave a tactical briefing which as always proved invaluable for us.

Bikes Getting Packed for the 900 km journey

The road trip to Bangaluru was awesome as you'd expect from a bunch of young men. Everyone we passed on the way gave us bewildered looks. You dont see a pick up carrying shiny bikes everyday. Gotta love Vinoo's car for that. With hardly 5-6 stops we reached the southern city by 8 pm. Thanks to Brijesh Nair we had an apartment to stay in Bangalore, but Nacho failed to mention it was unfurnished, so the boys had to stay and sleep like animals. Saturday i.e the race day started a bit late. I had spent the night comfortably at my grandparents house. Met the boys hogging on a carb laden breakfast of idlis and dosas. Then back to pillion and rest till noon. It was also the birthday of Apurv "the Hulk" Verma, so the age old ceremony of cake smattering on the face was carried out.
The Bhartiya City circuit was at the other end of town, it took us 2 hours to reach the place. Barely 2 hours before the flag-off. It took us almost an hours to assemble the bikes. We hardly got any time for warming up. Someone had took down my saddle and since its height wasn't marked I could not get the saddle height to perfection and had to race in an uncomfortable position.

Road Trips aren't complete with group pics at every stop

The Race -

The race began on time despite the rain gods showing up to watch the race bringing along heavy winds and water. It was going to be a wet race, a big concern while cornering. Once the under 18 and women finished their race the cat 2 riders took to the line. We were just about to start when I hear a shout to stop the countdown. It was Mahesh who was struggling to zip up his jersey over his one mile broad chest. In his efforts he broke the chain and was momentarily shirtless till Aunsh got him a replacement. In that moment we could hear whistles, shouting and even a woman cheering him to race topless. Poor Mahesh was red with embarrassment. However it dint last more than 2 minutes and we were soon on our way.

Being Salman!!!

The wet roads proved to be a downfall for all the inexperienced riders including me. There were shouts and skids even as the peloton reached the very first corner of the race. It was here that my leader Sid fell behind, so I fell back to get him back into the bunch. I did manage that but in the process sacrificed my own race, as I couldn't stay with the bunch after riding in the wind. My cornering improved with every corner I took, but it was too late as I was first amongst the team to get lapped. It just wasn't my day, I tried hard to get back but the wet corners, improper saddle height got me out of the race. By that time the peloton had split up into a long trail of struggling cyclists. Only 4 cyclists remained in the front bunch of which 2 were from TLCR viz Nachi and Michael. It was heartening to see them controlling the race. The rest of the boys were scattered all along. Sid who struggled with the corners was the second to get lapped behind him came Apurv.

Mahesh had surprisingly held himself till the last 5 minutes until he too got lapped. Now only 7 people remained in the whole race. Sushil and Nakul from TLCR were now working together to remain in the race and they did just that by finishing 6th and 7th. In the last 2-3 laps Mike and Nachi broke away from Opendro Singh (Team Cleated Warriors) to comfortably seal the 1st and 2nd positions respectively for Team Lifecycle Racing.