Deccan Cliffhanger Ed 3

Route : Pune – Mahableshwar – Satara – Kittur- Belgaum - Goa

Distance : 643 kms

Time Limit : 32 Hours

More than 50 participants.

Background 

The Deccan Cliffhanger is an ultra-distance cycle race starting from Pune to Goa. It is a qualifier for the Race Across America (RAAM) which is a 5000 km race in the USA. In ultra races every rider has to have a crew car behind them all the time to provide food and water as they race. In 2014 I had set a record for the fastest Indian to win this race.

Having won this race last year, I was going confident into this one. I had learnt from the mistakes of the past year and was ready to smash my own record. Here is an account of how the race went for me. 

Its amazing how fast the year went by. It only seems like a few days back I set the DC record in 2014. It was a comfortable win, but his year it was nothing like that.

With My new "Lady"

Malhar Moghe

Monish Deshmukh

Sushil Dhende

The Preparation –

Mistake number one I did was start too late. My prep for the DC did not start before 4 months from November. It was only after my US trip for RAAM did I start training. And as I found out later it just wasn’t enough for the results that I expected. I had put on 6 kgs in a month in the US. Standing at 76 kgs in July I started to get into my training zone. Cleaned up the diet, and 5 days a week training rides. Lost the 6 kgs and was back to my normal 70 kgs in a month. Lost another 4 kgs with strength training at Multifit and was a solid 66 kgs on race day. My lightest in a decade.  

I had my Crew ready 2 months before the race. As always Sushil was there who crewed for me last year. Monish and Malhar were chosen after a tough selection process. They were all briefed and trained and knew what to expect. These guys were the best crew in the business and I was happy to have them.

The New Sponsor Jersey

 Michael announced that he was going to take up the DC challenge and I knew I had my work cut out for me. It wasn’t going to be smooth sailing like last year.  Mikey being my coach I was annoyed as to why he was participating in a race which I was working so hard for. Nevertheless me, Michael along with Apurv were training atleast once a week for DC together. Looking at our training it was clear that three of us were going to share the first three positions. Mikey with a strong racing background and experience was anybody’s favourite. Apurv just back from his 1200km Paris-Brest- Paris ride was in great shape and was flying ride alongside Mikey. I too had a few tricks up my sleeve which I kept reserved for the race day. 2 months before the race day were one the toughest ones I have been through. The training was hard, the diet was bland. Sleep early and get up early. No dates, no parties, no movies.

The Race –

Setting – 7^th Nov 2015. Pune

After a nervous night I woke up at 4. Malhar was already up; loaded the cycles and within 20 minutes we were off. We reached the start point a bit late. The café nook was abuzz with excitement at 5 am!! It was dark but the eerie glow of all the cycling blinkers made it magical. We were told to line up with our cars. As I was the last to be flagged off I was right at the back almost about 200 mts from the start. As we got ready, we actually did not realize as the front riders began to be flagged off. I only realized that I had to start when I was about to go on my warm up ride, that they told me to line up!! I was not ready at all. I had only one glove on, no proper lights and my crew were completely unaware. I told somebody to call my crew. Monish came running and he had to go back to get the Control sheet. This delayed me by about 5 minutes. It was not a great start.

Without warming up I had to start off slow and steady. Thankfully it was a long race and this wouldn’t cost me much. With some fast easy pedalling I got into my rhythm.  Starting last was a great advantage, as I didnt have to worry about riders coming up behind me. I set off like a predator on a hunt with an evil smirk on me. I was so well prepared that I knew it was only a matter of time till I caught up to all the riders ahead of me.

It was not even 15 minutes into the ride that I started picking up the stragglers. Another 15 minutes and I hit the first climb of the route – “Katraj Ghat” and I passed a few more riders there. One of them even kept attacking me by accelerating ahead and blowing up on the climb as I overtook him steadily in a minute.

 

On the way to Khambatki 

Then began the long flats till Khambatki. I was on “Lady” (Fuji Transonic 2.9) my new bike that I had bought about a week before the race. She’s perfectly aero and sleek and is amazingly fast on the flats. She was the wild card. I was taking a huge gamble to use her in the race without much riding on it. But I needed her if I ever fancied myself beating Michael. I had no chance on my old bike.

 As soon I reached Katraj Top, I took off all the extra layers on myself which was keeping me warm in the dark. The brisk climb  had warmed me up and now I needed the aero tri suit to do its magic. I put my head down hands on the tri bars and down I zoomed at 45-50 kmph towards Mahableshwar. And soon enough I started to pass some of the race elites. I found Sumit Patil just before the Khambatki climb. Which was surprising as he’s one of the fastest Ultra Cyclist of India. Catching him so soon wasn’t expected. He’s attempted RAAM in 2013.I got to talk to him and his 2016 RAAM plans. I passed him too as we headed into Khambatki which was filled with trucks causing a jam. As I snaked through trucks and cars I lost my own crew car in the jam. I was worried as I couldn’t wait for them and I was already running low on fluids. I kept ploughing on however. No time to waste. They dint catch me until I reached Wai. I had Gaurav Yadav’s crew to thank who helped me out with water until my crew reached me. It was here the first team of Arham and Vedant passed me. Good strong lads who I had a privilege to train.

 

Sushil running with me up Pasarni

I had a good feeling as I went into the Pasarni climb. With a steady pace I started climbing; careful not to blow myself too soon. I could see Gaurav just 10 paces ahead of me, he saw me coming and that seemed to have perturbed him. Everytime I went ahead he accelerated and attacked. These boys need to learn it’s a long race. And soon I was past him only to stumble upon Apurv !! I did not expect to see him so soon. I had been training with him and Mikey and they both dropped me on that very climb 2 weeks before the race. He looked in a bad shape and could barely talk. Sushil was running beside me as I passed him, I told Sushil to spray some water on Apurv too. Anyway I soon sped up the hill without any more drama. That was the last time I was to meet any solo rider. I knew I had yet to cross Major. Srinivas. I was pedalling as hard as I could at a sustainable pace and still couldn’t catch him. Satara passed and Karad was coming ahead on the horizon, I was getting worried as I still couldn’t catch the Army man. My instincts told me I had passed him but my crew insisted we never passed him. It was later into the race that I found that I had already crossed him unknowingly as he had stopped because he had overhyrated and had an upset stomach.

I had my good friend Kshitij Belapure who came on his scooter to meet me as I was riding through Karad. He helped me last DC when he helped restock my crew car through the race. I also had Vaibhav Belgaonkar to cheer me at Kolhapur. It’s amazing to have such friends who’ll come and cheer you in such a long race. I got updates from him that only Mikey was in the front. That gave me a little relief.

Just a little after Karad (about 350 kms) I suddenly slowed down from an average speed of 30 kmph to an average of 15-20 kmph and I could not understand why. At first I thought I wasn’t eating or drinking too well. But I was still slow after getting in some calories and fluids. This went on for 2 hours, as I crawled into Kolhapur. That is when I realized that my back and legs were hurting and getting strained because of the super aggressive positioning on my new transonic. Immediately I changed my bike to my trusted old warhorse and the speed difference was obvious. Everything was right with the world again. I was back at my target speed of 30-35kmph.  But this delay had cost me. Because when I crossed Belgaum I saw Michael was already on the return leg and had put a lead of atleast 45 kms on me. There was no way I was going to catch him now. This is where I committed another mistake, I relaxed a bit. I thought since Apurv was not in good shape and Mikey too far ahead to catch there was no point in going all out and keeping hurting. Little did I know that this would backfire. As I was reaching into the Kittur control (turnaround point) I got a word from Pranaya (team relay rider) who caught up to me that Apurv was coming in hot and is only a few kms behind. This was a jarring wake up call.

I got my head down again on my aero bars and started up the hurt. No more mistakes now. As I went out of the Kittur control I saw Apurv barely 2 kms behind me. I was into disaster control mode, all hyper and focused. Trying not to panic. It was not fun, suddenly I felt like I was the one being hunted down. Beast mode was on!!

Reached Belgaum faster than I expected. It was here where 2 more teams caught up to me. It was fun racing with them for a while, but I couldn’t hold on to them as we started into the climbs of Chorla.

Before Chora I made a brief stop at the Belgaum control point which was managed by the Firefox store. They were open throughout the night serving warm tea and sandwiches. By this time I was tired of eating just chapatti rolls and gels. The newly got sandwiches were a welcome change to the palate.

As soon as you get out of Belgaum you hit the Chorla ghat. It’s a very deceiving climb. Because you don’t know when it starts and when it ends. It keeps going up and down. All this in the middle of the night through a dense jungle. Although this time I knew what I was going into. Every turn and climb was expected, so I got out of it without any drama. I actually enjoyed meeting this old foe again. On one of the descents I hit a rock in the middle of the road at high speed. I managed to stay on the bike but my rear wheel got a flat. I changed to my old bike again till Sushil repaired it. My older bike was a little heavier than the new one, so I was slowing on the climbs. Nevertheless Sushil got my new bike ready once I hit the top of Chorla all ready and prepped for the downhill.

The chill, the winding turns and no pedalling was making me drowsy as I sped down into Goa. Even though I knew Apurv was hot on my tail I took my first break. I took a 5 min nap in the car, which was enough to get my mind back to alertness. It was all easy sailing into goa where I met upon PT’s team. I was riding with them for a while but then overtook Baban never to see him again in the race. I was vary of Goan roads as they were in a very bad shape the last time I did the route. But it was a pleasant surprise to see them all repaired and smooth. There was still 60 odd kms to go. I was feeling great as I was inline to finish just under 24 hours. But that was not to be as there was some confusion in the route and we ended doing a 10 km patch in circles. This really pissed me off, I was screaming at my crew because I knew for sure now that thanks to this delay I had lost an hour easily giving away my second spot to Apruv. As soon as we were back on the right route I started to Hammer it, I had really lost it. And pretty soon I came across a car in the distance which very much looked red in the eerie glow of the night. Thinking it was Apurv I was ready to attack him but then as I got closer I realized the car wasn’t red but it was white and belonged to the two person relay team of Rohit and Manesh. I asked them and was relieved to know Apurv was behind me. I relaxed a little and tried to enjoy the pretty goan roads. We soon saw the sun rising from the bridges and backwater bays of Goa. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to finish before the sun got in.

With the Crew at the Finish 

But that did not matter much. As the finish point came near,I put on my pink wig and crossed the line in style. I had enjoyed the race thoroughly even if everything did not go as plan. I had shaved a full one hour from my last year’s DC time and was still the fastest Indian Ultracyclist (Michael being a German). I clocked in 25 hrs and 40 minutes while Michael cracked it 22 hours. 

Big thanks to my coach Michael whos moulding me into the athlete I am today. This race couldnt have been possible without Aniket Mahashabde and the whole Cymour team. Also I am indebdted to Samir Kapoor and Sally Jones from Multifit for sponsoring me for this race.