200KM Brevet ride report_Blore_Sira_Blore

My First successful brevet ride.

I have been into cycling just last year, occasionally I commute to office (52 KM  T/F). Had done 3 century rides before this brevet. The 1st  one in September was to Shivgange hills off Dabaspet ( 119KM T/F), the 2nd was the 200KM brevet held in Nov 2011 ( DNF @ 140KM).  The final one was, ride to Panchapalli dam along with Rajni, Sohan, Chiddu, Deepak, Manjula, Ashutosh and others in Dec 2011( 170KM T/F). After this I hadn't done any major rides except for my office commutes. 

Initially, when I heard about the 1K brevet, wanted to do the 300 KM as it was NH roads and fairly reasonable elevations, but was undecided. Then terrible dehydration struck me 3 weeks ago and I required a whole week +  vitamin injections to recover, had another 1 week before the registrations ended for the brevets. Thought of doing an office commute and see the effects of my ill being and then decide. I felt slightly weaker and -2KM on my average commute speed. I badly wanted to do the 300 KM, I deliberated a lot and then thought better to be wise than heroic and signed up for the 200 KM 

There after, I wanted to commute to office daily for rest of the week as a prelude and gear up for the brevet, but all I could do was a single office commute. 

So, finally on the eve of 200 KM, parked my bike at my friends place in Vijayanagar and came back home. The idea was to start on a motorbike from my place, then reach my pals home and  take my MTB to reach the destination ( 9KM).

On 24th, I woke up at 3:15 AM, got readied by 4:15AM, then left for my friends place and started on my RR 5.1 at 4:45 AM. On the way I encountered a hound of dogs in at least 3 areas. Leave alone barking, they didn't even woof at me. I was slightly scared after reading few threads on the recent dog bites (guess it's my lucky day). I had called Rk the previous night and he had asked me to come to Citibank @ opp HSBC. I reached the said place at 5:20 AM and no one from the IISC were there, I pedaled towards Brigade road junction and saw one more pal coming from the opp direction. We concluded that none of them have turned up. Not sure what to do, started checking my bike for the last time, fixing the bib number, checking the tool kit, puncture kit etc, waited another 15 min before calling up Rk, he asked us to come back to Citibank entrance.

Start Point- MG road - Citibank 

 Shortly, Sreepathi and others came and we signed the wavier form and had our cards stamped. Me and RK had agreed to ride together, I knew that I was not as fast as RK, but still thought I would do at least the 1st 40KM together with this guy. Some 18 members left together from the start point. Just 300 mtrs after start, I stopped at MG road CCD to reset my Cyclocomp, RK and others went ahead.  I caught up with Rk after 3 KM and that was the last I saw him for the day :).  Quickly made it to the Tumkur road and had clocked 58KM by 8:45 AM. 2 bottles of Lemonade and 5 min relax period and I was on the saddle again, on the way saw Vageesh, but he kept a neat pace and was ahead of me in a short time. I had planned not to stop until 90 KM, but at just short of 80 KM, I was tired and had to stop, ate few biscuits as I had not had any breakfast, pedaled for another 3 - 4 KM and found a roadside shackle serving some dishes and bottled water. I also saw an elderly person ( aged early 50's taking part in this brevet relaxing at this stall).  He was a kind person who wanted to offer me Gatorade and other fluids, somehow I politely refused. But he did advice me that I should be having more fluids every hour and should not over commit  myself. I took his advice and asked the stall vendor for cool drinks or lemonade, he had none and directed me to another bakery which was barely a KM away. Pedaled as fast as I could and had 3 bottles of lemonade and relaxed for 15 min, This worked wonders and I could pedal at a steady pace. When I was at 95KM could see fellow brevets coming back in the opposite lane and it was 11:45 AM or so. We exchanged glances and moved on. Finally I was able to make it to the Karajeevanahalli toll gate at 12:28 PM. Few were already resting, Vageesh came in couple of minutes later and I was surprised, asked him the reason and he informed me that he suffered a fall and had a flat tire due to that. I had tea with biscuits and refilled water. I really did not want to have lunch remembering the last 200 KM brevet, had quit shortly after having lunch as I somewhat felt energy drained out of my body.

 Left the control point at 1:15 PM. Vageesh was ahead of me by couple of KMs but, later, saw him on the side trying to fix a 2nd flat. He had a quick check on the tube and it had slit, assisted him for few minutes and continued riding. At 153KM, I reached the Toll Plaza, had 1 more lemonade, stretched myself for couple of minutes and then resumed the ride again. 

Just started to climb the flyover before Siddaganga Mutt, I received a call from my colleague and answered it. 5 min later,  just checked my pockets and was shocked as I could not find my mobile, took a u turn  and went back almost 1.5 KM i.e. to the point where I had answered my call, I could not find it and something suddenly struck me and I checked my saddle bag and lo.... there it was, how stupid of me. Relieved at getting my mobile and cursing myself, I went the way I came and I had difficulty in maintaining the same position on the saddle after 165 KM, so started riding by sitting slightly sideways, standing up on downhill and also for the uphill, I did a 7 pedal count and relaxed each leg alternately for 2 - 3 sec, this method actually increased my average from 11 to 13 KMs and did not tire me too much.

Had another 40 Km to finish and it was 4:15 PM. Took couple of breaks in between and pedaled along, sometimes at 14KM and sometimes at 30 KM down hill. Also wanted to click some pics all along the way, but there was nothing so worthwhile and only the boring highway roads, so couldn't feel like clicking many. Finally, I had covered 207 KM when I reached the last control point. Went to the ATM, saw many ppl queued up, requested few of them and they obliged, quickly got a transaction done and the time recorded was 6:55 PM, felt happy at the achievement, had done the 200KM brevet ride with 35 min to spare. ( May be, I need to better that, but then,  that's part of my continuous improvement plan). Another half KM, I met Nirmal at Hesarghatta CCD, gave in my card and got it stamped. Many of them were sitting around and relaxing in CCD, 

Hessarghatta - CCD

The first thing on mind was to get home quickly, have a hot water bath and hit the bed.

When I did the last 200 KM brevet, there were few things which I wanted to avoid and overcome them

Last 200 KM Brevet	This 200 KM brevet
Had to pedal all the way from home to start point – 18 KM ( I know ppl have pedaled > 30, well this is me)	Started pedaling from my pals home– 8 KM
Reached late by 40 min to the start point	Reached early by 40 min to the start point
Had an improper fit of the handle bars and improper posture	Got a flexible stem and tried to maintain an upright posture all the while
Had heavy lunch which drained my energy completely, post lunch session which led to DNF at 140Km	Survived only on fluids and 1 ½ pack of biscuits. ( This might be body and distance specific)
Breathing through the mouth	Had read a lot on disadvantages of breathing through mouth on BBC forum, also  had felt the difference when I tried breathing only through the nose during the panchapalli ride dam, so continued the same here.

1 crucial lesson I learnt this time is, intake fluids even if u don't feel thirsty and do not over commit ( Thanks to the old gentleman) ... Will Keep this in mind.. :) 


Thanks to Sree and all other members for organizing this cumulative event.


Thanks to RK, Chiddu, Sohan, Ashutosh, who rode along with me for the Panchapalli dam which gave me the required confidence to complete this 200 KM Brevet. ......