Day 1 – ENCOUNTERING THE GIRI’s

After accomplishing our first goal of the day (morning duties successfully over, thanks to water, water and water) and a sumptuous breakfast we headed down for warm-up and our first ride. GMC was flagged off by chikmagalur cyclist Javed Parvez at around 7.20am.

The markings were clear on the road & we pushed our way to ascend the giris. The 7 kms before the ascent itself was slightly steep & so I was pushing & pedaling myself. Usually there is at least one mentor cyclist along with the last rider. Everyday there is one section of the trial marked as race section & it is usually the toughest part. We reached the first ascent of 10kms that was also the race section. Since the mentor cyclists also participate in races, during this section we will not have any mentoring. I am nowhere close to racing but Santosh said it is only for our own timing reference, also for people to win you need to have participants, right 😊. This race track of 10kms was an ascent of about 500m (1125 to 1400m) in a span of 10kms, so the gradient is gradual, not very steep.

All the three girls were ahead of me & I knew my stamina was not as good as theirs. I have seen that in our Nandi practice rides itself & from then on my mantra was “My Pace, My Ride, MY Joy”.  I had to recite this couple of times a day so that I don’t lose heart. To be the last & still not give up requires more mental stamina & I have that J. So, I caught up with Jabeen & Tabu slowly at my pace. They had stopped in between at small trickling streams, were emptying their distilled water & re-filling with stream water.  Then we three cycled together.

Me and my family along with friends had actually trekked from Sarpadhaari to Mullayanagiri & I recalled the path, the view etc., and was able to connect. That is the huge difference between driving up in a car to trekking/pedaling up. Be it a trek or a cycle your pace is much slow, letting you to breathe and digest the path, the trees, the birds, you connect much more with the surroundings than zooming in a car. The race ended at a check post, exactly where we were stopped in our trek to Baba Budangiri. This was our first breakpoint, support vehicle was parked with lemon, cucumber, perks, groundnut chikkis and frooti. Initially I thought why couldn’t the lemon be made to a juice already?  But understood that the purpose was to give us the hydration & not really the taste. Learning to accept that focus is to be on the need & the rest all are extras, bonuses. Support crew had a physio Jaison who was helping Jabeen relax her muscles with stretches, Jabeen lying on the street. During my stretches I realized how helpful they were and how simple stretches can relieve/relax your muscles. Most of us would have experienced the stiff thighs when you suddenly exercise/stress yourself, Jaison’s stretches taught us how this can be better handled.

After our relaxed refreshment, it was a swift downhill which I enjoyed thoroughly. A downhill descend is like flying, flying high away from the ground, with your own energy standing up high on the pedal, speeding away from the world/worries/duties just like a bird taking its flight. I feel the enthusiasm of a kid enjoying his/her swing. Actually, when I checked my downhill pics later I noticed that I am still so close to the ground, am not really high up as I feel, but never mind. I understood the difference between reality and feelings, so in my mind am high up, higher than sitting in a car, open to the environment around me, feeling the air around me.

Here comes the next ascend to Baba Budangiri, another 7km stretch which according to the support crew will be tougher than the 10 K ascend. SV stopped to refresh with some cucumber before the ascend.  But I continued, switched on my music & in 1/1 or 1 / 2 gear was slowly ascending, but thoroughly enjoying. It was slow but who asks to speed up now. The feeling that you are little bit ahead of others also helps to keep you moving without slacking. I was swaying my head to the tunes & completely having my time when I saw SV coming behind. I told her that she should also listen to music, she was not too keen. She doesn’t need all of that, sometimes I keep wondering what keeps her going. I saw a stream & I stopped to refresh when others too caught up & we had a nice refreshing wash-up & refill of our bottle. We took some clicks & proceeded all the way up in our slow & steady pace.

SV went ahead & we three too reached the top in some time. Nishaw was behind us supported by mentor cyclist Rohith. Once you reach the top, when you look back at the winding roads, vehicles pushing themselves up, wow! these were the roads we rode in our bicycle, using our own energy! 

It is fulfilling to look down once you reach a summit however small or large be it. It is always good to reflect the path you have come through without worrying how much is to yet to be scaled. In life too looking down/back when you scale new heights makes you humbler, what an analogy!

We saw Nishaw coming up as soon as we started to descend. Then comes my favorite downhill flying through winding roads with hiphop music ringing through your ears. I tend to stand up during downhill, increasing my flying effect in my hard-earned descent. The feeling of flying amidst mountain ranges, greenery all around waving to all kids on the way is my HIGH. It doesn’t matter I can push myself to enjoy this high, experience this again & again. I have to earn it though, nothing comes for free! All along the way to Baba Budangriri I saw a group of young girls in a jeep who were cheering and waving at us. Their enthusiasm was infectious and motivating, probably seeing us can inspire them too.

We reached the lunch point wherein other riders were all done with their lunch & relaxing.  We gobbled up our lunch, food was ok, but felt tasty, thanks to the appetite. During lunch fellow cyclist Govindarajulu commented that my tires didn’t have much grip, I recalled Opendro’s theoretical explanation on rolling friction vs sliding friction etc., Not sure if I understood his explanation completely to explain to others but just relied on Opendro’s knowledge and assessment. We shared with Santosh on our plan to attempt Mullayanagiri, ride

upto the extent we can. Santosh must have wondered here comes three amateurs riding relaxed, last to ascend, but without dismissing us, he replied “The roads are too narrow, tomorrow is a long day & so I suggest you people to relax & take rest”. Padhu updated that Nishaw and Rohith were ascending one smaller optional climb and hence delayed.

Post lunch was gradual ascend wherein I was trailing behind the other three. We stopped at a nice stream, where we spent a lot of time wadding our legs.

We saw other riders zooming past us, but we decided to take it easy anyways it is going to be a short day. After the refreshing break we pedaled up to the junction where in a few riders took a deviation to Mullayanagiri. We didn’t stop, as suggested by Santosh, and flew down the 10km descent. SV is afraid of, heights/descents & so she was coming behind us. It is very unusual as the tough part is easy for her & the easiest part is tough for her. She was suggesting stopping at a place where in she had spotted a unique colorful tree. Tabu remarked it is probably SV’s idea to slow us down during downhill J. But we zoomed ourselves past Sapdhadhari, past Thippanhalli estate, rolled down to Chikmagalur town, past the bus stand to the hotel. It was around 5pm & we had a refreshing relaxed day of 55km.

We met Nishaw during snacks time and heard that she had a fall during downhill, apparently something flew across, she lost balance and toppled over. Her helmet had saved her head from injury but she had bruises and was shaken. Luckily Rohit was with her and they then got into the sweep vehicle. Downhill fall is quite risky. In our briefing for the next day we heard that tomorrow will be a long ride i.e 98kms of which the first 35kms will be a Malnad flat post which a 15KM ascend (the race section/tough part of trail). Malnad flat implies there will no steep up or steep down, but mixed ups & downs like 1 km slope up & slight slope down – so you should be good with your gear shifts & keep up the pace.

Manjesh (the man behind icycle) asked Nishaw about the injury and how she was doing. She smiled hiding her pain and replied she was fine, all set for the next day. She is a strong personality, I could imagine myself raise a lot of hue and cry if it had been me. We will have to drop our bags before we start tomorrow as we will be shifting to new hotel at Kalasa. Bags will be transferred to the next destination. We didn’t have any baggage stickers as we had proudly used them to stick on our bikes, we didn’t know they were baggage stickers! We aligned and agreed that we have to be fast the next day. Again, the immediate target for tomorrow morning was to finish morning duties just like today.