Mysore!

It was three or four years ago that I saw a bunch of cycles all marked with yellow reflective tape. These were the cycles used by a group of Institute cyclists to ride to Mysore! At that time I had no inkling that I would be going the same route.

June 26 was the day long selected for the bicycling club's epic journey to Mysore. Epic because it was to be a two-way trip. That's 300 km of bicycling in a single day. And not your regular 300km either, since this involves some significant elevation changes as seen in this elevation profile of SH-17.



I'll spare the suspense and say I (and two others) did only one way. Three of our best cyclists did however do both ways, finishing in a total clock time of about 21 hours.

We left Bangalore in at about 4AM, heading towards the Mysore Road near Kengeri. This is a familiar route, having done it for the Manchanbele Ride and BBCh 2 as well. It is mostly downhill from Bangalore to Maddur (87km), and so we maintained a reasonable pace. I hit Bidadi (40km) around 6AM to strains of M S Subbalakshmi playing out of the local temple. This was also our first mini-halt, and I caught up with the leaders who weren't that far ahead. Ten kilometers later, we hit Ramanagaram, famous for being the site where Sholay was shot, and we headed towards Maddur, which being our halfway point was selected as a good place to stop for breakfast.

We were still benefiting from the downhills, so we reached the Kamats restaurant near Maddur at around 8AM. Two rounds of Idli-Vada, a couple of jugs of water, and 50 min later, we were off again. I don't know if it was the effect of idlis, or a gentle downhill, but for the next few kilometers I cycled in the best of form -- high gear and reasonably high cadence. Until we hit the outskirts of Mandya.

Uphills are the worst nightmare for cyclists with Headwinds coming close behind. And Mandya had them both in plenty. The uphills were not steep but they were long, and headwinds kept pushing me down. The downhills were too small or non-existent and headwinds made it hard to get up to any speed. The leaders were also pulling away farther, and my high-gear climbing strategy was slowing me down terribly. Ultimately, the distance between the leaders and the guy at the last of the pack (me!) was about 30 min! But the climbs were taking their toll on everybody, and we started stopping frequently for coconut water.

My butt was sore, knees bursting with pain, and aching muscles all over my body. It was perhaps at this moment that I decided that I'm not going back. Climbing back up would have to be done another day.

We hit Srirangapatnam, about 15 km from Mysore, at about 12.45PM. We stopped for about half an hour, and resumed our journey towards our final point -- the Mysore Palace. Originally scheduled to reach at 12PM, we were clearly over our time budget. When our scattered group finally hit the Mysore Palace, it was 3PM before we could get all the people together at one of Mysore Palace's many gates. So there we were, 10 hours later and after riding every millimeter of that 150km, finally at Mysore!

The Tongawalas at the gate had a lot of questions for us, where were we from? Was this a race or a rally? A lot of comments on our cycles as well -- "gear gaddi". Sadly, though, we had no time for sightseeing or stopping for much rest. I quickly swapped my bicycle with a friend who was returning, and we headed out for a quick lunch at a small place opposite the Central Bus Stand. From there, the three took off at about 4PM, while we took the Volvo back from Mysore with our cycles stuffed into the lugguage compartment.

Our bus caught up with these three at around 6PM or so. They reached Ramanagaram at 9PM, and finally the Institute at 1.40AM. Apparently everyone along the route had heard of them!

I'm not sure I like these kind of trips, rushed as it turned out to be. Maybe if I get better at cycling, I'd enjoy them more, but till then I'll probably stick to slow tours.

And perhaps in a sign of increasing endurance, my body was nearly okay the next day.