Saturday Feb 1
Moving time 4:43 ( should have been 6:30 )
Miles 65 ( shoulda been 91 )
https://www.strava.com/activities/3060989812
Ouch this one kicked my ASS.
Office moved so I’m starting from some random location in the dark at 6:00am.
Outer Ring road is a difficulty 5.10 road and that is where I started. Service road condition is total shit and everyone on the road at 6:00 is deranged. Biking on the left side is correct but this morning almost died a few times when oncoming traffic tried to get on my left side. Completely fucked up start to the ride followed by the service road disappearing or being blocked every mile or so. Did not go through the hassle of loading India maps on an SD card and forgot my garmin mount so I had Garmin stashed in my back pocket which was maxed out with phone, food, bike pump etc.
Got to a road I had previously been on without dying so all good but HR had been super high and adrenaline hangover set in.
Lots of road construction and diversions so this has as much gravel ( and sand ) as a gravel ride. Took it easy on the climb of Nandi paid my 5 rupes to use the public restroom at the top. Super Nandi descent down through all the switchbacks ( ProTip : its more monkeys than dogs ) Purchased two liters of water for the return and headed back into a bit of a headwind.
Tried to avoid road construction by picking a different return route but musta hit STOP when putting Garmin back in my pocket after getting out a bar. :-(
I was starting to fade at 75-80 mile mark. Getting very hot and feet were pounding. Just then I lucked into a great stretch of road with good pavement some shade and traffic was moving nicely. Definitely some bumping-and-grinding going on weaving through super tight traffic with some motorcycles and scooters. Sketchy as that is I get a charge out of that riding. Perfect way to end an epic ride until everyone stopped for a major festival blocking the whole center of town. Police redirected the motorcycles into a maze of alleys so I just found a wheel and slammed it. These alleys predate they existence of cars so narrow partially paved twisting and turning with hoses and drains crossing every 50 feet, popped out right on the desired street. Which was a huge backup of cars and trucks as the road was unpaved and completely destroyed. A few miles of that beat the last bit of life out of me and I rolled into the hotel gate shattered.
Will need to learn how to lock the Garmin for tomorrow’s ride.
View attachment 117820View attachment 117824View attachment 117826View attachment 117828View attachment 117829View attachment 117830
View attachment 117831View attachment 117832View attachment 117833
