Bangalore Bicycling Championship 2 –Race to Nandi

…and within a few hours of landing in Bangalore, I was busy spreading word about the new Giant in town, when I was casually drawn into RSVPing an ‘yes’ to the second leg of the Bangalore Bicycling Championship (BBCh).
And that is how, one day before I was to be engaged to Shreya,
“Main Uske Upar Tha,
Woh Mere Neeche Thi,
Haathon Mein Haath The,
Pairon Mein Pair the,
Please bura maniye,
woh sirf meri cycle thi”
Wah wah!! And Wah wah!!

The plan was also to pass on my Firefox Roadpro to Bharath (who was recently won the duathlon & has a PB of 18:33mins for a 5k) & Samim picked me from Hebbal at 6AM.

The race was to start from the Coffee Day near Jakkur at 7am and I had never ridden with BBC before. Although I knew there were 60 registrations, it was another thing to actually see them on the service lane opp. to Coffee Day. Everyone was kicked about the event – there were last minute topping up of air, bikes being fitted together, pleasantries being exchanged, photos being taken and some even doing initial warm up laps. While all this was happening, instructions were given over a loudspeaker as we all piled up at the start line.

We started at 7am, I had no drafting or pacelining whatsoever, simply wanted to try the climb on my new baby and ride back home. There were race marshals (members volunteer to be out of the race to help organize the chaos) at the highway turn off point (17km) and at the base of Nandi hills (31km). I did fairly well on the flat stretches. I averaged 33kmph before the turn-off and 25kmph after the turn-off to the base.

But it’s really the climbs that separate the wheat from the sheaf. While I struggled after about 5k into the climb taking nearly 43mins to ride up, Dipanker who came in first, climbed in 25.5mins!! Nevertheless, it was the maximum I have been on saddle on the Nandi climb and I have happy to have had minimal running/walking stretches.

I averaged 23kmph over the entire distance. I came in 18th out of 70 finishers, with 3 bikers passing me in the last bend. With 11 points from this, I have made a grand entry into the points table of the Bangalore Bicycling Championships.

After relaxing for awhile, we rode down to the Idly point for some breakfast. Sudhir, Murthy and other cronies decided to pace line on the way back. It was soon apparent that drafting behind another takes a lot more than just knowing what needs to be done. It works well for bikes/bikers of similar capabilities. While the rest of the gang broke off at Coffee Day, Sudhir and I continued all the way back home.

Mahesh did a wonderful job (and a brave one, esp while perched on the jeep with his SLR) with the lens and gave us all those wonderful pics. I have splashed them all over this blog/facebook/orkut. More pics from this shutterbug at http://www.flickr.com/photos/purpwaltz/sets/72157620529487549/

Despite my “Haathon Mein Haath, Pairon Mein Pair” incident, the engagement went on peacefully and I am now engaged! Pics you can see at http://www.flickr.com/photos/manojbhat/sets/72157621333296046/

Stats, route elevation courtesy BBC members, Photos courtesy Mahesh.