Brands that make us Grand

Let us have quick run to acknowledge all the sponsors and partners behind the tour. Tamilnadu Cycling Club shares immense pleasure in the relationship that builds a great tour and build great memories for 36 riders in years to come.

Title Sponsor

TI Cycles are manufactures of cycles and other fitness equipment. They are patrons of cycling in all formats like racing, touring and fitness. BSA, Hercules and Montra are their brands.They carry the needle and thread to stitch the holes in the wallet of all the riders who might otherwise have to shell out a lot more to be part of this experience that offers ample comfort and support.

Associate Sponsor

Star Health insurance services provide health insurance to individuals, corporate groups and families. They ease the life of injured and diseased meeting the medical expenses in time.

Tourism Partner 

Tamilnadu Tourism Development corporation promotes tourism across the heritage and natural wealth of Tamilnadu. They are our partners in promoting eco-tourism. The association with TTDC have raised the level of the exposure about the tour across all government agencies and helped us ease through permission from Collectorates to Cops.

Safety Partner

108 – an emergency response service run by GVK-EMRI along with the Govt of Tamilnadu provides emergency service to medical needs and works under sophisticated network and equipment across the state. They are the backbone for safety across the entire tour.

Logistics Partner

Ashok Leyland is the manufacturer of heavy vehicles and pick-up trucks across India. They are the partners for the transportation of bikes and baggage every day during the tour.

Track and Trace partner

 

MyTVS is the 24X7 support system for car service and breakdown handling. They are helping by providing GPS devices that can be used to track the positioning of riders and linked with the Call center of MyTVS.

Goodies Partner

Wildcraft is a branded product for outdoor and adventure gears. They are happy to be associated with the tour by providing their bag as part of the goodies

Hospitality Partner (Tuticorin)

 

GRT group of Hotels run premium hotels and resorts across the state. They are proud to host us in their facility in Tuticorin during the tour.

BSA TOT 2011 - Launch ride to Vandaloor zoo

It was a cold December morning when people started pouring into the Island grounds at 5:30 AM. The occasion is no big holiday exhibition or to park vehicles for the Chennai Marathon or for a Political convention. The occasion was in support of a green cause.

Tamilnadu Tourism development corporation partners with the Tamilnadu Cycling club in spreading a green message and promoting eco-tourism. As a mark of thanking the cycling community in Chennai and the sponsors who make the event happen on the roads, a symbolic launch ride was organized from Island Grounds to Vandaloor zoo. Though there was expectation of large number of regular TCC members, the occasion flavored with a lot of new faces and first timers.

The occasion was flagged of by the Mr. Santosh K Misra, IAS, M.D of TTDC. Our title sponsor TI Cycles was represented by Mr. KC Ramamurthy, Head of Retail, TI Cycles. Mr. Prabhudoss who represented 108 emergency services on a lighter note said "Unlike the other sponsors and partners, we wish that you need not use our services though they will be available along the entire trip".

The big bunch of 40 riders broke across the entire route in few minutes. The ride was well supported by 2 mechanics, 2 pit stops with refreshments and backup truck along with ambulance in the tail. The 52 Km ride ended in Vandaloor zoo. Thanks to Subash for coordinating and arranging an awesome lunch at Hotel Tamilnadu in Vandaloor zoo. All riders were transported back in tourister vans to the start point while the trucks carried back their bikes.

Now that the test drive is over, the count down for the real game starts!! Welcome to join us in Madurai on 25 December 2011.

BSA TOT 2011 - Chennai Launch

We are very happy to announce the BSA Tour of Tamilnadu 2011's launch ride at Chennai.

This is a mark of our thanks to the cycling community which largely comes from Chennai and also to thank our sponsors for leading us to the last moments of preparation before we set out to the tour on 25 December 2011 at Madurai.

Once again we welcome you all. Please register for the event here. The registration for the event will close by 3 PM on Friday, 16 December 2011.

BSA Tour of Tamilnadu 2011 - "Cuisine"

Welcome to BSA Tour of Tamilnadu 2011 - Cuisine. 

Watch out for all interesting stories on the build-up and the every day updates here!!

Kodaikanal - liquid leap

The victory ride:
After the Sirumalai ride, good food and contented world cup win of India allowed us to take a good 6 hours sleep and woke up by around 5:45 AM. Got our selves ready and packed our backpacks with all the stuff thrown around the previous evening. We decided to take it easy and call it a victory ride celebrating India's Cricket world cup victory.

The back pack:
The most questions asked around a self supported ride is "What did you carry?".

Dinesh carried only one pair of alternate dress and only one pair of Jersey-shorts on which he rode on both days after washing it in the evening of the first day ride. He did not carry water bottles and used the 2L hydra pack that was part of the backpack. The tools and spares went into the saddle bag. The gloves and helmet were part of the riding attire.

Backpacks: Dinesh - 20L and Bharani - 27L

On the other hand, in spite of the optimism to take is self supported, I always think with little bit pessimism and carried enough alternates. The bag included:

• 2 T shirts
• 1 shorts
• 1 pants (went wearing on Day 0)
• 1 T shirt (went wearing on Day 0)
• 2 cycling shorts
• 2 cycling jersey
• 2 pairs of gloves
• 1 Sweat shirt 
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 cap
• 1 towel
• 1 point shoot camera + charger
• Garmin forerunner + bike mount
• MP3 player
• 2 mobile phones
• 1 Blackberry charger (mini USB port works for mobile, Garmin and MP3 player)
• 1 emergency mechanical charger (acquired only the day before the trip).
• 1 head light + tail light
• 1 Sunglass
• Swiss knife
• Puncture kit + Spare tube + Mini tool kit + Chain tool + Pump + Spokes wrench (part of saddle bag).
• Sunscreen, Plaster, Antiseptic powder, pain cream.
• 2 water bottles (loaded on the bike)
• 2 plastic bags (for just in case..)
• Toileteries

All the above items packed tightly in a 27L Quecha backpack and took the ride easy to carry no numbs back home.

Grey marks between the Green masks:

As we started off from the hotel, it was already near 7:30 AM. We were late by over an hour. We took some local guidance to chose the road. The elevation was varying from 1100 ft to 800 ft along the road until Batlagundu. We took a short tea break. When we were just thinking of buying  a newspaper to read cover stories on India's WC victory, the shopkeeper was telling that he ran out of all the newspapers by 3:30 AM!!. 

Green!!

The road was very much bound by dense coconut plantations on either sides of the road. Dinesh did not even want to miss the 'Padhaneer' (coconut toddy) along the route. At Batlagundu, we had our idli - vada - dosa breakfast and loaded well enough owing to an uncertain place for lunch.

The G'HOT' road:
As we started from the hotel after breakfast, realized that there is some problem with the rear derailleur. The chain was slipping too frequently and found the gear cable to the rear derailleur in some trouble. Fixed the components in desired position, reinforced with some small sticks and laid a plaster around the set up to save further damage while going up the climb.

The fracture fixed!

The trouble around the gears got reduced and we moved steadily towards the ghat roads leading our way to Kodaikanal. A lilly pond, dense trees on the road sides and few advertisement hoardings to few hotels - this is how diversion from the national high way started.

Once we reached the beginning of the ghat road, the trees disappeared and my watch was showing 38 C as the temperature. We took a short break (even a nap for Dinesh) and continued further.

Gifted for naps

The ghat road starts

The 48 Km ghat road to Kodai was really hot to begin with and I almost emptied over 1 L of water in the first 1000 ft of the climb. But the climb was steady and the roads were awesome to view. On the left side of the hill, the coconut plantations started shrinking by size into bushes after 200 ft of climb and almost turned into green patches as we reached over 500ft for an excellent areal view of the Manjalar dam.

Manjalar dam

Breaks and bites:
Breaks - yes we had lots of them. But bites - we had very few of them. It was was more of sips all day. We took our first break at a tea shop after climbing nearly 900ft. There was no natural drink to quench the thirst. We emptied a bottle of 7up each and filled water from the can placed there for public use. Not to miss mentioning the fun part of spectators around: This time my saddle bag was presumed to be 'battery' for the bus driver who was standing around!!

From there on, we took frequent breaks when ever we found shades. Though we were not literally together along the ride, we kept crossing each other every time some one took rest and stopped at the next tree shade. Survived mostly with water and Dinesh's familiarity of the route helped in timing ourselves for breaks at places where we can get some food. Tender coconut, Chocobar, slice, Tiger biscuits, apple juice, water, H2O, neelu, paani, thanni, vellam - all that made us survive the day as we decided to skip the lunch owing to worry of feeling dizzy.

Tender coconut and chocobar break

Grey dust to Green den:
As we went up by elevation, the hot and dusty roads started disappearing paving way for lush green vegetation.

The frequency of our breaks increased as the time passed by. We had our own entertainment by engaging local kids, watching some cricket match and some monkey herd charm where ever we rested. We never over did or strained ourselves as our only intention was to reach Kodai for dinner and bed.

We passed through small villages and were surprised to see graffiti work on the rocks reading 'SAVE TIBET'. Later as we roamed around the Kodai town, the Tibetan restaurants and handicraft shops made us understand that there is a considerable amount of Tibetan population in that region. Sat down at Perumal malai for a while and confirmed the distance on the google maps with my mobile. We had 13 Km to go and it was already little past 5.00 PM.

The pleasant surprise:

As I approached the Palani - Kodaikanal ghat road junction, I was suddenly shocked as some one yelled, "BHARANI!!". A lean/fit guy came out of the white car. Was surprised to see the F1 racing star, Karun Chandhok who was on his way to Madurai to catch a flight. As he expressed his interest to ride to Kodai on cycle sometime later this year, I assured to accompany him then.

Silver cascades, Golden sky and Platinum bed:
As the distance to destination started showing up in single digit, we got more motivated and kept pushing on. After a quick photo session at the silver cascades, more advertisement hoardings and the Kodaikanal toll plaza welcomed us through a steep long ride of the last few Kms. The sky was turning dark after some bright golden shine of the sunset scenery behind the hills.

 Silver cascades

We had our rooms booked at Hotel Tamilnadu already. Reached our rooms, had a hot water shower, full carb loading dinner and then went back to the room for a tight long sleep. Dinesh started snoring deep after 30 sec of closing his eyes while I browsed through all the funny local cable TV channels and updated the Facebook status before I started sleeping a little before midnight.

Relaxed morning:
We woke up late in the morning went out for a nice Pongal-vada-coffee breakfast and Meenakshi bhavan. We also located the spots where we have to board our buses in the evening and had a nice morning walk. The TTDC hotels had a 10 AM - 10 AM check-in policy. We did not want to shell out double the amount of money for a few hours. We negotiated to take 2 beds in the adjacent dormitory that was empty for the mean time till the evening and paid for it.

Hotel Tamilnadu, Kodaikanal

While Dinesh chose to sleep for a while after our lunch at Kovai Annapoorna (near the Kodai bus stand), I decided to take a walk around.

My own 'Kodai wiki':
While details about the tourist spots can be gathered from anywhere in the web, I here put some interesting observations of a man traveling new to this place.While this city has almost everything ranging from South indian cuisines to Tibetan momos the pricing also range from road side idli shops to Pizza corner. When it comes to accommodation, we had been bugged by almost half a dozen men on our way to Kodaikanal offering cheap and good hotels. As I walked down across the streets of the town, I located tin sheeted dormitories to individual bungalows offering holiday stays. I would rather vote for a hotel like "Hotel Tamilnadu" which is definitely value for money.

 Walked down to the Kurinji andavar temple with the help of Google maps and on the return located the famous "Vellaiappan movies", the only cinema theater that I found around there. It was then screening, "Ulagam sutrum vaaliban" - one of the super duper hits of vathiyaar MGR!

For those who want to explore the city on their own, there is a cycle for rent facility available in front of Paradise Inn.We get Hercules Ryders series geared bikes at Rs. 30/ hour which I would say is definitely reasonable for a couple of friends to roam around for few hours.


We picked some home made chocolates later from a shop near the bus stand and boarded on our respective buses to get back home.

More pics on the Sirumalai and Kodaikanal trip here.

Sirumalai - a banana split for hill lovers

The long due:
The date of the previous post in this blog should tell about my long holiday away from tours. Missed to blog the MTB Himachal experience though. Due to various commitments at work and family, I had to let the Tour of Tamilnadu and Tour of Nilgiris go last December. The conversation among the TOT riders about the Kodaikanal climb had always turned my stomach in to a Tandoori oven. After a long break off the bike, some long rides along the Chennai desert heat, hot climb of Yelagiri as cherry on the des(s)ert got the legs ready through the March. Dinesh is some one who decides on getaways at short time and even makes it alone most of the times.

The April bird appeared sexy with its wings of weekend stretched to Monday once and later to Friday again. Wrote a one line mail to Dinesh and everything else happened just 3 days before the weekend with Ugadi on Monday. Cooked the plan, booked the bus and on Friday morning booked the rooms as well. All of a sudden, it appeared like a well planned trip.


Why Dindigul? Why Sirumalai?:
Was first thinking of going to Batlagundu directly by bus and start climbing to Kodai. But the chain of action had 2 broken links in between. One unfortunate and another irresistible. We were not able to get tickets to Batlagundu as our plans were mend only in the last minute. Added to that, we did not want to lose the cricket worldcup action. So reserved our tickets to Dindigul, booked rooms at Hotel Rockfort palace after calling and confirming that the TV is in condition! We had the whole morning to kill and found the unsung hill "Sirumalai" just 25 Km away from Dindigul.

Sleep - Stop - Map - Gap - Nap:
I took a sleeper bus from Chennai and got my cycled transported in the boot. Dinesh also did the same from Bangalore. After some sound sleep, I reached Dindigul earlier than expected. Though I got down at the bypass road of an alien city, I just got down, set the bike and kept pedaling down to my destination with the help of my mobile GPS and Google maps. Both of us took some nap in the gap and got refreshed for a short ride to Sirumalai.

Pepsi cola --> Paneer soda:
Bovonto and Paneer soda always rule my tongue every time I escape out of Chennai to my native place. We pedaled out of the city with help of directions from the the hotel receptionist and shops on the way. We decided to have our breakfast at a small thatched roof hotel before the detour road to Sirumalai from the highway. No wonder 2 big idlis + 1 dosa was only Rs. 18. The chutney was really hot for Dinesh to digest comfortably. We started riding through a scenic road bound with trees on either of the sides and crossed a forest check post towards the ghat roads of Sirumalai reserved forest.

We decided to keep our ride logistics simple and cheap. We filled out water bottles at a public water tank on the way. The best fact was that we almost did all our water refills from mud pots at tea shops, large blue drums and public taps but no water bottles through the entire trip. The 20 Km ride to Sirumalai from there on included a 2500ft climb through 15 Km ghat road and 18 hairpin bends.

The ride was hot for a while as it turned little over 9 o'clock in the morning. Dinesh wanted some breaks on the climb as the chutney evoked some uneasiness. It was a very chatty and relaxed ride. We neither missed the wide spread tree shades nor the small temples on milestones to the small view points adjacent to small churches. There were some great words scribbled and were worth tweeting during the break there.

Some light between the shades..

 

 Translation: Be a slave to vodka but not a woman.

We stopped and sipped every bit of the greenery around sipped every refreshing drink we got. Started with the local flavoured Color then to Paneer Soda and then some Nanaari Shorbet up in the Sirumalai village.

 

 An areal view

 

Paneer soda.

 

The Royal Banana:
The Sirumalai hills are known for the famous "Malai vaazhai" (hill banana). We got to see a lot of plantain plantation along the sides when we climbed up the hill. During the off season time, these bananas sell at over Rs. 100 /dozen in the cities. When we wanted to have some refreshment at the small tea shop at Sirumalai, Dinesh had his eyes stuck at the "Royal banana". Got a dozen of them at Rs. 3/ piece.

Well, how did it taste? The expression says it all.

Sirumalai - the local wiki:
When we crossed all the 18 hairpin bends, we started seeing signboards and wooden buildings denoting some cottages that were run by some resorts around there. We moved down further in to the core village main road to see more people in activity. Though a small hand post along the road read 1600 metres above sea level, my Garmin read as 3400 ft (1030 metres). A chat with the tea shop old man along with some banana and shorbet enlightened us about the unsung prosperity of the locality. Sirumalai, Sirumalai pudur and Agasthiar malai (no roads) are the prominent regions of the Sirumalai hill with over 5000 families living around there. The local school facilitates up to class 10 while the higher studies and college requires a bus ride to Dindigul everyday. There is only one ghat road connecting to the Dindigul main road while the locals know a lot of routes along the foot to the reach the foot hill.

While plantation is the main occupation, most of them have 10-15 acres of land where they do cultivation of bananas to some spices. We can see a lot of graffiti work of political symbols oin many walls in lieu of election. When asked about their choice for this polls, the old man gave an innocent but firm smile showing his 2 fingers. I was little late to notice the 2 leaves painted across all the walls of the building owned by him that has 5 different shops functional. This naturally wealthy hill but still underdeveloped in many faces comes under the Natham constituency for the Assembly polls. "Vellimalai swamy" is the prime God that most of the people worship and the famous temple in the locality.

The only thing that turned my face frown was the bus stop of Sirumalai. There was a soup stall, a gambling game with half a dozen sitting around and some coir dump?

Base, Biriyani and Bed:

The chat seriously invoked some deep interest to explore the region beyond the Sirumalai village and trek along the Agasthiar malai forest. But as the clock was ticking, the stomach also started ticking. We had a big lunch awaiting at the famous Venu Biriyani and a bigger match there after. We had to return the place half minded and made a swift downhill ride back to the base. Had a quick Biriyani lunch and was back on the room to follow the match from the third over on our beds. While I did not miss a single over from there on till nerve breaking last over, Dinesh had a loud snoring sleep during the Srilankan innings.

Hot day - Cool ride - Hot Biriyani - Cool room - Hot victory - Cool climb awaited. The day can be summed up precise that way.

C2T1D - Chennai to Trichy in 1 Day on a cycle

Background:
The ride was cooking in my mind ever since I learned about our college's Silver jubilee celebration and an alumni meet (24 July 2010, Saturday) as part of it. Had been digging the map for over weeks at late nights and create contingency plans for myself. I did not want to expose the insane idea and get it dumped for obvious reasons like my close friends and family would discourage the insane attempt. Personally it would be a mock up for me for B2C1D (Bangalore to Chennai in 1 Day) that is planned for a long time. The next day of the origin of the idea was my 232 Km ride to Pondy and back. The purpose was to test if a 200 Km ride comes under my comfort zone. After making some optimization of plans to my speed, food, luggage, etc., wanted to have a feel of the NH45 which is supposed to be a high traffic road compared to ECR that we used to ride regularly. Subash and me set out on a ride 2 weeks back along the GST (Grand Southern Trunk).

Final week of preparation:
Though I exposed the vague idea to few friends at some occasions, I exposed the plan for the first time to few of the close and motivating TCC members last Sunday and the response was very encouraging with lot of tips to be taken care. I told my mom about the plan on Monday evening and she was little worried about my ability. She never knew that I have done a couple of 200K rides last month :-). She thought that I was just back from a long ride and late. Convinced her about my safety precautions and got acceptance half minded.

The threat that arouse in the next 3 days made me worry. It was raining heavy and lazy On and Off around the city. I was also running with some bad cough and cold after getting drenched in the rain on a ride back from office. As a back up, booked a railway ticket to Trichy in Friday night along with few friends on Wednesday morning. The plan for return was to come by train and booked that as well next day. The weather was getting better from Wednesday evening and boosted my confidence.

The last confusion to be sorted out was the choice of bike. My calculations suggested that I might have a difference of around 1.5 hours between the road bike and mountain bike. The problem of a road bike is handling of the bike in case of problem during the ride and safe transportation on the return. Whereas I can afford my mountain bike to take some hard blows. Decided to take the mountain bike finally and borrowed a rear view mirror from Sundar that can be attached to the end of the handle bar. Got the bike serviced and washed on Wednesday. It took rest on the whole of Thursday.

The eve of C2T1D:
Started back to home early from office and went to BSA Go Kodambakkam to pick a spare tube and few other accessories. Suresh wished good luck for the long ride with a Sigma tail light as his motivational gift. The final add-on that I made in the previous night was that I removed the aerobars from my roadbike and put it on my MTB. Aerobars on a mountain bike? Crazy!! But I felt like doing the ride little more easily with that. Was thinking of buying and carrying some sandwiches along with me. But my mom volunteered to make some Chappathi - Aalo rolls. Though my mom was reluctant when I said about the idea of the lone long ride earlier that week, she started asking questions about safety and other factors. Felt good that she was assimilating it and for her last bit of satisfaction, prayed at the Ganesh temple in our apartments and broke a coconut offering prayers for a safe ride.

From C2T1D

It was very late by the time I acquired all the stuff required for the ride and pack them. My back pack included:

Horlicks Nutribar - 7
Gatorade powder - 6
Eclairs chocolates - 10
Pants - 1
Shorts - 1
T shirts - 2
Inner wear - 2
Towel - 1
Small towel - 1
Deodrant
Soap/brush/paste
Plastic bags - 3
Wet tissues - 10
Alternate gloves - 1 pair
Mini air pump
Camera
Mobile charger
Plaster
Antiseptic cream
Cotton
Copy of map for reference
Copy of return train ticket
Few business cards
Wallet and enough CASH with change!!

The puncture kit, spare tube, tool kit and truing key were loaded in the saddle bag.

Wrote down my name, blood group and emergency contact numbers on cardboard using marker pen and held it in the top of the easily accessible pouch in the bag.

Originally intended to sleep by 8:00 PM but was awake till 10:30 PM. Packed everything intact and put my mobile, Garmin, Camera battery everything to charge all night. Checked the weather report for one last time and made my ride plan go public for the first time beyond a circle by posting it on Facebook and Dailymile.

Restless Sleep:
I did not want to miss my alarms at any cost. Woke up once at 12:50 AM and when I logged into Facebook from my mobile, I already saw some 10 comments and motivations. Went back to sleep again and woke up sharp at 1:55 AM.

At last, I am starting:
Brushed, took a cold shower and woke my mom up. While she was preparing the Chappathi, I checked air for one last time and started recalling the list of items for the third time in the morning. Gulped in 2 rolls of chappathi - aalo at 2:50 AM and followed was a cup of milk with proteinex. After getting blessings from the Gods in our Pooja shelf and mom, got into the shoes and went down stairs with the head and tail lights glowing.

Started from my home at little before 3:15 AM and turned the Garmin Forerunner ON. Took the well lit roads in the city and took it very safe and careful as there used to be a very fast traffic of cabs in the early hours.

Home - till first forced stop:
The road was all safe and good to ride except for some early morning city bus traffic and some thrash trucks. Kept it easy in the dark parts of the GST road - St Thomas mount, Pallavaram and Chromepet. While riding on the aerobars, I was able to realize the gentle ups and downs on the road near Pallavaram. The road became narrow after Tambaram and had to negotiate the gaps very carefully with some trucks. The speed was so far varying from 20 Kmph to 25 Kmph.The vision was very difficult early in the morning against the headlights of vehicles coming in the opposite side and intentionally wanted to ride slow until it was dawn.

Little after an hour of ride, suddenly I had some weird feeling that it was getting hard to ride. I know for sure that it was not an uphill. Am I tired so soon? Looked down if I got a flat. Got down and knocked the tire and felt that it was sound. Just rotated the wheel to find that the wheel was bent. Took out the truing key that I carried handy and tried rotating the relevant spokes. OPPS!! ONE OF THE SPOKES IS BROKEN. I know for sure that I will not be able to fix it anywhere at 4:30 AM. I had done only 32 Kms by then and was near Vandalur. Recalled my old lessons and tried adjusting the neighboring spokes to get some shape. Also loosened the brakes little bit to get the wheel rotating freely. Lost 15 mins in this unscheduled break. I am moving away from my target of reaching Chengalpet before 5:20 AM.

Picked some pace:
Keeping in mind that I lost some time in between, I wanted to make up for the time lost and slowly increased the speed. As I crossed Maraimalai nagar, there was a slow big truck driven in the left lane of the road. Started drafting it for a while to 31 - 33 Kmph and felt comfortable to make up the time to some extent. The truck picked up some pace and moved to the next lane leaving me alone. Reached the first Toll plaza on GST by 5:20 AM. There were lot of trucks resting around the toll plaza and a busy business of selling tea was going on by some vendors on cycles with a tea can. Stopped for a couple of minutes, checked the brakes and wheel, started biting an energy bar and slowly moved out of the place.

More motivation:
Trucks may come and trucks may go. There had always been alternative motivations available in instance. I decided to avoid as much intersections and small town possible. I started using the flyover in the bypass of Chengalpet and the carrot on the climb was a Dhoodhwala on a TVS 50 with 3 big cans, steering up. Kept chasing him on the gentle climb and over took on the descent in the other side. Later during the day, it was the school children trying to over take me zipping past by looking at me calling for a 'race' with out knowing that I had already done a century and looking for 2 more centuries.

Small hills on the flat terrain:

From C2T1D

Elevation profile of the entire route from the map.

As every one knows the terrain of the road from Chennai to Trichy is almost flat. But the road had its own small hills for the benefit of speedy reach to destination. There are many small towns and state highways going through the NH45 which are likely to cut down the speed of the high way traffic. There were flyovers built in every road intersection and in the bypass of every such town. I would have counted some 15 - 20 of such flyovers in the entire road. They used to be challenge for containing my speed and picked some pace on the descent of those bridges that I would use for the next few Kms. But as the hours passed, after 200Km, I hated every one of those flyovers.

Century and Breakfast:
After the spokes' forced stop, stopped once after Palar bridge to bite my second nutribar and then stopped next at Melmaruvathur to stretch and send updates by message to a set of biker friends and family.

From C2T1D

Dawn near palar bridge

From C2T1D

Melmaruvathur

Had my breakfast at around 7:45 AM just after completing my century and before Dindivanam. I chose to have my breakfast in a small roadside shop. Had 6 idlys(carbs) and 1 vada with lot of Sambhar(Protein) and chutney. Refilled the water and went further.

Sunny and windy:
After crossing Dindivanam, for the first time started feeling strong head winds and the Sun was going up slowly making is tough to push to 21 - 22 kmph. This is where the aerobars made a big difference. Bending down on the aerobars easily gave 2 - 3 kmph additional speed on the same efforts. Only the back pack was preventing from holding in the position for longer time. Occasionally drafted an Aavin milk truck for few Kms. While approaching the roads near Vikkiravandi, for the first time felt if I was riding in some other country. The broad roads with white lines appeared so majestic. By pumping up and limping down, slowly reached Villupuram (155Km) just before 10 AM.

From C2T1D

TN 23 Z 0645:
Why would I remember a vehicle registration number? This was the truck that boosted my confidence and completing the ride successfully. This truck was carrying "Grasim" suitings and I caught it at some 3 Kms after Villupuram. Slowly drafted it for around 10 Kms at 32 - 35 kmph until it stopped for some tea in a roadside shop. I had me fuel tank full with water and stomach was good. The weather was also getting better with some clouds surrounding the Sun on it way over my head. So used the momentum for the next 25 kms and thus reached Ulundurpet (39 Kms from Villupuram) in 1 hr and 20 mins. Carried on the tempo till Veppur after which I stopped for my second food break in a small tea stall. This time had the Chappathi - Aalo roll from home and quenched the thirst with some 'Panneer soda'. WOW!! It felt very great. I had crossed 216 Kms by then.

From C2T1D

My Lunch host..

From C2T1D

A century to go.. and he is strong!

My black shorts had some interesting designs in white color with the salts pumped off with the sweat. My legs below were B&W designed with the dust and salts. Used 2 full bottles of cold water to wash everything and started over again.

Mentally long miles:
Those miles that came after that were just numbers to go past. I stopped looking at the speedometer after 240 Km as it might pull my mind down for the figures that I had never seen before on my speedometer. I loved looking at the double digit values read as distance to Trichy. The roads turned more lonely with smaller villages and less traffic. Drafted a 12 wheeler truck to pick some pace to reach Perambalur. Had some lemon rice and refilled the water. The length of my breaks shortened and kept moving on.

Interesting Ignorance:
There were lot of ppl on the way who asked curious questions, motivated and some even irritated.

Where are you coming from?
Me: Chennai
Where are you going?
Me: Trichy
Started yesterday?
Me: Only today.
Will reach there tomorrow?
Me: No. Today.
Riding for world peace?
Me: No.
Riding in plea of some quota?
Me: No.
Cost of the cycle?
Me: 5k (usual one.. )

X: See da, gear cycle.
Y: What are the 2 bottles?
X: Big one is Petrol and small one is oil.
Y: How to put gear?
X: Just 2 rotations on the pedal and press the button (pointing shifters).
Y: What speed will it go?
X: I saw this guy chasing a lorry on the way. So it should go 100 kmph easily.
Y: Then I will sell my Bajaj bike and buy this one.
Me: LOL (by heart).

Some Melmaruvathur pilgrims near Veppur offered me lemon juice when I was stretching under a tree and an old lady blessed with some 'kumkum'. An educated family near Perambalur made some curious interactions and their 5 year old kid offered a bottle of pulpy orange juice. There were lot of thumbs up from the passerby cars and motor bikes that made me push little better.

It is Trichy finally!:
As I approached the Samayapuram Tollgate and the diversion for bypass road, it was just 3:45 PM and I was far ahead of my target time. It read 310 Kms in my speedometer and I took the bypass road in the left to catch the road to my college. I was expecting a bumpy bad road at this stretch and it was an awesome road that I flew over the fly overs forgetting which part I am riding over through. It took some time for me to identify important junctions and it was a flyover even over the TVS Tollgate below which I had to take left. Finally understood the roads and caught my route to Pudukottai road. NH45 ends and NH210 begins.

From C2T1D

The road and safety:
I was very careful about the safety part right from the beginning that I planned about this trip. Had 2 red blinkers behind and a headlight around my forehead. Added to my white Jersey was the orange safety coat that made me visible from good distance. Many were concerned about the erratic truck traffic in the national highway. But all the trucks were very safe and those that would go slow were the ones in the left lane and the other fast ones were in the right lane. The most erratic vehicles to my opinion were the SETC buses. They were just ripping past closely giving some shake to the front wheels. Most of them horn very late or do not. Other wise the roads were so safe as far as we keep riding in the service lane and occasionally draft slow trucks with eyes all around. On a comparison note of safety, if ECR scores 4/10 for safety then GST scores 8/10.

NH210 - cramping and munching memories:
After 319kms, it started cramping in my left leg. I stopped, stretched for 5 mins, drank water/gatorade and had one more bite of nutribar. Started over the bike again. But every time, I attempted to cross 25 kmph speed, it started pulling. I had another 25 Kms to go. Took it slow from there on and took few pics of the way. It started turning dark with the clouds and drizzled little bit. Packed the camera safely and pushed further slowly. There were lot of pilgrims in yellow who used to go by walk every year during that time. Not just for the cramping legs, this stretch of the road was the toughest of the entire ride. The roads became narrow with more traffic. This is the part of road where the rear view mirror was used fully to guard myself on the road. Finally managed to do the last 25 Kms in nearly 1.5 hours and reached the college.

From C2T1D

From C2T1D

From C2T1D

Cramping night and recovering reunion:
It was cramping in all directions over the night. It was lucky that I was given a room alone with 2 beds and I was rotating 360 degrees in deep slumber. Updated the ride in Facebook and Dailymile before sleep and was drinking loads of water with out excreting for the entire night.

From C2T1D

Resting at room in the next morning.

It was a huge turnout for the reunion. But I was tired and drowsy in the afternoon though I managed to interact with full energy in the morning with the friends and staff members. There was a special mention about me riding to the college by our Chief Executive in the welcome address of a gathering of over 1000 people. I was meeting a lot of friends for the first time ever since I took up cycling and there were lot of curious questions and many are seriously interested to start cycling soon.

Started at around 6 PM from the college and rode back till Trichy railway station slowly. Booked the bike under luggage which costs just Rs. 35 and an additional expense of Rs. 10 for a black slate to write address and booking number. That night I slept with no disturbance until the train reached the destination of Chennai Egmore in the morning.

Conveniences:
Aerobars: Thank God. Otherwise it would have been midnight to reach there.
MTB: Would have aborted the ride for a broken spokes on my road bike.
Roads: Best I have ever ridden.
Motivation on mobile!!: Was receiving continuous motivation by message from Vibha, Srinath, Sundar, Gops, Venky and my sister on the mobile. But for which, it would not have been possible to push that far on a lone ride.

From C2T1D

Culprits:
Backpack: Ouch on the back and hips. A big mistake.
Cramps: Not enough salts?

Consumption and Statistics:
Idly - 6
Vadai - 1
Chappathi & Allo - 4
Lemon rice - 1
Water - 9.5 litres (Should have been 12 - 13 litres and I did not take enough.)
Gatorade - 5 packs.
Enerzal - 1 pack
Eclairs - 4
Nutribar - 5
Coke - 500ml
Pulpy orange - 400ml
Nimbooz - 350 ml.
Cane juice - 500 ml.

Start time: 0310
End time: 1740
Total distance: 344.8 Km
Total time: 14 hours and 30 mins
Time on bike: 12 hours and 50 mins.

From C2T1D