"You can give it a shot next year.", one of my ex-managers said in the gym. When I told him that it's once in a four year event, he exclaimed "Oh !! hard luck.". Everytime when someone remarked like that, the weight of pulling out of last qualifying stage for PBP at around 550th Km would be pressing harder against my heart. Every other day when I would be cycling to work or back home, the ghosts of that lame decision of leaving the ride would start lurking and I would be telling myself why..why? Why could I not think of giving it a shot? It was hardly 50 odd kms more with nearly 4 hours left. Being so near yet so far.
Luckily I got a chance to do it again when the organisers announced that there would be another 600km self-supported ride held along with other distance categories end of June. I could not believe my fate. My time of redemption had come though the route was different than Chennai route. Having ridden in crazy heat with temperatures hovering around 48* C all through the day with no shade on the highways, the route towards Belgaum was a welcome change. But I did not know that there were different sorts of challenges ahead. More than half of the 1000 km riders had given up either due to multiple flats or due to excessive head wind and rain. But I was determined to complete this ride no matter what the conditions were.
I left my home around 2 am on Saturday and mother was all worried as how I would be riding in the night. Around 20 past 3 am, 5 of us started from MG road and we mostly rode together. After 90th or 100th km Prakash and myself separated from the other 3 as we rode faster. We had our lunch around 11 at hiriyur, the first control or the time station. Like always, we were surrounded by huge crowd of children, middle-aged folks, elderly shopkeepers enquiring about price of bike, where we are coming from, going where etc. etc.. It tends to get on our nerves at times. After taking the timestamp, we had some lemon rice at a small hotel and when we resumed our ride, I felt something missing from my bike. Gosh !!! Someone flicked the Garmin (GPS enable watch). I went back to the hotel and painfully explained to whole lot of people that it is of no use to whoever flicked it and kindly return it. But that was my naivety. I felt so remorseful as it was not mine and a borrowed one. I decided then that I would not stop in any town henceforth during my rides and will have food on outskirts.
I was cursing the people of Hiriyur throughout the next 100 km of ride as I could not think of anything else than the Garmin. The terrain which was only gaining elevation and with crazy headwinds, things were not getting easier either. It felt like someone had put a big blower on top of the hills and we had carzy head wind for miles and miles. More bad things to happen. While leaving Chitradurga, one of my spokes broke. Luckily I was in a town and got it mended at a local cycle shop. Another unwanted thing happened when the clouds openend up and we had to run for shelter in a road side shack. After about 20 minutes when it stopped pouring, we started on our ride and then Prakash had a flat (puncture). There is nothing more distressing on such long rides than technical issues. In the meanwhile Sandeep and Sunil, other two riders, caught up and then we learnt that one rider has dropped out because 3 of his rear wheel's spokes broke :-(. Was wondering that will something good happen in this ride .. will I get back the Garmin ??
Prakash fixed the flat and we (four of us now) started again. It was getting dark and then rains started again. Headwinds had not ceased and at times our bikes would literally be pushed to the sides due to sidewinds. We did not stop this time and were pedaling through the rain. Luckily I had bought a rain jacket which was keeping my upper half dry and warm. With strong wind and rain beating down on us, it felt like someone was constantly pricking our face with 100s of needles. On top of this heavy vehicles on the right side of the highway splashing water on us, things were getting crazier. But we rode as we had to make it to the next time station (314th km) before 11:52 pm (saturday night). Rains stopped and we stopped to have dinner at a roadside dhaba. There are plenty of them in Bangalore-Belgaum route unlike Bangalore-Chennai route. I lied down on one of the charpais (cots). Though being wet, I loved the change of posture. Food was served and it coldn't have tasted any better.
We started around 8:30 pm towards Ranebennur (next time station) and had some 2.5 hrs to cover 50 odd kms. We made it on time :-). Stopped there for some 30 minutes or so. Sunil was having knee pain and it was getting difficult for him to ride. He decided not to ride further and take a bus back to Bangalore. So, now only 3 of us were left for remainder of the ride. It feels sad to see fellow riders drop out due to injuries or technical reasons during a ride. I was feeling drowsy since I had not slept now for nearly 24 hours. I was pleading the guys to catch some sleep for half an hour. But they said that we have to make to the next time station in time which was some 150km away with some 9 hours in hand. I had no other go but to ride as we had decided to stick together no matter what during the dark hours.
A couple of times during that stretch I remember I had dozed off on my bike for few seconds. I would know that when the bike would start drifting to sides out of my control. I had to force myself to stay awake. We made it to the 4th timestation in time around 8:30 am. We had our breakfast and I decided to push off towards Bangalore with nearly 145 km remaining with the other two deciding to catch some sleep. I was just thinking of muching the distance 10Km at a time and not to sleep till I reach Bangalore. I could not also afford sleep because I wanted to keep time buffer of atleast 3 hours for any flats or other technical problems with the bike.
With some 100 kms to go, I met the riders from 200 km ride who were near their turnaround mark. And then another spoke of my rear wheel broke. I rode slowly to the next village and found a cycle shop and luckily he had the spokes :-). Got it fixed and started again. I was nearing Tumkur (52km still from endpoint) when I felt low pressure in the rear tyre. I got down and inflated the tyre. After riding for 100 odd meters, it was the same story again. I inflated again and started riding and then it started pouring. Tyre pressure reduced again and I thought of changing the tube. I had not done that earlier but had only seen it. I managed to take the wheel out and then the tube. But fixing another tube on the rim was not happening and I was fumbling badly. Then the fear of not being able to finish with barely 50 kms left started setting in. I called up Pappu to ask how to fix the tube but his voice was not audible with rains pouring in. I was panicking deep inside. Then I stopped a fellow rider (sorry... forgot his name) who was kind enough to help me fixing the tube. I was never more happy than I was at the finish point, anytime during any ride in my life. My redemption was done !!
I have qualified to ride in PBP 2011 and I am a super randonneur now :-). Fingers crossed, I will be finishing strong in PBP 2011.
