Tour of TamilNadu - Day 7 (The most scenic day of the Tour, Hills, hills, hills and long descent - Kalvarayan Ranges)

After one of the longest day to Kallakurichi with our big time hunt for lunch and all, again the famous talk came up! You know, "Next day is going to be a long long day. We shall do one CAT 2 (Not the UCI ones i guess) climb as mentioned in TCC docket". Now looking into the ride details, seemed like we are in for a visual treat and other treat (you folks for sure know what i mean - Climbs climbs climbs and then big descent). That big descent was what i was eyeing for! Without any competitive sections, sometimes mind wander and try to get me out of a day's ride. Boy oh boy, what a day it turned out to be? For me and for us.

After an awesome banana leaf breakfast at the SR Park, we started off and Siva's idea was to reach first climb and wait for us while we ride to 1st time station and be back! Slowly we formed a mini pace line which consisted myself, Siva, Venkat and Sapeksh. We were riding to Gomukhi Dam from where the multi folded climbs were prepared to be unleashed on us. As usual our group slightly detoured but we were back for some snaps up at near the top and near the Gomukhi dam. It was a real AVATAR movie feel where the hills were cascaded up and beyond. Myself, Venkat, Siva, Magesh, Hari, Vaibhav were taking pictures. While Venkat and Sapeksh were zooming ahead, myself and Siva went on our pace.

While starting the day's ride...

Sapeksh getting ready for the pics

That look and question of "Oh nice climbs ahead"

While approaching it...

Hari and Sapeksh at the start of the climbs

Courtesy : Siva

Through the climbs

Those wierd looks!

Gomukhi dam on the left side

Very nice route

And in between we were taking some amazing pictures enjoying the full time climbs and relief giving descents. We reached the time station Kariyalur and had some eatables. There we needed to decide whether we were going back or riding ahead. Sapeksh was hell bent to ride back and such was his addiction to the hills and frankly it was that sort of hills. Nature's beauty at its terrific best. But again we decided to move ahead. Siva, myself, Sanjeev, Venkat and Sapeksh were riding together at that point of time. Now Siva started to ask where are the descents!!! It was bit of rolling and not the pure descents. But after some time, we got that awesome descent. As expected, Siva ripped the descents and all went down to see the next time station. We hogged again and took some photographs. I forgot where we had lunch but it was an awesome place with the chef making awesome Dosas!!! Sapeksh was enjoying it.

Lunch place...

Chef..

Resting...

Sapeksh after the descents.

Sanjeev

Sapeksh and Venkat

Memorable..

Us...

SAP Roadies

There were lot of queries from the kids there. Really thoughtful questions like,"Are you going for some awareness? Are you guys sponsored and given the bikes or your own bikes etc etc" sprang up. Then we moved out and reached Kallakurichi again to SR Park. That night was awesome since TOT folks were throwing a dinner party and distributing souvenir since the next day we would disperse soon. According to the ID order, we were asked to come over and accept the souvenir and talk about the experience. Some of us took a lot of time and counting 20 seconds, Venkat jumped and jumped over with the words and finished the speech. Really touching moment in the tour. Sapeksh and myself were about to be remanded for excessive whistling!!! TCC folks, do share that night's pictures and i will add every one's snaps here. After having an awesome dinner, we went back to our respective rooms one last time to talk and plan about the last day's ride!!!

Day 7 Stats:Destination: Kalvarayan ranges
Distance covered: 134kms
Elevation Gain: 1365m
Elevation Loss: 1337m
For Lunch: Egg Dosas, Omlette

Also Read:
Day 6 - One long Day @ TOT
Day 5 - 14 poets
Day 4 - Fishy Day 4
Day 3 - Relaxed day from Yercaud to Hogenakkal
Day 2 - Killer Yercaud
Day 0 & 1 - Into TOT and Kolli

_MJV_

Tour of Tamilnadu - Day 6 (Yelagiri to Kallakurichi)

After fun filled Yelagiri ride, we were prepared for the longest day in the tour and descent kings were already ready! Guys you would have guessed by this time who they were. Rakesh who was steadily taking away his fear for descent and graduating to be a great descender (To be validated by Siva. Lols). Other is Lord Siva who by this time we knew, greatest descender among us. As usual myself, Venkat and Amol started cautiously and i started to fall behind immediately. And at some time amidst of the descent, Siva was waiting for the photoshoot and here it is.

Wohoooo

Sapeksh and Bhaskar

Siva and me

Sapeksh...

View from in between.

Usual tea at the descent to calm the nerves... yes!!!

After this particular tea break, when we trying to get away, every time Siva would be instructing us to ride with Ullas and Gayathri, awesome couple who came from Pune. Ullas his talks would keep us engaged and forget little niggles throughout the tour. And specific instruction was to allow Gayathri to pull us and man she is one strong rider. Kept on pedalling at a decent clip. Once when we were all talking and riding all through, we almost met a pile up since some of us were cleated. Siva and Rakesh almost avoided a near collision when a guy was crossing in a two wheeler waving at us without stopping! After taking a deep breath, we started to pedal further. Then came the famous Bondhai story where we tried to eat lunch which was around 100kms. This is the place where we found roads were pretty bad and pretty much rolling terrain!  All village roads were fun filled. Full of vibrations due to patches all the way until we reached Sankarapuram.

Siva @ TS1

SCR2

Sanjay, Anjali, Magesh, Rajesh.

We had decided to have food at Bondhai and again my dear friend Siva, started to curse myself and Venkat since we had almost assured him that food will be there! By the time we reached Bondhai, we were fried by sun and Bhaskar got a flat. We searched for food and nothing was there. By this time other riders like Magesh, Rajesh, Sanjeev and several other joined in. Amol and myself decided to ride further and everyone decided to continue further. In between someone i think Rajesh told, "By the name of it, i guess Perungolathur will definitely have proper food". Siva's reaction we missed to take a Pic. Then we decided (Amol, Venkat and myself) that food will not be there until next 20 odd kms and started to pedal saying we will get food in another 8kms!

@ TS2

Bala Sir and his trusted associate.

Venkat, Amol, Rakesh n Magesh

Time for a good nap!

By this time, bhaskar also fixed the flat and big group started behind us thinking that lunch is there at 8th km. And we did not even stop at Perungolathur because the moment we entered that village, we realised that was even smaller village than Bondhai. We zipped through and finally Vaz came in Swift and said, "Folks what are you doing? This is why you should not ride fast. Other people were belting at some place before". Almost i decided i was going to kill Vaz there:) Later decided to ride further and at a place where we joined the main roads, we went and hogged a plate of Kushka (Biriyani without chicken pieces) and started to Kallakurichi which was around 30 + kms.

Green green everywhere

This was the place where myself, Amol, Sapeksh and Venkat had a combination of Fruit mixture (A cool drink), coffee, Kushka and what not! Bhasker and Siva got a lorry and drafted far ahead! Then Sapesk and myself were riding together for that last 30kms. I guess Rakesh and all others were little ahead. Amol and Venkat were riding together. It was fun and stopped for one more photo break. Then caught up with Ullas and Gayathri again through the ride. Entered pretty much crowded Kallakurichi town to get into SR Park hotel which was very much neat in appearance and it is pretty much new. We went for recovery walk as usual and today was the day i guess Sapeksh tasted the Soy based recovery drink (Yuck!). Next day was an interesting day with lot of climbs and there were lot of discussions to actually not ride this fully since same route back was not worth it!

But history did not want us to miss this awesome ride. That story in next blog!

Day 6 Stats:Destination: Kallakurichi
Distance covered: 162kms
Elevation Gain: 669m
Elevation Loss: 1469m
For Lunch: Chicken Kushka and omlette.

Also Read:
Day 5: 14 poets
Day 4: Fishy Day 4
Day 3: Relaxed day from Yercaud to Hogenakkal
Day 2: Killer Yercaud
Day 1 and Day 0 : Into TOT and to Kolli

_MJV_

Tour of TamilNadu - Day 5 (From Hogenakkal to Yelagiri)

After fishy affair in Hogenakkal over 2 days, we had prepared ourselves to ascend and then ascend again to Yelagiri. Since we had climbed Yelagiri 2 years back (Myself and Venkat), we knew this would be slightly better than the other climbs in the tour! Purely in the difficulty level. As usual very thought of the descent we came in 2 days before to Hogenakkal, we thought the start itself will be like Deepavali for the lungs! So after bidding lot of Tea, coffee, walking, recovery, fish we bid adieu to Hogenakkal and started the ascent to yet another climb day in TOT.

While waiting for Siva

Muthu wondering about our stops!

Venkat and Bhaskar

Photos are mutual folks!!!

 Started in a steady pace and slowly went into the climb. Sanjay, Anjali, bhaskar and Venkat were leading into the climb. Some how i could gather good intensity and finished the initial climb out of Hogenakkal in a good clip. Saw Venkat coming back from Pennagaram after he missed to take the outer towards Dharmapuri. This is a familiar sight in TOT! We used to go and take a detour, finally to get back on track again. We took a small stop to wait and take Siva with us. Once Siva came back, myself, Venkat and Siva started the ride again. After the Timestation stop, myself, Rakesh, Venkat and Vaibhav got into a paceline. 2 minutes pulling for 16kms. We were flying and the team were working really well. Roads were good, riders were strong, lungs were with us, big chain ring working over time and yes it was a really good team work to get into that mode.

Machines resting after in a paceline...

Riders posing after paceline..

Giant SCR2...

Some awesome views...

Sunscreen adding too much weight!!! Lols.

After really enjoying that phase, we stopped for photo shoot! After that we started to ride steadily and went into Thiruppathur for lunch. We had a good lunch and i even felt would be cramping through the climbs. After that big lunch, we started to get onto the road which was really bad. Big time vibrations and wrist pain started to come over until we were reaching the base. While reaching the base, we were greeted by Bala sir and Co. We understood that was not a place to stay for more time since the place was infested with Monkeys!

Due to that feeling, i started the climb fast and Venkat was leading the way. I was trying to cling on to his wheels, of course its a mistake. Lot of learnings from this tour. But i went into that sweet spot (As mentioned by Venkat) in the climb, i kept on pedalling stronger than ever. Comparing other climbs, Yelagiri was bit easier, but no way underestimating the climb after 120kms! Knew that Yelagiri and its 14 hair pin bends (Famously one of the Bangalore brevets was named as 14 poets) thought of stopping at 10th HP. But felt good and the monkeys were also there which prompted me not to stop. So climbed all the way and went into the Silent Water resort. Siva came yelling at us after the climb was over for all known reasons. After refreshing, started to play shuttle, cricket etc. Went for the usual recovery walk and came back to play an interesting game hosted by Pravin. Everyone of us were really affected at one area which was revealed during that comical show:) Folks you know what i am referring to. Enjoyed all the songs, especially Senthil has a good voice. Happily ate and called it a night! Next day would be a long day to Kallakurichi.

Day 5 Stats:Destination: Yelagiri
Distance covered: 137kms
Elevation Gain: 1350m
Elevation Loss: 620m
For Lunch: Proper Veg Lunch..

Also Read:
Day 4: Fishy Day 4
Day 3: Relaxed day from Yercaud to Hogenakkal
Day 2: Killer Yercaud
Day 1 and Day 0 : Into TOT and to Kolli

_MJV_

Tour of TamilNadu 2013 - Day 4, Rest - Fish - Fish - Rest - Local Loop!!!

After a very relaxed ride from Yercaud to Hogenakkal the other day, we had already gone for a recovery walk and a round of fish to get the streak started. As i had mentioned already, i had promised Venkat, Siva, Amol and Bhaskar to get them awesome fish lunch the next day. So at the end of Day 3, night we were discussing about a proper rest day on Day 4, without any inch of cycling. But the locations were simply too awesome and Venkat had Billigundlu in mind to be explored. And there came the condition from Siva, this is a casual ride with no Lycras and Jerseys. Yes on Day 4 morning, we started to Billigundlu.

It is a very nice scenic route leading to the Billigundlu with few climbs thrown in between. We went through the village of Billigundlu to see the place where the water measurement takes place in the Kaveri river. After spending a great deal of time there, where Bhaskar also joined for a photo shoot. We came back and had an awesome breakfast with great music played in the centre of the Village for the Christmas day. So i am not going to write much in this blog as we have more pictures to tell the entire story. While coming back to room, i test rode Scott Addict and threw in some short sprints to see the great bike used by Human Missile Mark Cavendish's bike in action. Siva has one awesome bike.

We came back and had an awesome lunch as promised to the friends. Enjoy the pictures and story of Day 4 folks.

Siva's work!

One of the awesome pics in this Tour!

Stretching @ water!

Great lunch!

Eagerly waiting.. Bhaskar in mood already...

In Billigundlu...

Rakesh - You beauty!!!

Casual attire...

Siva looking at the climbs and about to kill us!

Roads roads...

Sign board warning about Elephants range!

We were trespassing actually!

Siva n Venkat

Siva and myself

Giant SCR2

One FB pose..

Bhaskar with future riders...

While coming back..

Pardon Bhaskar will add more snaps while i get all of it!!!

FOCUS...

Focus towards the Giant and get Scott addicted!!!

Siva and his mean machine...

Our Lunch while getting cleaned.

Yummy!!!

Lord checking out his creation!

Thats a Hottie or Hottle!!!

Yeey nee romba alaga irukka... Hey you are too beautiful!!!

Bhaskar in Sambu Avatar...

Suresh stealing the show...

All of us,... Credits to Praveen. Vaibhav i ll pick out some other full pic soon!

Gangsta...

Day 4 Stats:
Total ride distance - 23kms
Destination - Billigundlu
Lunch - Fish, fish and more fish!!!

Also Read:
Day 3: Relaxed day from Yercaud to Hogenakkal
Day 2: Killer Yercaud
Day 1 and Day 0 : Into TOT and to Kolli

_MJV_