After a real scenic ride the day before and a memorable party thrown by TOT, we were already packed and looking forward for the last day of this incredible tour. There were lot of talks about too much traffic getting into Trichy city and cutting short the ride by 40kms for the safety aspect of the tour. But we were determined to ride fully and we were pumped up to finish it early and get into the party mode(As the venue was already decided, you wont believe it, almost 6 months back).
So after the general briefing and good Plantain leaf breakfast, we were ready to rush off. Started out a bit early to say good byes all of the great folks in the tour, an advantage of smaller tours almost you would come to know everyone face to face! Everything was completed and Siva was leading us out of the city. We got a nice NH to ride until Thalaivasal turn off. We were all pumped up and Draft King Siva caught us a truck and we were flying at almost 45 to 50kmph. Myself, Siva, Venkat, Muthu and Sapeksh were in the pack. Sapeksh got dropped within few kms but we were carrying on. Just a lapse of concentration for me after 16km of drafting, was jumping and i was to change to the lowest gear.
All of this happened in a flyover, and zoom the lorry went along with it, Siva, Muthu and Venkat also. I am telling you, it is very very difficult to catch that bunch especially the way the lorry is riding. Drafting also is an art and i agree rather we agree that Siva is the king in it. So later myself and Sapeksh started to take turns and pulling each other. For the first time in the tour, i started to feel that i might bonk any time, may be due to the high intensity drafting:) Believe me it is not also an easy job to keep up with lorry's pace of around 50kmph. Since this is not a race or something, we were happy to do that.
Now while reaching the first time station, we heard that the trio were flying and they were already 15 minutes ahead of us when we reached the TS. Just had a quick bite and then started off. This time we were joined by Rakesh as well. Around 60kms into the ride i was bonking, struggling to keep up with Sapeksh and Rakesh. I had told them as well, "I am bonking boys, if you want to go ahead, you folks carry on". But Rakesh was taking it easy and Sapeksh told he would stay with me. Guilty of pulling people around me, i pedalled on. There is a saying in running, "One step at a time", similarly i did one pedal rotation at a time. Generous breaks came creeping in. Little did i know that i could not catch the trio in front because later Venkat told they were in NO COASTING mode as instructed by Siva!
We were taking long time, while in Perambalur bye pass to actually catch the correct road to Trichy. There was a catch in that route, if we still go straight Trichy would come in another 50kms, But the actual route would take us to Trichy after another 90 + kms. Devil was playing in my mind and Rakesh too was just asking if we could go the shortest route in his fear for traffic i guess. But later we decided we would not do that on the last day, and finally turned around to pedal in longest route. We reached the last of time station and it was around 110kms and remaining 45kms for Trichy. I took a decision to skip the lunch for first time in the Tour, had full load of dry fruits there and Amol too had caught with us.
So I gladly came out of bonking and started to pedal with venom! Myself, Amol, Rakesh and Sapeksh were pedalling good, some times two of us would be ahead and two of us would be behind. This sort of cat and mouse game went on and Rakesh was really tired with Amol pushing the climbs. That guy is one strong rider over the days. He got stronger over the tour and rode well. Final break we went into a juice shop and decided to take the longer route into City. Rakesh did not want to let you down by saying the actual distance we needed to cover! When we were riding in that NH, i bet we had another 10 to 15kms left. But yeah i thought i told around 5kms. Thats just to give you a false information for short time to get us home. And after lot of route queries, there we were in the entrance of Hotel Tamilnadu. It all ended at where we started. Did not know how days flew. Lot of stories. Came to know that Venkat, Siva and Muthu ripped the entire ride in 6 hours including breaks. Awesome riding by them. We took a little more than 7 hours.
I was mightily happy to have completed the tour and we as a bunch were really happy. I have learnt lot of things from this tour. Great riders to ride with. I was not riding any day alone, it was easy to find riders at my pace. Almost on all days myself, Venkat, Siva, Rakesh, Sapeksh were together except the last day. Few days we were riding with Amol, Rakesh, Vaibhav, Ullas, Magesh, Sanjeev, Rajesh and all others. Let me try honestly and i am not referring any of the TOT pages to spell out the riders who rode this TOT. Let us see,
Ok here we start: Venkat, Siva, Amol, Sapeksh, Rakesh, Vaibhav , Bhaskar, Magesh, Vaz, Sanjeev, Venky, Rajaram, Suresh, Ezhil, Firoza, Doc Nagesh, Rajesh, Praveen, Pradeep, Ganesh, Gokul, Senthil,Amit, Prob, Muthu, Anjali, Sanjay, Ullas, Murali, Gayatri, Vaibhav (Venky's son), Saumyen, Hari, Jayanandan, Kaushik, Murali (not sure his name)...
Not sure if i had covered all riders. It was a great and thanks to all the organizers, Bala sir and his team, Bhai mechanic and all others who had made this tour to happen. Thank you very much. Looking forward for the next tour. It was a great pleasure riding in this Tour of TamilNadu. This being my first multi day tour, the experiences were very near to my heart and with the feedbacks that we had provided, i am sure TOT will be much much better than this year which was already a great tour.
Since i bonked in the ride, no wonder this blog does not have any pics :)
Day 8 Stats:Destination: Trichy
Distance covered: 165kms
Elevation Gain: 373m
Elevation Loss: 384m
For Lunch: Cakes and dry fruits!
Also Read:
Day 0 and Day 1: TOT 2013 - An Experience to cherish
Day 2: Killer Yercaud
Day 3: Relaxed ride from Yercaud to Hogenakkal
Day 4: Fishy Day
Day 5: 14 poets
Day 6: One long day @ TOT
Day 7: Most Scenic day
_MJV_
So after the general briefing and good Plantain leaf breakfast, we were ready to rush off. Started out a bit early to say good byes all of the great folks in the tour, an advantage of smaller tours almost you would come to know everyone face to face! Everything was completed and Siva was leading us out of the city. We got a nice NH to ride until Thalaivasal turn off. We were all pumped up and Draft King Siva caught us a truck and we were flying at almost 45 to 50kmph. Myself, Siva, Venkat, Muthu and Sapeksh were in the pack. Sapeksh got dropped within few kms but we were carrying on. Just a lapse of concentration for me after 16km of drafting, was jumping and i was to change to the lowest gear.
All of this happened in a flyover, and zoom the lorry went along with it, Siva, Muthu and Venkat also. I am telling you, it is very very difficult to catch that bunch especially the way the lorry is riding. Drafting also is an art and i agree rather we agree that Siva is the king in it. So later myself and Sapeksh started to take turns and pulling each other. For the first time in the tour, i started to feel that i might bonk any time, may be due to the high intensity drafting:) Believe me it is not also an easy job to keep up with lorry's pace of around 50kmph. Since this is not a race or something, we were happy to do that.
Now while reaching the first time station, we heard that the trio were flying and they were already 15 minutes ahead of us when we reached the TS. Just had a quick bite and then started off. This time we were joined by Rakesh as well. Around 60kms into the ride i was bonking, struggling to keep up with Sapeksh and Rakesh. I had told them as well, "I am bonking boys, if you want to go ahead, you folks carry on". But Rakesh was taking it easy and Sapeksh told he would stay with me. Guilty of pulling people around me, i pedalled on. There is a saying in running, "One step at a time", similarly i did one pedal rotation at a time. Generous breaks came creeping in. Little did i know that i could not catch the trio in front because later Venkat told they were in NO COASTING mode as instructed by Siva!
We were taking long time, while in Perambalur bye pass to actually catch the correct road to Trichy. There was a catch in that route, if we still go straight Trichy would come in another 50kms, But the actual route would take us to Trichy after another 90 + kms. Devil was playing in my mind and Rakesh too was just asking if we could go the shortest route in his fear for traffic i guess. But later we decided we would not do that on the last day, and finally turned around to pedal in longest route. We reached the last of time station and it was around 110kms and remaining 45kms for Trichy. I took a decision to skip the lunch for first time in the Tour, had full load of dry fruits there and Amol too had caught with us.
So I gladly came out of bonking and started to pedal with venom! Myself, Amol, Rakesh and Sapeksh were pedalling good, some times two of us would be ahead and two of us would be behind. This sort of cat and mouse game went on and Rakesh was really tired with Amol pushing the climbs. That guy is one strong rider over the days. He got stronger over the tour and rode well. Final break we went into a juice shop and decided to take the longer route into City. Rakesh did not want to let you down by saying the actual distance we needed to cover! When we were riding in that NH, i bet we had another 10 to 15kms left. But yeah i thought i told around 5kms. Thats just to give you a false information for short time to get us home. And after lot of route queries, there we were in the entrance of Hotel Tamilnadu. It all ended at where we started. Did not know how days flew. Lot of stories. Came to know that Venkat, Siva and Muthu ripped the entire ride in 6 hours including breaks. Awesome riding by them. We took a little more than 7 hours.
I was mightily happy to have completed the tour and we as a bunch were really happy. I have learnt lot of things from this tour. Great riders to ride with. I was not riding any day alone, it was easy to find riders at my pace. Almost on all days myself, Venkat, Siva, Rakesh, Sapeksh were together except the last day. Few days we were riding with Amol, Rakesh, Vaibhav, Ullas, Magesh, Sanjeev, Rajesh and all others. Let me try honestly and i am not referring any of the TOT pages to spell out the riders who rode this TOT. Let us see,
Ok here we start: Venkat, Siva, Amol, Sapeksh, Rakesh, Vaibhav , Bhaskar, Magesh, Vaz, Sanjeev, Venky, Rajaram, Suresh, Ezhil, Firoza, Doc Nagesh, Rajesh, Praveen, Pradeep, Ganesh, Gokul, Senthil,Amit, Prob, Muthu, Anjali, Sanjay, Ullas, Murali, Gayatri, Vaibhav (Venky's son), Saumyen, Hari, Jayanandan, Kaushik, Murali (not sure his name)...
Not sure if i had covered all riders. It was a great and thanks to all the organizers, Bala sir and his team, Bhai mechanic and all others who had made this tour to happen. Thank you very much. Looking forward for the next tour. It was a great pleasure riding in this Tour of TamilNadu. This being my first multi day tour, the experiences were very near to my heart and with the feedbacks that we had provided, i am sure TOT will be much much better than this year which was already a great tour.
Since i bonked in the ride, no wonder this blog does not have any pics :)
Day 8 Stats:Destination: Trichy
Distance covered: 165kms
Elevation Gain: 373m
Elevation Loss: 384m
For Lunch: Cakes and dry fruits!
Also Read:
Day 0 and Day 1: TOT 2013 - An Experience to cherish
Day 2: Killer Yercaud
Day 3: Relaxed ride from Yercaud to Hogenakkal
Day 4: Fishy Day
Day 5: 14 poets
Day 6: One long day @ TOT
Day 7: Most Scenic day
_MJV_
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