We have decided to start at our usual starting point of Siva’s road. The plan is to start there and ride through KR Puram and get onto the ORR to reach Hebbal. From there take left on Bellari road to get on to Doddaballapur road then just as we are approaching Doddaballapur take right to get on to the road that takes us to Devanahalli. From Devanahalli and get on to the road towards Budigere which we call Siva’s road. It is nearly a 100km loop(roughly 99.5 actually).
The Minkey Loop
Both of us were around 10 minutes late from our initial start time of 6:15 am at the start point so we were right on time for each other courtesy of some SMS sync up.
We started riding on Old Madras road and pretty soon we saw what the late start has done in terms of the traffic at KR Puram market. We had to crawl along for a couple of minutes till we crossed KR Puram. Then we got onto Outer Ring Road to reach Hebbal. The road conditions are less than ideal for this portion because of the road construction work on ORR. It pretty much the same till we take left on Bellari road to cross the rail track and get onto Doddballapur road.
Once the four lane road turns to double road with no divider, the route gets better. Yeah, that’s right. There is nice tree cover on both sides of the road and ample shade. The road itself is pretty good too although narrow by four lane standards. Traffic is relatively sparse. We stopped for a quick nature call break as soon as we got on to that nicer portion of the road.
We were going at around 29 kmph till there. Just as we started riding again, Minkey happened to remark if I’m trying for another PB. That made us to increase the pace. We began to attack the inclines to maintain the momentum and it was super fun. We turned onto Devanahalli road and took a quick fuel break where Minkey took out his PBJ sandwich and I loaded up on some chikki.
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| Minkey, in deep thought as he munches on his sandwich at our only fuel stop.. |
We started again after our quick stop and proceeded towards Devanahalli. Both of us were on our fixed gear bikes and it was going to be the longest ride for Minkey on any bike. I noticed that Minkey was getting tired and was falling behind on the inclines. He was not used to doing such distances on this bike, so that was understandable although he is quite fit.
We crossed the Bellari road to get into Devanahalli and got onto Siva’s road in no time. We were both on track for our PB centuries. Once we got onto Siva’s road, Minkey told me not to slow down for him and see what would be the time for my 100km. Since it was familiar terrain for both of us, I marched ahead and reached crossed 100k(from home) just after crossing Budigere, in 3 hrs 21 mins. Then I waited for Minkey and he arrived a few minutes later having crossed the century mark in 3 hrs and 26mins. Incidentally that was my PB from last week. 🙂
Both of us were tired but were very satisfied with the efforts. We promised ourselves that the next time we ride this loop, we won’t remind ourselves of PB timings etc and actually see and enjoy the route. From that point we rode at a slower recovery pace and stopped for coconut water near Siva’s road start before parting ways for home.
Minkey here, the ride is for you and Alanis. The loop would here by called ‘The Minkey Loop’ by me. 🙂
Garmin link for the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard?cid=1555006