Nandi or Nothing!
For all the Bangalore bikers, it is the Alpe D’Huez, the Ventoux and everything that stands for climbing greatness in cycling folklore. At 7.34km in length and about 419m in elevation gain, Nandi hills doesn’t compare favorably to any of those great climbs but it is the only climb of any significance accessible for us. At about 50km from most areas in Bangalore, it invariably becomes the destination of choice for that weekend long ride for most riders.
Everyone has a target for their personal best times on Nandi. For some it is one hour, for most it is sub-30. Once that is breached, sub-25 mins becomes a target. Once you get there, may be sub-23 and then… The pursuit never ends. Like that famous quote about climbing that is attributed to Greg Lemond, “It never gets easier, you only get faster”.
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| Breathtaking views on the climb that takes your breath away! Photo: Mayumi Oe |
Time for Personal Bests!
Bangalore Amateur Racing‘s climbing time trial offered a perfect platform for riders to see how far up can they push their personal best Nandi climb times. Twenty two riders started right from the Nandi statue at the base with 30 second gaps and put their climbing legs to test. Most of them arrived victorious at the Nandi arch, having smashed their previous personal bests by good margins.
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| A leaner and meaner Craig Raynes powering his way up the climb… Photo: Mayumi Oe |
Masters Power Up:
Climbing is all about the power to weight ratio and a much leaner and possibly with a meaner power output, Craig Raynes finished first in Masters category with a 26:07 climb time for the 7.34km climb which gains ~420m in elevation. He was in fact the fastest non-elite category rider. Venkat Rajmohan finished 2nd in Masters with a 28:47 followed by Ankush Sharma with a 29:00 on his hybrid bike.
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| Ankush Sharma(3rd), Craig Raynes(1st) and Venkat Rajmohan(2nd) in Masters Category |
Rider/Runner of the Day:
The 14 year old, Vishwesh Arya, inherited his older brother, Sarvesh Arya’s old alloy road bike after his brother joined Team Trek Firefox and earned himself some sweet Carbon. He arrived at the base of Nandi with his brother and lined up to race. His ultra lean frame was powering up the climb when at around 2km mark, his rear tire flatted. Instead of giving up and ending up with a DNF against his name, he decided to run up with his bike to complete the race.
He finished the climb in 42 mins running, pushing that bike up which, looking at his lean frame, possibly weighed as much as him. That time is faster than most people can manage riding a bike when they start cycling. Having known his brother, Sarvesh, for a while and seeing his progress and now seeing this, I can only say that the bloodline seems to be on the right track towards awesomeness.
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| Vishwesh Arya, the 14year old.. running to finish the climb.. |
As Close As It Gets…
In the open/under-35 category, Aditya Kaul continues to impress with his performances this season. He finished first with a climb time of 27:47. Tim Miller finished second, an agonizing one sec behind Aditya. Shankar Jayaraman of Spectrum Racing finished 8secs down on Tim and settled for a third place.
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| Tim Miller(2nd), Aditya Kaul(1st) and Shankar Jayaraman(3rd) in Under 35 Category |
A Fairer Battle:
Vicki Nicholson with her sheer determination and willingness to work hard, has been ruling the women’s biking scene. At times she is frustrated at the lack of participation and competition from other women and ends up gauging her own performance with respect to the men’s field. All that could be changing for the better for her.
This race threw in a surprise with Nicola Miller finishing first in women’s category with a climb time of 28:55. Vicki finished 6 secs down on her with a 29:01, a personal best for her. It is great to see close competition and I’m sure Vicki and Nicola will relish challenging each other in future races. TimTim Sharma finished 3rd in the women’s field.
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| Vicki Nicholson(2nd), Nicola Miller(1st) and TimTim Sharma(3rd) in Women’s Category |
Elite Performances..
Although we started Bangalore Amateur Racing mainly to cater for weekend warriors and slightly more serious amateurs, we never really liked the idea of turning down any pro-rider turning up at the race. At the same time, we didn’t want to put them in the simple age categories we have for amateurs making the races meaning less. So, we decided to give any pro-rider participating in these races their own category, which we call an ‘elite’ category. These are the guys who set the benchmarks for us to try and emulate. So, I guess we should welcome them.
Sarvesh Arya who has been making huge progress with structured training after joining his new team, finished the climb with a superb 22:55! A PB by more than a minute for him. Naveen Raj, training for Nationals arrived on his KHS MTB and climbed Nandi in a time that would put roadies to shame. He finished in 24:51, probably the only sub-25 MTB climb so far!
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| Elite Category riders Naveen Raj(2nd) and Sarvesh Arya(1st) |
The Wall of Fame!!
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| Nandi Wall of Fame! BAR – Nandi Climbing TT Results! Lots of PBs there! |
A special thanks to Wheelsports for sponsoring winner T-shirts! Thanks to Rajani kanth and Dipankar Paul for volunteering for the race. Hari Menon has been a great help in organizing the BAR races this season and did a great job this race too manning the start line.
Photos: From my camera and from Veloscope.
Up Next..
The next BAR race is going to be the final race for this season and it is going to be an epic race! Nandi Duathlon.
Keep watching the event of the BAR Page.
Race Date: Nov 24th
Categories: Relay team, Individual
Team event: ~ 50 kms bike leg, ~ 7.4 kms run (30 minutes head start than Individual event)
Individual event: ~ 30 kms bike leg, ~ 7.4 kms run
Await more details, till then, figure out your running/biking partner and start training – or if you are competing in the individual cat, better still, you have a head start for training!
Team event: ~ 50 kms bike leg, ~ 7.4 kms run (30 minutes head start than Individual event)
Individual event: ~ 30 kms bike leg, ~ 7.4 kms run
Await more details, till then, figure out your running/biking partner and start training – or if you are competing in the individual cat, better still, you have a head start for training!
Nice write up Venky..as usual…I love climbing races..but missed this due to my pre occupations..But Interested for Duathlon…Any categories within INDIVIDUAL..?
Hey Prashant.. It would be great to have you here for the Nandi Duathlon. We'll likely have under 35 and over 35(Masters) categories for both individual and team events.
I was very surprised with Naveen posting such a poor time (for his level) until I read that it was on his MTB 🙂
It's great to see so much racing happening but painful not to be around so much good action!
Nice write-up as usual, Venky!