A Tryst With The Mountain Weather!

On the rest the day in Ooty, we had beautiful weather with clear blue skies and sunshine! For our ride to Kodanad ‘view’ point on day 7 of the tour, however, we got to see a completely different perspective of the mountains! It was extremely cold and foggy with very limited visibility.

The start was delayed and we started riding at about 8:30am. The plan was to ride to the Kodanad view point where we could enjoy the amazing views over lunch. We were to take a diversion on the way back to form a 90k loop back to the hotel with a 5km climbing CS right at the end.

However, as soon as we started riding, it began to drizzle which turned to proper rain by the time we crossed Kotagiri. The descent into Kotagiri was tricky with wet roads.

We had a couple of close calls with riders almost slipping in the corners but everyone managed to stay on the bikes and make it Kodanad view point where lunch was arranged.

By that time, looking at the weather conditions, the organizers decided to change the route from the loop which has steep downhills to more safer ride back to the hotel via the same route we got there on.

They cancelled the competitive segment for the day as well and offered transportation to those who didn’t want to ride again in rain after lunch. Most of the riders took that option after a hot lunch in that cold weather.

A few of us, however, got to the lunch point early. Instead of waiting while the piping hot lunch is getting prepared and shiver in the wet cycling kit, we decided to start riding back to the hotel so that the body stays warm.

We stopped at a small tea stall near our support station on the way back and enjoyed hot tea before starting to ride back.

It was one hell of an epic day with the mountains testing both the riders and the support crew at TFN with very challenging weather conditions. It made for another epic and memorable day at TFN!

Watch the days video here:

What’s Ahead!

We come to the end of another memorable TFN with the last day’s ride from Ooty down to Gundlupet. Can’t believe another awesome edition is coming to an end already. Looking forward to an easy 100k ride to Gundlupet with a long downhill ride to Gudalur in the first part of the day.