A Badass Father Son Doctor Duo’s TFN Connection!
The Tour of Nilgiris 2014 was the toughest edition of the tour I’ve taken part in the 11 years I have been part of. It was the most challenging in my book because it had Kalahatty, Valparai and Munnar in the same tour.
Dr. Anant Joshi, one the most acclaimed and pioneers in Orthopaedic Surgery in India was part of TFN 2014! In 2019, his son, Dr. Mihir Joshi, an Emergency Medical doctor in Glasgow, has done his first TFN. Mihir joined us again this year and finished second in the 35-44 age category.
From time to time, they go on cycling vacations together riding in iconic cycling destinations like the Alps and Mallorca. Mihir is aspiring to ride TFN along with his dad in a couple of years when his dad turns 70.
What an amazing and inspirational duo. I’d love to be able to continue riding nearing 70 and if I were to be joined by my son, I’d be super proud that I’ve done well in raising him. Ride on Doctors! Here is to seeing you both together on TFN soon!
Presentation Ceremony!
Yesterday evening, the leaders jerseys for the winners of GC and KOM/QOM in the categories were presented along with a few other fun awards!
Epic Weather And Epic Flat Pacelines To End The Tour!
We woke up to the sound of heavy rain today, the last day of the tour. By the time we got ready to ride it became a mild drizzle. Joel, Howard, Priya and I led the ride in our leader’s jerseys.
The first 10k was mostly uphill before the actual descent started. As we reached the top of the climb it was extremely foggy and cold with very limited visibility. We were allowed to ride with a lead motorbiker for every ten riders.
We were extremely careful in descending because the road was very wet with oil slick spots at quite a few places and the fog meant limited visibility.
We had a quick tea break and regrouped at Attakatti. The visibility became better on the lower half of the climb from Attakatti.
Once we reached the base of the climb, the pace immediately picked up. Adhitya Bhandari and Tarun Kumar came from behind and our group latched on to them. That infused even more pace into the group. The group was almost 12-13 strong and we began belting it and reached the support station at the 57km mark in no time.
Mihir was apparently dropped on the way and joined us at the SS. 12 of us started riding towards SS 3. While I kept reminding everyone to keep the pace manageable, the guys were getting excited. But they did an excellent job overall and we made Swift progress.
The pace was disrupted only a couple of flats for Mihir and Rahul before we got to SS 3 at 97km.
From SS 3, the 12 man group became half as Rahul Nair, Mihir, Anand Prakash, James Byrne and Anirudh started a bit later. Six of us, Jonas, Krishna, Sharath, Badri Narayan, Harsh Dhillon and I started riding together. Sat SS 4 at 124km mark Sharath stopped and the rest of us continued on at a fair clip.
10km from the finish, I had a flat to continue the trend. We fixed it in 5 mins and started riding to reach the hotel at 3:20pm.
That brings an end to another amazing tour. 14th edition and 11th tour for me.
A big thanks to the organizers and the volunteers for another flawless execution despite all the challenges along the way. Massive kudos to them! Looking forward to the next one already!