Oops! Spoke Too Soon!

Sandeep Bhushan from Gurgaon got a few of his friends excited about doing the Tour of Nilgiris and had them agree to sign up. Then when they began to read up on the tour and got to understand the routes and elevation profiles etc., some of them felt..oops, we “Spoke Too Soon”! That’s what they named their group and got special jerseys made for TFN!

Unfortunately, Sandeep had to drop out at the last moment due to a death in the family, but the remaining five made it. Sidharth, Amit, Ambika, Pooja and James are having a blast on the tour and are glad that they spoke too soon and committed to doing the TFN! Hopefully, Sandeep will be able to make it next time!

Out of the five of them, Amit Ohja is the only one who has done TFN before in 2013. He is returning to the tour after exactly 10 years. It is fun catching up with him and getting to know the rest of the gang.

James Abraham is my roommate today. He happens to be close friends for nearly twenty years with another roommate of mine from a few years ago at TFN and a good friend of mine ever since, Sumit Kumar Johri, from DelhiVelo. Love how TFN ends up bringing people of similar passion together and forges friendships that last a lifetime.

Rest Day Shenanigans!

Rest day in Ooty is always special. We had a relaxed breakfast followed by a photoshoot of all the riders and volunteers of TFN class of 2023!

After the photoshoot a few of us walked to Ooty for chocolate shopping and a few explored some well known lunch places in Ooty.

Getting some laundry done and cleaning the bike was part of the menu along with unwinding with drinks of choice for many.

Flying Down the Hill to Coimbatore!

Today was a transitional stage between two big stages in a way. It is a 114km ride that’s mostly downhill and flat. Whatever little climbing there was is used as the day’s competitive segment at the 17km mark.

The day’s ride was flagged off by the SI of Kotagiri police station. The police department was also kind enough to arrange for hot tea and biscuits closer to Kotagiri.

As we started descending towards the CS segment it was extremely cold and even with a couple of layers it was difficult to ride with numb fingers that were barely able to control the bike.

The CS for the day was on a 4km uphill segment with a couple of technical sections thrown in. It was difficult to get into a rhythm as we hit a downhill followed by a steep uphill multiple times in the short but brutal course. I think the altitude also adds to the difficulty of it with breathing becoming very hard with any effort.

After the CS, I joined the youngster, Anu Bhise, down towards Kotagiri. After accepting the nice warm tea and biscuits from the Kotagiri police department we wanted to head to Moody’s in Kotagiri for some hot chocolate. But, we promptly took the right turn at the start of the descent and ended up at SS 2 which was a couple of km from where Moody’s was. Instead of going back for the hot chocolate, we had some Ooty Varkey and tea and started descending towards Mettupalayam.

The Flowy Descent!

The 28km descent from Kotagiri to Mettupalayam was pure bliss. Although we needed to be careful with the traffic on the route, the flowy nature of the descent meant we had super fun going down the hill. Anu followed my wheel like a champ and led me down hill for a few kms as well. It was great to watch the youngster putting her MTB skills to good use and descending with good and safe technique.

We stopped en route a couple of times for pictures and also to give the hands some rest.

Completing the long descent safely and enjoying it in the process was super fun.

Post lunch as we started riding back, I had another flat and the Crankmeister team came to my rescue and got me going.

After my flat was fixed, I got into rhythm on the flat stretch towards Coimbatore. Those internal roads hardly had any traffic and had a brilliant road surface.

After a few days spent in the hills, everyone including me was super excited to belt it on the flats. Hopefully that josh doesn’t show up in the form of tired legs tomorrow. We need all the strength we can muster for tomorrow’s 150km ride to Valparai.

The Day’s Results!

GC After Day 5

As I predicted, Rithvik promptly moved to second position overall with a brilliant climb today. I’m sure tomorrow it’ll be a repeat of the same. Howard managed to add 22 more seconds to his 52sec lead on me. If I were to displace him from the 3rd overall, I have to climb out of my skin tomorrow.

While the top spots in each of the categories seem to be cemented going into the last CS tomorrow, there is stiff competition for other places on the podium. It will be super interesting.

What’s Ahead!?

If Day 3 ride from Wayanad to Ooty can be termed as a Queen stage, probably tomorrow’s 150km ride from Coimbatore to Valparai with a 23km climb at the end can be termed as a King stage? If that’s not a thing, the point is, it is going to be equally hard if not harder. On the brighter side, it is going to be a very scenic climb to end the day on a high!