10 Years On TFN for The Man Who Lives Up to His Name!

In 2012, Anand Kapoor happened to know about a shorter form of Tour of Nilgiris that was 3 days, from Friday to Sunday. That was the only time they did a shorter version. He joined TFN Entre and got hooked to the experience. A week in December has been allocated to TFN ever since. This year marks his 10th year at TFN!

He is so passionate about TFN that he probably got more of his friends to experience the tour than anyone else. In my view, Anand represents the spirit of TFN more than anyone else with his infectious smile and friendliness that can make anyone his own. It is hard for anyone who knows even a little about him to not love this guy. If he befriends you, he adopts you and drowns you in his love, a bit like what TFN could be for many of us. Here is wishing him many more happy miles and many more Tour of Nilgiris ahead.

If There Was Heaven, This Was It!

The sunrays were peaking through the trees on the sides of the hills and skidding off the top of the tea plantations. We rolled down the winding roads absolutely mesmerized by the ethereal beauty in front of our eyes. We could hardly believe our eyes that there could be this much beauty just outside of a sleepy little town that is Valparai.

If there was such a place called heaven, I thought we were riding through that this morning. Words are not enough to describe the beauty of this place. It has to be experienced and felt!

We whipped up the phones and kept clicking away hoping to catch at least some of the beauty in front of our eyes and keep it for memories. It was hard to keep the phones down because everywhere we looked was poster worthy.

We reached Sholayar Dam and posed for more pictures.

After lunch that included some fresh and aloo bhajias, Krishna , Jonas and I started riding back to Valparai.

IIT Alumni on TFN!

A bunch of IITians are on the tour this year. The senior most of them is 69 years young who graduated from IIT Bombay in 1977. The junior most graduated in 2018 from the same college. It is great to see the brianiac tribe exercising something beyond their big brains and smashing the rides during the TFN! What a fun bunch!

What’s Ahead?

Tomorrow is the final day of the tour. A 150km ride from Valparai to Coimbatore to finish another memorable tour. It is going to be fun riding the downhill and the flat final kilometres forming some paceline trains.