The final day of Mae Hong Son Challenge is planned to be a 129km ride from Pai to Chiang Mai with a 2000m of elevation gain. That would take the cumulative gain for the tour to be over 12,000m comfortably.
The main climb of the day is an 18km climb with 950m of elevation gain. The first 5.5km of that climb is 440m at 8.2%.
Since it was a long day with plenty of climbing, we wanted to start at 7am. It was super cold with the temperature reading 13 degrees centigrade but it felt more like it was in single digits.
The breakfast for the day was 4km into our ride at a nice little place called “Coffee in Love”!
The breakfast was brilliant but the scenic beauty of the location was covered with fog. Pai seemed to be the most touristy of all the places we rode through and stayed at during this trip.
Even at the most touristy of the places, we did not see a single Indian in the entire trip. I guess this part of the country is not very popular with the regular tourists. The Mae Hong Son loop attracts a different kind of traveler. One who would love to explore the terrain on two wheels. We have seen a ton of motorcyclists and a few cyclists.
11km into the ride at the Memorial Bridge, we shed our extra layers as we were nearing the big climb. The climb started from around the 14km mark and the gradients gradually increased.
The Big One To Close Tour on a High!
At the initial portion of the climb, I stayed with Sampath who was pacing Murali up the climb. That got me into a nice and easy rhythm.
After a couple of kilometers, I decided to press on at a slightly increased intensity. I still kept it easy knowing that it is a long climb and anything over tempo would cost me later in the climb. There is no point giving everything on the climb and not being able to ride the rest of the day.
As I hit the steep sections, I saw Ravi Kiran ahead trying to do a bit of crisscrossing on the road to handle the steepness with whatever gearing he had available. I rode past reminding him there is still 15km to go and encouraging him to keep at it.
With around 11km to go, I began to see the familiar jersey of Balaram up ahead. He was smoothly sailing up those steep sections gracefully. At the hairpin curves, the angle of the roads looked all the more scary.
With around 10km to go, I managed to bridge up to Balaram at a steep hairpin bend and went past him urging him to keep up the effort.
With about 9km to go there was only about 350m of elevation left to be done. It began to get easier with much milder gradients and even an occasional downhill section.
Apart from an odd steep section or two the second half of the climb was smooth sailing. It felt great to reach the top at Huai Nam Dang National Park. Balaram rolled in about 5 mins later and we both posed for pictures.
After the climb we rolled downhill to take a brief coffee break at the 44km mark. After that we rode on to the lunch spot at 77km at a place called Pankled Coffee.
After demolishing good food followed by yummy dessert, we started riding the last 50km to Chiang Mai.
The Train to Chiang Mai!
Sampath started a train after lunch with Murali, Hemanth, Balaram, Ravi and me. The initial portion of the last 50k took us on to some lovely country roads. It was amazing riding through those scenic country roads with hardly any traffic.
More importantly, it felt like we had wings riding on the flat roads that slightly tended to lose elevation as we went towards Chiang Mai. We were going at a fair clip with hardly any effort. After a bit of work from Sampath, Murali and Balaram at various points, I took to front and set an all day pace so that the group stays together and we make it home as a bunch.
However, the dream run on the country roads ended after about 30k and we got on the highway to Chiang Mai for the last 19k of the ride in traffic. A couple on a couple of white bikes (Dogma F and De Rosa) and green kit joined our train in the traffic until they had to take a right and go in a different direction at a traffic stop.
We made it to our hotel in Chiang Mai safe and sound and immensely satisfied. That was an epic day’s riding to end what has been an epic tour.
Mae Hong Son Challenge – What An Amazing Experience!
The Mae Hong Son Challenge has been a truly amazing experience for me for incredible climbs, the exhilarating descents, the breathtaking views, the buttersmooth roads, the lovely company, pampered support, amazing cafe stops, exotic lunch stops, delicious food and being able to experience the places we visited off the bike too.
I think it is just the right amount of hard riding to satisfy the masochistic cyclist with food to satisfy even a seasoned gourmand and coffee to satisfy even a hardened coffee snob(Krish falls into both of these btw).
The chances we got to experience the local markets and spirit of the places we visited just enhanced the whole experience many fold and ensured we get to carry memories that we made beyond the bike as well. This was like any other tour that I’ve never done before.
Kudos to Krish Basu and BarnOwl Adventures for putting together an experience like none other.
Also Read..
Day 2: Mae Chaem to Mae Sariang!
Day 3&4 Mae Sariang to Khun Yuam
Day 5: Khun Yuam to Mae Hong Son