Many things in life are uncertain. Foggy mornings in Coorg, this time of the year, potholed roads and amazing scenic beauty do not fall in that category.

The rain at the end of the ride yesterday meant most of us put our bikes through a cleaning process at the end of the ride. The disc brakes made my bike feel like a baby elephant trumpeting and calling out for it’s mother everytime I tried to brake! It was only after a few kilometres that it fell silent, much to the relief of those riding around me!

Tri Champ Using TFN to Build Cycling Fitness!

TimTim Sharma recently completed Ironman 70.3 in Behrain and stood on the podium in her age category with a personal best of 5:21. Although her goal was to go sub 5 hours for the event, the conditions on the day turned out to be super hard with hazardous wind conditions. 

To come up with such a performance with gusty winds that went upto 50kmph at places, was really commendable. A third place in her age category in her first international triathlon is an icing on the cake.

She joined TFN just a few weeks after her event to use it to build her cycling fitness for her upcoming triathlon goals next year. She is leading the competitive segments for women’s category this year. All the best ahead, TimTim! Go get that sub 5 soon!

Friendship Forged by the Love of Sport!

Stan and Norman met at their club in San Francisco back in 2008. They trained together regularly and participated in many events together over the years. But, life took them to different places and Stan now lives in Barcelona while Norman still lives in the US.

But they make it a point to do at least one event together every year. This year, that event became Tour of Nilgiris.

Both of them are having a blast riding the tour. According to Norm, he’s absolutely blown away seeing such well organized and well supported tour in such beautiful routes. Glad to see both of them having a great time on the tour. Hopefully it becomes their yearly getaway of riding together!

From Bumpy to Butter Smooth!

How do you know that we crossed a state border? In case of Karnataka, it is quite easy to recognise. The minute you cross the border, the roads become better. Things changed from the bone rattling tarmac to butter smooth roads as we crossed Tolpatti checkpoint and entered Kerala.

To be fair not all Karnataka roads are bad. Just the majority are. More so in Coorg it seemed. And, not every road in Wayanad is butter smooth. Majority are.

I joined Delton D’Souza and Su Yin. We felt like we were in heaven especially after what we had to deal with just a few kilometres before that. Smooth tarmac and amazing views in the forest were a welcome change.

Unniyappam and Black Tea! Match made in Kerala!

Within no time we reached the famous Unniyappam place and ordered Unniyappams and black tea.

The unniyappam kada becomes an unofficial support station whenever we pass through this route. We downed a few Unniyappams and black tea/coffee even though we know lunch stop was just about 15k away from there.

Kerala forest and wildlife department’s Government Timber Depot in Bavaly, Wayanad was our lunch venue for the day. We stopped at the same place for lunch last year when we rode to Wayanad from Mysore on first day. After a quick lunch we headed towards competitive segment for the day, a 12km segment starting at 112km mark.

The ride after lunch was another amazing experience. We rode through a segment that was termed as Kerala’s Koppenberg by Peter Roper to enter a forest area that felt super secluded and serene. According to Peter, “it almost feels like we should not be here”. Wooww.. was the sound that repeatedly came out of his mouth as we rode on.

Some riders spotted a tusker while riding in the forest section between lunch point and the CS start. Others have spotted deer. It must have felt like a bit of a wild safari ride.

After the gated section of forest, we re-entered the forest highway we got off from to get to lunch. Peter, Rajesh and Norm went ballistic going downhill on those butter smooth roads. It was super fun and we reached the start of CS in no time. While Rajesh, Peter, Stan and Norm decided to stop and have coffee, Delton, Su Yin and I decided to ride on to get done with the CS and reach the hotel as soon as possible.

I didn’t want to overthink the CS today. Just push on the uphill segments and recover a bit on the downhills was the strategy. The legs took a while to agree to push and the heart rate refused to raise. But, I did the best I could and got it done.

After the CS, I joined Su Yin and Delton again for the last 6k to the Sterling Wayanad where we are staying for the night. We reached just in time as the luggage truck was getting unloaded just before 3pm.

What’s Ahead!?

Tomorrow we head to Ooty. 125km ride from Wayanad to Ooty via Gudalur is on the cards. A 11km climb segment after Gudalur from 75km to 86km mark will be the timed segment. The 40km ride from there to Ooty will feel longer than usual after an effort like that. It will be interesting to see how the legs respond on the 4th successive hard day.