Foggy, windy and cold. Sunny, bright and warm. Clear blue skies with spectacular white cotton clouds. Gusty, misty and zero visibility. The weather gods kept playing dice all day. Thankfully, they kept the rain out of it for the day. I guess they used it all up on the two previous days.

Bonus Rest Day Courtesy Weather Gods!

After four hard days, day five on Thursday was the scheduled rest day. The weather was foggy and rainy all day. Despite the rain, some riders went to explore Ooty, Coonoor etc in cars. Many spent the day pursuing indoor fun activities at the resort, Sterling Fern Hill. I practiced the competitive sport of eating and chatting all day along with a few. I think I took the win at that. TFN might need to consider a special jersey for that category. FYI size Small(I’ll somehow squeeze into it).

Day 6 was supposed to be a 100+km ride to Thiashola and Kinnakorai. But the weather gods continued to throw rain. Considering the safety of the riders, the organisers decided to call off the ride. Although everyone was bummed out that the weather played spoil sport, some of the riders’ bums must have been thankful for the extra day they got to recover. Mine definitely was.

Some went out for brunch and stayed out till linner. Some went out for a short hike when there was a brief respite from the rain.

In the weather respite, three riders put the sponsor bikes from Trek, the Trek CheckPoint gravel bikes to good use and went for a short spin.

I continued my sport of eating and chatting and took the win again two days in a row.

Weather Gods Play Nice and Play Dice!

With two days of rest most of the riders were itching to ride. Thankfully, today’s weather forecast was looking good although there was bit of drizzle to begin with.

Just before flag off, we celebrated Su Yin’s birthday by making her cut a cake. Happy Birthday, Su Yin! Su Yin is raising funds for a charity GivingBack, which subsidises spine surgeries for the underprivileged. If you can, you can donate here.

Ride was flagged off by SP of Ooty, Ms. Nisha NS sharply at 9am.

Warm now.. Cold again.. Layer Up.. Layer Down!

Although it was not raining by the time we started, the roads were wet, it was foggy and was very cold. So, everyone had more than one layer of clothing on them. I had four layers on(base layer, jersey, full sleeve jersey, short sleeved wind cheater vest) with a rain jacket stoved away in case it rains.

The layers felt perfect when we were descending. I had to unzip a layer or two when the road went up as I began to heat up with the effort, however easy I tried to keep it.

The weather kept changing by the minute as we kept riding. Foggy, windy and cold. Sunny, bright and warm. Clear blue skies with spectacular white cotton clouds. Gusty, misty and limited visibility. It felt as if the weather gods kept playing dice all day. Thankfully, they kept the rain out of it for the day. I guess they used it all up on the two previous days.

Rajesh and I decided to keep moving considering it was going to be a long day with more than 2000m of elevation gain. We quickly refilled at SS1 and started riding again.

After two rest days, I found it difficult to keep up with him and I ended up riding alone most of the day.

After a quick lunch break at the Kodanad view point, we rushed back to ride. We saw no point hanging around at the view point as it was completely foggy and cold with gusty winds.

High on Altitude and Low on Oxygen!

The CS for the day was at 93km mark. It was a 4km portion of Attabettu climb that finishes at Doddabetta signal. It starts at 2200m and finishes at ~2450m.

With the GC positions already decided with almost 4-5 min gaps between top 3, I was low on adrenaline. The high altitude meant we were also low on oxygen for high intensity efforts.

I managed to squeeze in a sweet spot effort that felt anything but sweet and got it done.

With Love from Colorado!

Peter Roper and his cousin Ashish Choudhary were looking to go on a bike trip together and chanced upon Tour of Nilgiris back in 2018. They immediately signed up. They loved it so much that Peter has been pining to comeback to ride the tour again ever since.

But, life kept him busy with al running a bike shop to closing it before the pandemic and making a career shift, building a family of 3 lovely boys with his lovely wife and taking care of them among other things.

This year he somehow managed to squeeze in the tour with the support of his wife. He says each day has been a blast and keeps wondering how the organisers managed to top his already amazing experience from 2018!

He’s also super happy to be riding again with his friend Shiven who he rode with in TFN 2018. They kept smashing all the segments along they way on this tour. His only complaint is that he became slower on some of the segments when compared to six years ago. We all age Peter! We all age. Hope to see you soon at the tour again soon. Sooner than six years this time.

The Awesome Father Son Duo!

Dr Rahul Kalia has been on the tour multiple times. This has been his year end retreat on the bike that tends to recharge him and get him ready to tackle his busy life for the year ahead. This year, his young son, Rohan Kalia joined him for the tour. Rohan is 19 and is pursuing his degree with honours in computers.

Is there any gift that a father can give to his kids that’s greater than the love for a sport that helps you take care of both mental and physical health? Dr Rahul seems to have not only given imbibed the love for cycling in Rohan by his own example but also now the love for Tour of Nilgiris.

The amazing father son duo also smashed the competitive segments in the tour with Rohan finishing 4th in Under 45 Category while Rahul finished 5th in 45+ category. They were just 1:03 apart with the youngster proving just a bit faster than his old man. Well done, you both!

What’s Ahead!?

It’s the last day of the tour. A 120km ride to Coimbatore awaits with a third of it being downhill from Kotagiri to Mettupalyam. It’s almost over and the missing feeling already started.