Me and Ravish went for the same Narsapura CCD trip we have done a few times before. This is a familiar route and was a good way for me to get back on the saddle after the rainy season.
On our way to the CCD, the pace was pretty sweet. We were hitting an average of 22 kmph in the city and pumped it up to 30s as soon as we hit the highway. Neither of us had any issues riding at that pace for an hour and half straight.
We had our first water break at about 45 mins mark at this strangely abandoned shelter.
My pacing on uphill regions had improved a lot. Even on the steeper flyovers, I was able to maintain an approximate speed of 22 kmph.
Throughout our ongoing journey, there was an overcast. The air was pretty still, too.
We did the entire 45+ km length in less than two hours. Ravish mentioned it was somewhere like 1 hr 50 mins.
Our bikes in front of the CCD outlet.
We had our fill of sandwiches and ice tea. We also refilled our bottles. I have started carrying a dedicated bottle of electrolytes. Ravish might get a second bottle, too.
The wind gods were not with us during our return journey. I could barely pedal at 13 kmph. It was the same rolling terrain that I had cruised at 30 kmph an hour ago. Ravish had a harder time. With his straight bars, he couldn’t even tuck to an aero position. I stopped after 10 mins and suggested that we pull each other and drift behind the other’s slipstreams. We swapped out position every 10 mins.
At about an hour’s mark, I opened up my mobile to check the wind velocity. 24 kmph headwind!
Horizontally, on the right side; vertically, around centre.
In spite of the exertion due to a strong headwind, the scenery on either sides of our highways didn’t go unnoticed.
We completed our return trip n 2 hrs 30 mins. Ravish, in his own words, had hit the wall, mountain and everything in between.
These rides are part of my training for the Tour of Nilgiris in December. I am considering a few things.
- I might forego clipless shoes in favour of standard sports shoes.
- I need a better saddle. This one causes a lot of chaffing. I cannot do multi-day, 6+ hours of saddle time on my current one.
- I will go with a slightly thicker tyre. Right now I have 23 mm tyres. I may up them to 25 mm ones.
Surreal photo of the day. Here is Ravish’s Strava data. Headwinds attacked us at around 45 km mark.