May 30th 2010 :long-ride: Destination: Nandi Hills

Hi all,

Ride Day:30th May 2010
Location : Nandi Hills

I would like to share my experience of riding to Nandi Hills which was done on 30th May 2010 , I have been wanting to post the ride report ever since I came back from the Nadhi Hills ride but was caught up with the regular work and also getting things arranged for my cousin’s marriage. I must say that when Yogesh (Bangalore Bikers Club Member) posted the Nandi ride on Google Group I was eager to join them but only concern was the time that ride would start. The ride was suppose to start from Cubbon Park at 6.30AM with some experienced riders and newbie’s .


Keeping the summer Sun in mind, me and munch of my cycling friends (Shilpa , Shashidhar, Krishna and Satish) decided to leave early on Sunday morning with a determination of reaching the Nandi Hills before Sun would take a toll on us.

Trip Details:
We had already made the plan that Shipa , Shashidhar and me would meet at Konanakunte cross (Kanakpura road) at 4.00AM and 2 others that is Krishna and Satish would join us at 5AM from Esteem Mall ( after Hebbal flyover) way to Nandi Hills and we were expecting to reach Nandi village at 7.30AM / 8.00AM keeping the pit stops for rest while our way to Nandi Hills.
Night before the long ride:
Packed all the required gears for the long ride and went to bed at 11.30 as usual, but I was able to sleep hardly for 2 hours because of the excitement running inside me thinking of the Nandi ride as I had heard by few experienced bikers that the Nadhi ride is one of the best and most challenging ride because of the 8 kilometers continues uphill.

Day of the ride:
Finally the alarm from my mobile phone went Off has it was set to ring at 3.30AM. Quickly I got myself from the bed and got myself ready and packed all the last minute stuffs like filling up the energy drink (mixture that prepared using Salt, Sugar ,Glucose and water ) into the water bottles that I required. Fixed the air pump to my bike and kept couple of bicycle tubes for replacing the puncher tube if there is any in between the journey.
Next moment I was on my bike, riding towards Shilpa house as she was little concerned of riding alone from our house to meeting point early in the morning. I meet her in the midway to her house and soon we both were riding towards our meeting point (Konanakunte cross) and saw Shashidhar was already waiting for Shilpa and me.

It was 4.10AM, wasting no time we were already riding towards next meeting point (Esteem Mall - after Hebbal flyover). The pre dawn ride was refreshing except for the sleeping dogs that wedid not want to wake up on the way. Soon reached the deserted Cubbon Park and we quickly made our way across to Hebbal flyover-esteem mall in about 1hr 15 mins. Krishna and Satish joined us, then we started off at a medium pace and reached the airport underpass - turn off to Nandi(State highway) at 7am. The ride till here was calm and without disruption. We took break to wolf down some yummy aloo-sandwich made by Shashi's wife and at this point out cyclocomps read 50kms in 3hrs at a pace of 16 kmph.We were also quietly celebrating the fact that none of the fast riders had over taken us yet....... we were actually looking out for other cyclists on the way but did not find anyone. But not for long,just after riding a few kilometers into the state highway, we had one of them passing us (Manu was his name and he was 53 years old). He gave me goose bumps as he being an elderly guy bypassed us.
After few distance I went ahead of my team at my own pace and saw Manu had stopped for taking few photo snaps of the Nandi hills covered with clouds which was a breath taking scene.

Finally at 7:10 am we had reached the turn to Nandi village and having to ride with a strong head wind that literally kept pushing the bike back, the last 2 kms to the nandi village turn was crazy andexhausting. But the exhausting really did not take its toll on me as I was riding with an experienced guy (Manu) talking about his experience of bi-cycling from last 40 years and I turned back to find that I was way ahead of my team, actually I had broken off and headed towards the base of Nandi hills, while the remaining 4 was coming at their own pace.

I quickly called Shashi over my cell phone to inform him that I would meet them on the Nandi top as I was few meters away from Nandi Base.

At 7.40AM reached Nandi base had energizer i.e. half bottle of water which was mixed with Sugar, Salt and Glucose made me re-freshing .

Headed towards the top of Nandi Hills and soon I found myself struggling my way across the hill curves all by myself as Manu had taken off ahead of me. All my way to the top I was thinking about the last 4kms which was told (Shilpa) to me that it is even tougher than the initial curvers. I reached half way 4kms to Nandi, stopped my bike and had again the reaming half liter of water and took off.
Slowly peddling my way to the top using 1st and 3rd gears from bike I saw the entrance to top of the Nandi hills which encouraged me to complete the remaining 2 kms.

Finally I was on the top of the Nandi hills and it really felt good, believe me…… all that pain I took to climb / ride the uphill was worthy.

I reached the top at 8.50AM . I saw Manu at the entrance wet and tried as well, we shook our hands to each other .He told me that this was really on hell of a ride and saying that we laughed and relaxed waiting for other team members to come. While I was waiting for other Manu started to ride back home as he had to reach his home early. Sea off’d him and started enjoying the scene around.

I meet munch of other professional riders on the top and it was good talking to them about the ride to the top. Few minutes later I saw my team mates coming to the top and went to them to congratulate on their completion of the task. First was me who took 50min, then followed by Krishna, Satish, Shashi and at last came Shipla who took almost 2 hours(10:30 am). We had couple of tinder coconut ,fried rice and curd rice to boost our energy to ride back home in the restaurant on the hill top. We took a big break > 2 hours and missed seeing all the folks that made it to the top in that time between 10:30 - 12:30
Way back from the restaurant I found Naveen my friend who also had come alone with a team from Marathalli was relaxing after a tough uphill ride of 2 hrs.At 12.30PM mid-day we left and Naveen also joined us in the ride back home. we started back down and took only 14min to cover 8kms and was a pleasant ride down. Made our way across the scenic but now hot state highway. So finally made it to the SH-NH7 junction by this time the heat was really on and energy sapping.ShiIpa had earlier decided that she would return by Volvo, and a brief tender coconut break, we headed off towards the airport exit ramp in burning heat and reached about 2:40pm.Shilpa, Shashi,Satish and Naveen took the Volvo to respective destination. Me and krishna decide to cycle back to our respective destination to kanakpura road(140 +kms) and Hebbal(100+) and reached my place at 5.10PM.I really would like to thank yogesh for putting up the ride plan and following it up with great enthusiasm and the entire bunch i was riding with for the jolly camaraderie and support throughout.Thinking of the ride, felt we gave away the early start we had and could have tried and make it back home before the heat turned up. But having said that, we would have been too exhausted to attempt it without a good break.So congratulations to all of them made it or even attempted.So until next time..... I have the memory of Inspirational Riding to Nandi Hills .

Thanks & Regards,

Harisha K S