Gates Of Heaven 2022

 

Gates Of Heaven 2022 :

Mission Impossible

 

 

 

GOH 2022 was one of my most awaited journey towards Western Ghats. The toughest journey began on 11th February 2022 at 4.15 PM from Palace Grounds, Bangalore.

After receiving good wishes from friends and family, and taking mandatory selfies with peers and photo shoot with my idol riders, I was happy that I got selected for this ride. However, tension started building up soon after listening to the conversations around me. A few of the things that I heard were "just do it", "you can do it", "no, you can't do it", "how will you complete it? it’s tough na", "what’s your ride strategy?", "don't tag with anyone", "why don't you tag with? " , "come let’s do it together", " your MTB was better than the gravel bike".

But my mind kept telling me that I could do it....

My guru, Dhanajaya Sir, was not seen anywhere at the start line and I kept looking for him. His presence always brings enormous relief to me. Soon I came to know that his bike had a flat and he was traveling in auto rickshaw. After some tense moments, I finally met Dhananjay Sir.

I was with Vipin, Sai Srinivas, Santosh, Sunil, Sagar, and Dhananjaya Sir at the start line...Soon, the event was flagged off and I could see the happy and relieved face of Mohan Sir. He had to shift the event date so many times, I think he felt victorious after overcoming so many obstacles.

I has planned to ride with Sai Srinivas and so we started together and met Dhananjaya Sir near Mekhri circle. He said "let’s do it" and I got really motivated to manage my riding schedule. However, I was moving slowly as I had to attend a lot of phone calls from work. Moving ahead, I was about to climb the Yeshwanthpur flyover on IISC main road when I heard Sai Srinivas calling me out loudly. I stopped to check on him and found out that his saddle bag had loosened out. We fixed the issue but lost Dhananjay Sir in the momentum. He would have gone much ahead of us.

We somehow crossed the nightmarish stretch from Goraguntepalya to Nagasandra junction in a zigzag manner and later picked up speed and turned towards Hassan. All this while, we didn't see any fellow riders overtaking us nor could we spot anyone ahead of us. I was a bit nervous thinking both Sai and I might have taken a wrong route though I have travelled on Hassan route so many number of times during earlier brevets. We stopped for chai break near Solur and understood that we were the last few riders and need to pick up our speed. Sai picked up his speed and moved ahead. However, I have always known Sai for keeping a check on his riding partners and he would turn around to make sure that I was following him. I tried to keep a steady pace of around 23-24 KMPH and felt that it was sufficient as per my plan. Soon, Sai with his high energy led us both on the highway and we did a non-stop ride till 107 KMS.

We reached CP2 Hotel Mayura by 9.15 PM, had dinner offered by Grinny and left the place without wasting much time as we heard Monish Sir repeatedly saying "time to roll". The next was CP3, Yogesh Farms @115 KMS. We were constantly moving and I started enjoying the ride, but soon I felt that my bike was dragging. I assumed that it was less air pressure in the tires and was thinking of removing the tire liners. I asked Sai to have a look at the tires and he said that it looked ok. I guess, something else might have made me feel the drag.

Meanwhile, we came across a fellow rider with reflective stripes painted on his elbow, legs and helmet and he looked exactly like a skeleton from behind. I am sorry, I don’t intend to make fun of the unknown rider, but we were having fun thinking about what the street dogs might consider him.

We took a U turn and started towards Arasikere-Matigatta on the lonely roads. It was a quiet night with exception to a few vehicles. Soon we spotted a few riders having hot tea, and we too stopped for a break. I don’t remember how long we were riding, but the hot tea was blissful (some small joys of riding a brevet. Back home, I am a bit finicky about my tea and always complain to my wife that tea is not hot enough, too much sugar, or too strong, but during brevets, everything feels awesome. I think I need to appreciate life outside brevets too J)

After a few kilometres, we saw two riders approaching us from the opposite direction. They thought that they had lost their way but we asked them to follow us. Together, we reached Yogesh Farms @ 222kms by 4.30 AM. Yogesh welcomed us with a big smile and collected our Brevert cards for making the entry. I noticed that he was sitting comfortably on a Raagi moote wearing a turban. The place looked so serene and I started imagining how such places bring out the feeling of being at ones native. His playful dog was grabbing at our brevet cards, and all I could think of was "soiled, wet, torn Brevet cards will not be accepted". I told myself that Mohan Sir will definitely not hold the dog accountable for a torn brevet card.

I had nice dal kichadi along with oranges while Sai took a small break. Yogesh gave us a few oranges and asked us to keep riding as it could be dangerous to stop in between due to wild animals. Upon enquiring, he mentioned about bears and leopards being sighted.

As we continued without breaks for another 28 kms, I began slowing down and was feeling sleepy. We decided to take a quick nap so that we could cruise faster on climbs. Before Lingadahalli, I took a 10 min power nap and had a strong coffee. Once we reached Lingadahalli Police station PTC @ 256 KMS, we had a few chappatis that I had packed from home and reached Kaimara. 

As we started the Mullainagiri climb, we were ok. I normally ride fast and continuously without breaks on climbs but had to ride along Sai and tried our best to take limited stops. I wanted to push harder, climb faster and complete the hill section but I had no intention to leave my riding partner alone. 

We reached the top of Mullainagiri where Mohan Sir was waiting for us. Did we reach the CP? Yes and No. How many times has it happened in the past that Mohan Sir adds yet another twist? He asked us to climb another killer 2 KMS. I took up the challenge and pushed myself to build my momentum as this was a short ride up the hill. The run to the top was a scary one. Rude car drivers did not leave space for me to climb. The last kilometre was when a car came directly on to me. I got down, cursed him and pushed the bike for 50 meters when I saw Grinny riding down. She said that the top was just 300 meters away. I got up on the bike once again and started to ride. I took a selfie at the peak by 12.55 PM.

 

 

After completing the climb I was ecstatic. Back at the CP, I was offered pulao and yogurt. I was thinking of starting immediately after lunch, however I waited for

Sai. Meanwhile, Suresh, who saw me waiting, warned me that I was late and suggested me to ride solo.

We took our own time despite fair warnings and started the decent to climb towards Baba Budan Giri.  However, about 2 kms from the hill top, Sai wanted to take rest. I think he wanted to take a quick nap and later ride his best. He was tired and tried sleeping along a sidewall. This is where I started panicking. I could have gone ahead if wasn’t riding with Sai. All those initial conversations at the start line started flooding my head. I should have done it solo. I could have been much ahead. I am not tired. As I was lost in my thoughts, I hear Grinny screaming "get up guys, it’s just 500 meters”. I started feeling more miserable. 

Soon Sai woke up and started riding and we reached the top. We took a tea break again. By this time, we had already lost so much of time and I had a lot of calculations going on in my mind. I kept telling myself "I can do it". With this realization, I started to continue till next CP without waiting for Sai. Meanwhile, Sai was trying his best to keep up with my pace and we continued to Cp5 @361 KMS. We reached "Javed's Farm" by 6.15 PM and saw Grinny, Somashekar and other riders taking rest. I too wanted to take some rest but was afraid that I might lose precious time. By the time we started, it was 8 PM and we had another 100+ to the next CP. I was feeling anxious, helpless and clueless, not able to figure out what next.

Though our next destination was at 490.4 KMS CP6, Hotel Seethanadi, we were 129 KMS away and had just 5 hrs to complete.  Meanwhile, Somashekar joined us and together we covered about 40 KMS. Sai was now completely tired and decided to look for a good place to sleep.  I rolled my eyes in exasperation. I couldn’t calm my mind. I just wanted to reach Cp6 ASAP and all he wanted was to sleep. Seriously? In my desperation, I tried arguing with him but eventually settled for a 2 hour break at a hotel near Balehonnur. It was a heart breaking moment for me. I began to understand that we will not be able to make it to the finish line on time. Somehow, I still had hope that we can ride and cover up the lost time at least before evening the following day. 

At Sringeri, we had completed just 370 KMS. Sai had made up his mind and decided to quit.  I did not want to give up at any cost and spoke to Mohan Sir. He said if I continue, I would be on my own and I will not get any support. He asked me to send selfies from the CPs. I confirmed that I did not want the drop bag as carrying a back pack would be challenging for me. Now, I had no access to padded shorts, power bank, tubes, nutrition and snacks. I took it as a challenge and resumed.

I spoke to Somashekar and asked him what he had on his mind. He said that he wanted to continue and finish. Though we had lost the game by almost 10+ hours, we still had hopes to complete it as we knew that a beautiful Finisher memento was waiting for us. I spoke to Dhanjaya Sir and his words boosted my morale. We headed towards Agumbe, chasing each other and enjoying the beautiful nature in bright day light.

 

After navigating through huge traffic and crazy taxi drivers, we descend the deadly Agumbe Ghat.

We reached our next stop, Hotel Seethanadhi, by 11 AM (late by 10-11 hours).

Updupi ride was terrific and we cleared the terrain and traffic with ease. My mind was telling me that I had to keep going. I reached White Lotus for Selfie by 1:15 PM. I waited for Somashekar for 10 mins, finished lunch and visited Sri Krishna Ashrama. I knew it was dangerous to waste time but still I had not lost all hopes. We agreed to at least check places, meet people and taste local food.

 

Next stop was Kateel International, another CP on the route. Though we did not have a change of clothes, we planned to take bath. The destination was 40 KMS from Udupi. The day was hot and the weather was sultry. Soon, we started riding individually as Somashekar couldn’t keep up with my pace. I kept instructing him over the calls and asked him to install the app and use it for navigation.

I reached Kateel International by 6:15 PM on 13th Feb, almost 12 Hours late and checked with the hotel manage if he can offer room for a shower but he denied. I then waited for Somashekar, had a nice chat with local people at hotel and explained about the GOH event. One of the common piece of advice I received was to take proper rest at night and avoid night ride at all costs. I guess, the locals are more familiar with their geography.

I thanked them and left the place once Somashekar arrived. From here our journey with dogs begins. Somashekar is not at all scared of dogs; he would chase them back. I will ride as fast as possible, hoping to outrun them. We took selfie again at around 11:50PM at BOB ATM. En route we only came across more and more dogs chasing us and helping us improve our speed.  Somashekar even tried teaching me how to handle these dogs. Phew!

 

We noticed a lot of beautiful, well lit churches along our route and were surprised that we don't see something like this in big cities. 

We stopped at a petrol bunk at Bantvala to rest only to find it strange that no one was around. The bunk looked deserted. A bike with keys in the ignition was parked at the bunk. The bunk seem to be operational as people stopped by to refuel but we had to send them back.

It was early morning and we started our ride towards Charmadi Ghat climb. I had my breakfast and Somashekar finished his en route. By now, we were riding separately and both of us were riding like mad. Next CP8 was at 737.7 KMS and we had completed 660 +KMS so far.

Charmadi Ghat was a never ending climb and we did not have anything on us except water. I had just one energy gel and I had saved it for later. I started climbing quickly as I wanted to reach a hotel to have food.

However, I couldn't avoid taking pictures of beautiful ghat section. Finally, I saw one hotel and had vada sambar as nothing else was available. After 20 minutes, Somashekar too joined me.

 

 

We reached Samrat Grand, CP8 by 4 PM on 14th Feb covering a distance of 737 KMS, 15 + hours late.

We had a sumptuous lunch and requested the manger to allow us to take some rest on 1st floor space, and he agreed. Within an hours’ time, we were on the road again.

We were out of power backup and our mobile phones were dying. With the help of my friend Chidanand, we were able to get our mobile phones charged at his relatives house on the way and had refreshments before heading to Madikeri 94 KMS ahead.

The next stretch, as we were warned, is an elephant corridor and dogs territory. (Each house had 3 to4 dogs coming out and chasing us.) Locals told us not to stop for the next 20 KMS. Unfortunately I had a flat and fixed it quickly. Chidanand had also arranged for power bank at a Petrol Bunk near Santhepet. We reached Vanagur around 2 am and realised that we will not be crossing Santhepet. Bad luck! Our mobiles were draining fast.

We entered the great Somavarpet estates and we were welcomed by crazy climbs and dogs everywhere. Dhananjay Sir had warned us to patiently climb and not push hard as we might injure ourselves. We kept that in mind and started crossing all the surprise climbs. A few places the gradient was so steep that we had to push the bike.

Story: 2-3 am

When we were passing Somavarpet estates, Somashekar was wishing that he gets to see a Tiger. I thought that he had lost it and was worried as he was trailing behind. I didn’t want to leave him all alone. Somewhere, I too was hoping to see some wild animal who would not hurt us.

Few kilometres ahead, we stopped at a bus stop where we felt safe and slept for 30 to 40 minutes. By then, it was morning and we started with full energy crossing all elevations and estates. We came across Malabar Grey Hornbill whose call resembles a young child seeking his mother.

                                                Checkout: https://youtu.be/kuCLQaoUXzQ 

We used to charge phone wherever power socket was available at hotels. This took us a lot of time. We felt like throwing all our gadgets and use just brevet card / printed route details.    

We reached Hotel Samudra Madikeri (PTC) by 10.50 AM. We had taken 12 Hours to cover 94 KMS. This was the day when the heroes of the GOH had completed their ride within 90 hrs. We reached PTC - Abhyathamangala PO for selfie, realizing that we were indeed very late. I spoke to SKD and updated our status. 

By then we were desperate to buy a power bank from some local shop, but to our rescue came my dear friend Mayank. He had been to Virajpet on his motorcycle and was returning via Kushalnagar. I requested him to drop a power bank in case he had an extra to spare or buy one for us at drop it at Hotel Suloka in Kushalnagar. Finally we reached Hotel Suloka by 2.30 PM covering 45 KMS nonstop, exchanged my dead 20k MAH power bank with Chidanand's friend, and also received 2 power banks from Mayank's arrangement. Both Somashekar and I were happy that we could save our Strava recording.  I had already split my rides and saved them separately.

Now, we had reached our last drop bag stage 888.6 KMS on 15th Feb 2022, 18+ hours late. 

Sudharshan Gopinath was very much worried about me and kept checking for help or any kind of assistance. Thanks Sudharshan.

We understood that it was home run now and we had to push so that at least we will reach next day early morning. We were shy of just 322 KMS. We planned to reach CCD Bilikere, which was around 60 KMS, but after having lunch we couldn't control sleep and took a 40 minutes sleep break once again.

Then, it was a non-stop ride till CCD on bad roads. The people on bike kept shouting at us, trucks honking from behind, but we never cared for anything... we just kept riding fast. 

Around 8.20PM we reached CCD, had our dinner at a restaurant on the Hunsur highway. The next destination was CP10, Infinity Cafe, Hassan, which was 91.1 KMS away. We were confident that it could be done within 5 hours. But we did it in 6 hrs. I was too sleepy and was going all over the road dangerously. I kept trying to spray water on my face and searched for coffee shops but none was available. Coffee shots were in drop bag which I didn't have access to.

 

 

There was no place to sleep as it was some lonely stretch and toward my right side was a lake bed. I frantically called Somashekar, who was about 1 km ahead and asked him to wait so that we could go together and I could avoid sleep. We did that for a few kilometres and finally we got coffee.

We reached Hasan Infinity Cafe, just 180 KMS away from the finish line. Our plans to finish early morning remained just a dream. We were clueless of what happened but were happy to know that that some riders were ahead of us and were still riding.

 

Hotels were not operational early in the morning and we were very hungry. We waited till hotel one of the hotels opened. Once we had our breakfast, we decided to stop only at CCD 88.9 KMS away and started riding. But soon enough, we were sleepy once again. So we had a super 1 hour nap at a dhaba.

Story:

When we entered the dhaba to relax for some time, the owner offered us tea and allowed us to sleep inside. The owner was not ready to accept payment for the refreshments. I have seen this umpteen number of times that certain people that I have met during brevets are at a loss of words when they hear about what Randonneurs do. Their belief or good nature does not allow them to accept payment for the goods or service that they offer. However, we told him that he must not charge us next time that we visit him and asked him to accept the payment. We thanked him for giving us his space to relax.

I wanted to ride as fast as possible and complete the ride; however, my front derailleur was not allowing the chain to fall on to a higher ring. I managed with the same gear ratio for some 30 more KMS. My buddy Anand offered to do video call to help but I used WD 40 to clean the derailleur and it worked. Thanks to Dhanajay sir again as he had advised me to keep one handy. I did not want to lose more time and did not even stop for lunch. I just had fruit juice and kept going.

I managed to ride 80 KMS nonstop, but the heat was too much to bear. I stopped for a cup of coffee near Toll and I was just 100 kms away from Bangalore. I was happy and started thinking about the memento.  

Near Kunigal flyover, I saw one bird lying on road. I immediately pulled left and dropped the bike on the grass. I took that bird to side and tried to make it sip some water. I left the bird near a tree, far away from road. I felt happy to save a bird from being run over on a highway.

Friends from Bangalore started calling me. I guess everyone was worried and wanted to know if we were safe. I kept answering calls and updated them on the number of kilometres left. Near Solur, I started experiencing saddle sore. Imagine one set of clothes for 5 days with 1200 KMS to complete. I took rest at a bus stop. It was a challenge to ride empty stomach, but I felt that the liquid diet was best. 

The wet towels (antiseptic), suggested by Mayank, helped me. I used to clean myself frequently and it probably helped me from rashes / infections.

As I was still resting, Somashekar called to say that his chain broke. He asked me not to stop. I informed a few friends about Somashekar’s issue and asked them to be in touch with him.

I reached Nelamangala soon, but by then traffic was piling up. I kept the target to reach Palace grounds as soon as possible. SKD called me and asked me to meet at Dasarahalli, and Anand kept calling to check where I am. Dhananjay sir, Sudarshan and many others were on the way to Palace Ground to welcome us, and I was cruising at high speed. I crossed Dasahalli after having a much needed tender coconut water offered by SKD and reached Gayathri Vihar by around 8.30 PM.

 I was welcomed by Anand, Sudharshan, Bharathi , Sunil Mahantesh, Sahil I was very happy to see them and energy levels were high, Dhanajay Sir welcomed with a garland, fluids and yummy snacks. Sudharshan and Bharathi mam welcomed with flowers, sweets….Mayank joined the pack. Feeling was good and lovely people around made me feel like i am on-time to venue 😍

Somashekar joined us for the photo shoot soon....

 

So finally understood that GOH is not for everyone,  it’s not about kind of bike or solo ride, mountain god has to accept and bless us otherwise it is impossible to complete it on time …but we enjoyed Mother Nature in every bit by riding late…so I would say my ride as Mission Impossible part-1 ….Never Give up 
 

My first blog writeup dedicated to my fitness and cycling guru Power Star Dr.Puneeth Rajkumar on his 47th birthday 

 

 

Special mention to Mr. Anil for his super app MUVV which I used during my entire GOH ride it served fantastically without any GPS issues, best compared to BikeGPX and  Ridewithgps. My sincere condolences to him,  great efforts to build the app, also thanks to Mohan sir and team for efforts during entire event.