THE BELGAUM ROLLER COASTER RIDE - By SUNDARAM NARAYANAN

The Narration is by SUNDARAM NARAYANAN who started cycling one and a half year ago with MTB-The KHS Alite 150, He achieved the SUPER RANDONNEUR title on that bike. 5 months ago he Upgraded to KHS FLITE 750 Carbon Road bike and quickly got Qualified for the RAAM. The story is about 3 bikers who recently did night ride from Panaji to Belgaum and back.

The other two crazy bikers in the story are:

Terence popularly known as THE BOSS in Goa’s cycling community. Terence has played big role in Popularizing cycling in Goa. A super Randonneur and and Second person in India to complete 1200Km brevet. THE BOSS’s spirit and dedication is admirable. There can be a separate write up on THE BOSS alone

Raghav Gowda another crazy biker with never give up attitude! Raghav did Manali Leh last year on his MTB with four other bikers from Goa, he is now gearing up for the 1200Km Bangalore Brevet to be beld in October 2014 that the three guys have   registered for.

I Thank Sundaram for calling me, the best Bike Techie in Goa. It’s my pleasure to be of Service to the biking community in Goa

Enjoy the story…..

Belgaum roller coaster by 3 riders
Towards preparation of 1200 kms upcoming brevet, we required a practice of night riding so we planned one on a very short notice. Panjim- Chorla-Belgaum and back. Started riding from KA at 6.05 pm via porvorim-Bicholim with Terence Moniz. Raghav also joined us from Porvorim. After some time my back started hurting a bit, thought that reason might be a long ride after long gap on my roadie. There was lot of traffic also because of peak hrs . Roads were in worst condition due to heavy rain fall this season in GOA. There were potholes all the way till the Chorla Ghat. We couldn’t accelerate and had to maintain speed of 20 to 22 km/hr . We reached Sanquelim at 8.30 pm and decided to have dinner and asked about good restaurant around. We finally got one after 3 enquiries.
we were bit concerned about our roadie's from safety point of view as hotel manager refused to allow us to park it inside the hotel.
We ordered two chicken curries and plain rice, checked my mobile calls, saw a missed call form Ajay Dongre, the best Cycle-Techie in Goa ( A very good physics lecturer professionally) . I tried to call Ajay but mobile signal was very weak in the restaurant, so sent a message to Ajay about the bike condition. I knew that he might have called to know about bike condition after refitting the frame. We had nice dinner, filled enough water in the hydro- backpack
Started at 9.15 pm from hotel. After riding about 45 mins, Raghav’s front wheel got deflated as he jammed over a pothole.
We immediately get off the bike, walked about 20 mts ahead, to reach the street light so we could fix/replace the tube easily.
Due to poor lighting, we just went in front of the house, adjacent to road, a young guy and old man appeared for enquiring, I just told, we are fixing our bike tires which got punctured.
I just checked the punctured tube to fix but it had got two holes, so we didn’t fix it and Terence put a new tube and inflated it. Then we checked rear wheel also and stated again at 10.30 pm.
All the way till chorla ghat road was in very bad condition and once Chorla ghat started, road was nice, except very few bad patches at few places. My bike’s front derailleur was rubbing the chain at lowest gear, so I was not able to use that gear, as the noise irritated me. I told BOSS and we decided to adjust at the next halt.
I was whistling all the way during the night for the safety at every turn, speed breaker ( to alert other riders)and to alert the heavy vehicle drivers to avoid the overturning (down slope leads heavy vehicles to overturn due to speed and heavy weight)
We reached Chorla top at about 0.20 Am , stopped for tea . Chai wala asked me why are you riding at this time and asked if we are riding with support vehicle.
I just replied chai wala funnily “hume bahut charbi chadhi hai”. However Raghav informed Chai wala that we are heading to Belgaum and back for a ride.
I sipped two cups of tea as it was very tasty, and got 2 mineral water bottles, Raghav emptied the bottles and made sure he crushed and put them in trash bin. (It was just a sign of his consciousness towards environment as I have seen many throwing the plastic stuff on road)
After half an hour ride, Raghav told me that he was feeling sleepy and bit tired too. I said we would wait till we reach Goa Karnataka Check Post at Surla.
We reached the check post at 0.45 am. We reached a police check post and requested police if we can rest in their cabin for some time. They were very helpful and they agreed. They got interested in our bikes and started enquiring about bike price and other stuff.
Raghav immediately went into deep sleep and I was also trying to sleep, but could not as policemen kept chatting with BOSS for quite some time. Finally BOSS somehow managed to end the conversation.
I just closed my eyes covering the Head with Bandana and went to sleep.
At 1.20 am , we got up, said a warm goodbye to policemen and started. Boss adjusted the front derailleur a bit and suggested putting a newspaper inside jersey to combat cold and it worked wonders. I continued the ride and was happy that derailleur stopped generating noise. I again started my whistling at the every sharp turn. It helped to keep me alert too.
I guess the power nap I took just before starting the ride for about 1 Hr helped me to combat sleep very effectively.
At 2.45 Am when we had got into nice rhythm, a military person stopped us saying that they were having military training and we need to wait for 30 mins. It was a forced halt for us.
I was searching a place on road side to rest but everything was muddy and wet and alongside the road was thick forest so I decided to rest on the road itself not even removing helmet. As they ensured us that no vehicle would be passing the road.
Took power nap 20 mins , we woke up feeling that body temp was going down. We somehow managed to maintain ourselves warm.
Exactly after 1 hour Military people allowed us to start, showing green signal light. I was riding very fast ahead of the speeding car and we saw military camp near the bridge.
After quite long down slope it was all steep gradual climbing, I felt that I could not maintain the pedaling rhythm and had to get off the bike and walk. After a while all three of us were walking on upslopes and we did the same at about 4 places for much needed rest from the point of view of completing the ride successfully. This is the first time I was forced to walk up along the climb with bike.
Again Raghav felt sleepy. We stopped and he splashed water on his eyes and just warmed himself by stretching.
We reached outskirts area of Belgaum at 5.10 am, decided to take power nap for 45 mins at the bus stop.
We reached Belguam at 6. 45 Am, took breakfast. BOSS helped me to adjust my bike Aero bar and we left Belgaum at 7.45 am. We bought a cake and few bananas as no shops were available all the way till another 35 km on our way back to Chorla Ghat.
We took a break at two places before reaching chorla ghat, descended down the Chorla Ghat at 12.05 pm and took 10 mins break to have few beers.
Boss was feeling bit tired so we stopped at two places for lime juice.
Reached Gene restaurant- Riabnder at 2.20 pm, checked the distance covered , 231 km, totally in 18 hrs, (Riding time 12 hrs and rest time 8 hrs)
As soon as ordered food, I was so hungry and sleepy that I even couldn’t concentrate on discussion of Raghav and Terence. Took a nap about 20 mins in the hotel, had nice chicken spicy curry ,Roti, and naan for lunch.
They took more than 30 mins to serve us. By the time food was served, BOSS went into sleeping mode and ate very less, so I requested waiter to parcel the remaining food as I never like to waste food.
Finally our long journey finished late afternoon.
It was a challenging route but a wonderful experience, riding with BOSS and Raghav. Thanks for suggestions given by Dr. Pankaj (who is very instrumental for my cycling passion) to plan a practice ride on this route as it was our challenging training night ride for the upcoming 1200km Brevet.
When I suggested the BOSS about this ride on Belgaum route on weekend, he immediately suggested to plan a night ride as it would be a good practice for us for 1200 kms brevet. So I posted the ride very next day just one day prior on FACE BOOK, otherwise we could have got more riders to join us. Sorry for the late intimation, Mr. Mandar Aiya.
Overall an exhilarating experience!!
Thanks to Ajay and Vinayak for delivering the Roadie on time just before 1 hr of starting the ride
I got very nice sleep after eating deserved Chicken biryani , woke up at 8 am next day. Felt good. No ride, fitness, recovery but just a rest day, that's “MONDAY.”