Warm up for the D-Day ride.
Though i have done many centuries before, this was the first time i did it solo.
And big thanks to Doc who said he averages 24-25 for a century which i thought of targeting and Shreekumar who gave me some much needed confidence. Thank you both.
I Started at 05:00 from AECS with 4 bananas in tummy and half litre of water, with full gear, hydration pack and extra packets of ORS, only to realise after crossing varthur that i left my headlights home. No more street lights and i started wandering in pitch dark with occasional ray of hope from passing traffic. oncoming traffic did more bad than good because i just couldnt make out where the road was after there lights vanished. Stopped at dommasadra at around 05:45 had a quick tea. By this time there was some light and i started again. Now there was no darkness but such a heavy fog that i just couldnt see anything more than 20mts ahead.To make matter worse my glasses started collecting due to such an extent that at one place i recognised there was a bump on the road only by the sudden vertical movement of an lights of oncoming car. Frankly i was scared.http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/kSqBWlqYICTpqeF8DYqTfVwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlinkhttp://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/TwIFFF5SjyWV23RbsRjDiVwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlink By this time i averaged just 16km in 01:20hrs.
Luckily for me things started to brighten up and i reached hosur in good light and with some overtaking manuevers on splendors and Activas. Took the left just below the flyover and Started on Bagalur road. It is very nice road with less traffichttp://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/JmA_RwuVVfHIdYixYC_xVFwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlink till i reached a junction and again took left to head for sarjapura road. There are some very very bad patches on this road. Found this funny stuff on way!!!http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/lsxHXOm3WlSV3PrHmziUelwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlink From here to dommasadra and decathlon things went normal until one mad truckie honked for a minute and than overtook me. I waited for few seconds and started drafting him till i was comfortably doing 44kmph. Up came the open road and i easlity overtook him with a smile on face. dragged for over a km till i got tiredhttp://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/q4D1CpAoouGNne4IqMK-ElwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlink. The WTF look that the truck cleaner gave me.. I will never forget that.
Then followed the boring route ORR-Marthahalli-KRpuram-Whitefield-AECS. Slow traffic near KRpuram added atleast 15 minutes to my ride time.
Finally reached home. cyclocomp read 100.71km/24.2kmph at the endhttp://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/Hbpo2uUTqJFUQOE7YjkQfFwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlinkhttp://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/M4Z4b6rEWNJbEbvMDDJhq1wH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlink. That was it. Target achieved. Also my comp logged exact 700km since the day i bought it http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/91C_Xq5ZQ05lbjEbyMuRGVwH1KqVmp22ctDkMEKNTN0?feat=directlink
Spent total of 15minutes excluding ride time for taking snaps and hydration.
I feel 25kmph was well in reach but for some scary blind riding and traffic messup on ORR. Feeling great for my achievement. And can clearly see improvements in my riding speed which i can keep well above 35 most of the time on level and open road.
This ride added a ton to my confidence for the Goa ride plans.
