Nandi hills is a small hill station near Bangalore. Almost every person who starts cycling in Bangalore has first goal to climb Nandi hills. I also have target to take my non-gear Btwin-MyBike to Nandi hill top.
Its one of the most difficult cycling challenge in Bangalore and I had to practice with smaller rides before attempting Nandi hills. So I decided to gradually increase the distance to get some confidence and build some cycling muscles.
19 June,2016. My first ride was a small 32 KM ride to Cubbon park from Bellandur. This ride was very easy and gave a huge boost to my confidence.
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| Bellandur-Cubbon park-32KM |
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| towards AOL Ashram Bangalore |
25 June, 2016. My second ride was of 65 KM towards Art of living Ashram. This ride involved elevation gain and challenged me while returning.
2 July, 2016. My third ride was of 115 KM to Manchandbele DAM with a small visit of world's 4th largest banyan tree in Dodda Aalada Mara. This trip was tiring and there was lot of steep hikes as the dam is in small hilly region.
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| Manchanddbele Dam from Bellandur |
some throwbacks from Manchandbele Dam trip :)
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| Bellandur to Chai point |
30 July 2016. Ride to Nandi hills.
Me along with some my random team started our ride from Bellandur towards Nandi hills. I was carrying 2 Banana and 1 bottle water and 1 pack of glucon D. Going though airport road was not tough. We had breakfast at around 7:30 AM in a small restaurant named Indian Parantha company on Bangalore - Hyderabad highway and continued our journey to Nandi hills.
Our real ride started once we left highway towards Nandi hills road. This road is start of little hills with gradual ascends and descends. It started taking toll and my legs started wearing out.
As I enter Nelamangla Chikkabalapura road, road became more steep and the ride become tougher and tougher. As we reach the foot of the hill me and few of friends decided to take some refreshments before starting final ascend. We had some tender coconut water with chips.
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| Nandi Hill top |
Nandi hills ascend is 8KM in length with around 450m elevation gain. I started paddling on the steep elevation. After 3.5 KM it became almost impossible to peddle anymore.My legs started killing me and I decided to take break and have a sip of water. I decided to take a break after every 1 KM. I rested for 3-4 minutes and continued my journey, beauty of Nandi hills was breath taking. Finally after taking 3 breaks I reached top of the mountain and had a great sense of achievement. We had refreshments on the parking area. Cycles are not allowed inside hill station so went inside by walk, checked out the hill station, had breakfast and there comes our greatest fear..... rain. I was carrying rain coat but riding in rain and wind or even with wet shoes is very difficult. Rain stopped in 30 minutes.
We decided to start our return journey and it was pure delight. Cycle was flying in steep slope and this descend itself make the ascend worth climbing. One of our team mates got his cycle punctured in the middle of the descent. There is a cycle repair shop just at the foot of the Nandi hills. He asked a biker for lift and carried his cycle to cycle repair shop. Trick to sit on bike with cycle is to sit with face backwards with cycle upside down and seat placed on the rear of the bike.
Cycle repair shop is a small shop and doesn't have tubes for fancy tires, so I would suggest you to carry a extra tube for your journey.
After the flat fix and refreshments we continued our journey. We cross the hilly region and reached Bangalore Hydrabad highway, because of our different speeds we were riding at a very big distance, I stopped for tender coconut water . By this time I was feeling fully exhausted and very hungry.
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| Nandi hill top |
And just then my worst fear was realized, rain, I put on rain jacket and found one shed to wait for rain to stop. I waited for 30 min but rain didn't stop, so I decided to continue in rain. Journey became harder and harder. With wet cloths and shoes full of water, riding against the wind became really really difficult. It felt like never ending torture and it became super difficult to ride any more but I continued. My back started hurting, legs started killing me and my butts were in pain, but after many hours of riding in rain I finally reach home and completed my target at 9:00 in the evening.
My legs/back were paining, butts were swelled for few days but feeling of achievement was more then overwhelming. Riding 155 KM with terrain with mountainous steep ascends, rain, flyover, wind and what not in around 17 hours was worth the effort and left beautiful memories and sense of achievement.
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