#Chintamani 200 Brevet

Finally,  Randounneur it is — My first ever and ours first on a TANDEM. Mixed feeling of anxiety, wonder and joy. Time of celebration after the two months of sweat and perseverance with utmost planning. Doing a brevet on a tandem, as pleasing as it sounds, is quite a daunting task and demands a lot of dedication and focus.

Tandem riding, we learnt, has unique challenges. The huge weight of the FANTOM tandem being around 30 kgs, steel frame, plus the cumulative weight of the riders (100 kg) amounting to a total of 130 kgs, in addition to its length, requires perfect coordination to balance and ride it smoothly. Stops, turns, acceleration, deceleration, everything needs to be done together. The stoker (person at the rear) has to trust the person captaining the bike, and the captain has to rely on a stoker who maintains a steady position and is responsive to choices the captain makes. Having said that, it was a journey full of roller coaster, where we tried to learn from the mistakes made in each ride and improvising on the next one.

But, all the preparations go miss on the day of a brevet and we were faced with new challenges. The event flagged off at 6:00 am from Kanteerava stadium, Bangalore. It was not a good start as the chain fell off just a few kms after the start of the ride giving a halt to our momentum. If that was not enough, the severe headwinds on the first 100 kms of the ride hindered our pace, but the beautiful and serene view of the lake and hills during the ride soothed our nerves and gave us the motivation to KEEP GOING !! We could comfortably reach the unmanned CPs before 20-30 mins of the cut off time. 

But the worse was still to happen. The mild muscle pull in Sanat’s leg which started as early as 60 kms, got more and more severe after 100 kms.  Just when the ride was seeming endless, it was a sigh of relief to see our organisers at the manned CP. The super yumm Bisibele Bhath seemed way beyond tasty than the food from the most expensive restaurant and it refuelled us with energy for the next part of the ride. Kudos to our organisers Mohan Subramanyam and Jins Paul for their relentless support and encouragement. Their help and suggestions to counteract with the leg cramp accelerated our pace in the next stretch yayyy we reached the last CP 30 mins before cut off. Although the grandeur of Nandi hills posed a treat to our eyes, but the legs kept pedalling to enhance the average speed. The pain again worsened as we rode up and up over the flyovers to avoid the stagnant city traffic. Thanks to Sanat for being an expert navigator juggling the tandem throughout the busy roads. The whistle carried by Sanat proved to be a blessing in the city traffic to warn the people with the whistling sounds. Keeping in mind the Bangalore traffic, we increased our pace.

It was almost heart in the mouth kinda situation in the last 5 kms of the ride. The stagnant traffic at every signal forced us to walk on the footpath and ride at a killing slow speed of  covering only 5 kms in the last 30 mins of the ride. The sight of Kanteerava stadium gate was a great relief and yess we made it on time despite several odds. Our joy and happiness knew no bounds seeing the ecstasy of the riders and organisers wishing us success on our splendid achievement. Probably then I realised that I had done something out-of-the-box. 

Thanks to the organisers for their enormous support, the fellow riders for their raising thumbs up and piece of encouragement at times when we were probably going low.

Special thanks to Meera Velankar, Mohammad Rafi Shaik and Niharika for their small pieces of suggestions meant a lot in our journey of accomplishing the brevet. Moreover you guys were a constant source of inspiration !!
Thanks to CNL group and Spokes Woman group for all the fun rides. 

All praise for Rakesh Daga from RR Cycles, Madiwala, Bangalore for helping us out in every possible way in making the tandem a perfect one for long rides.

Thanks to Charan (Assistant Editor at Times of India) for the beautiful article on TOI featuring the tandem riders in the city including us, a day before the brevet. This was an encouragement to finish the brevet gracefully.

Lastly, words fall short to thank my partner in crime Sanat, for it was for him that I entered into the world of cycling and could discover my potential. It was his constant encouragement and motivation which helped me emerge as a super woman and complete the endurance ride of 200 kms. Riding with the grinning pain for 140 kms  showed his utmost endurance and never quit attitude, specially when related to cycling #smiley#. Cheers to our partnership and many more miles to go ......

All is well that ends well and as mentioned by Charan in  a FB post,

So the popular age-old saying gets tweaked now....

"in front of every successful woman, there is a man

is perfectly apt.

Our Brevet cards for the 200 Chintamani Brevet on 5th Nov 2018

Posing : helps to relieve the tension just before the start

Our whole gang of 51 riders all set to rock the 200 BRM. It was a great pleasure to be in the same      frame with the SR5 riders (riders who were on the last leg of completing the SR title in 5 days.)

Hurray !! Reached the 1st CP, Kolar Sai Dham Hotel at 10:00 am.

Reached the CP2 at Srinivaspura @ 11:37 am.

Hats Off to our ever smiling and dedicated team of organisers  Left : Mohan Subramanyam Right : Jins Paul

The delicious lunch to rekindle our energy and enthusiasm at the manned CP @ Husenahalli at 1:49 pm

                             All focussed on pedalling to reach the next CP on time 

The final checkpoint @Chikaballapur at 3:32 pm

The traditional photo pose after the finish @ 7:19 pm

We finally made it !!

Happy faces: with Vidya 

First time in the history of Randonneuring in India @ Namma Bengaluru there were 4 couples attempting Bangalore Randonneurs Classic "Chintamani 200K BRM".

The route map and elevation profile of the ride

 Brevet Card detailing our CP timings

Awaiting the fruit of our success : The brevet medal

The TOI coverage by Charan

Pre ride listings

Rakesh Daga, R R Cycles, Madiwala, Bangalore - his relentless support helped us in a comfortable tandem ride. 

Glimpse of the tandem ride on the special day

Tandem ride in the late evening during the attempt