A Route to Remember

The decision was made to go for a route which must be more than 200kms with atleast one climb.

This was an aggressive ride which we would have to do and both of us were of opinion to avoid the highway as much as possible in dark, which meant our route must be from the interiors. There is always an advantage of Highway that one can get fast roads to ride on. Anyways we finalized the Route to be taken for the ride (Refer the image above).

The distance didn’t really look like a challenge. A rider, before any ride starts calculating- an average speed of 20kmph for 10hrs can get the distance easily.

Also, the high-end road bikes of today are so well crafted in weight, geometry that this is not difficult for a seasoned rider to achieve.

The Start- Cruising

The ride started from the panchvati naka, vasai (Our homes) at 5.15 am and it was all about making through the dark for 13kms (only 4km was on highway in this section), being cautious about motor vehicles. The morning was pleasant for cruising on road bikes, we reached ambadi naka crossing vajreshwari route before 7 am. This is a route which we usually ride for training purpose.

Hence, we were done with 38kms already. We just decided to continue without stopping since next point (Shahpur) was just 30kms away. It was easy, probably we were enjoying the route and the weather.

Now we were like okay it’s just 8am, Sun is coming up, Hey! But we can see Kasara is nearing so it should be manageable.

But then its 8.30 and its summer. The temperature jumped from 25-27 to 32-33. Since we were going good no cramps no tiredness, Anthony suggested to take a break for a while because we started getting wind resistance.

This rest was followed by another break period for breakfast and filling up our bottles just 5 km before Kasara ghat. The temperature had jumped to 37 by now and it was hardly 10 am. The real deal started from here, heavy wind resistance such that we were pedaling on descents too. But then we continued till Kasara ghat, and after quick break started Kasara ghat climb. The climb was killing, not the gradient but the heat drained us out.

Anyways we reached to the bifurcation from where we had to go to Khodala. Kohdala is small town, and which is not very crowded.

One can gauge the heat from the images below.

Well now we were just riding cautiously since the route was hilly and we could not afford too loose lot of energy. It was 12 pm and we had covered 130 kms. The temperature just skyrocketed to 46.4(refer above) by now.

The area is beautiful but at the same time it’s a difficult place where people are living with lack of drinking water and all other hardships.

Mental calculation started, we have covered 130+kms now it’s just next 100 kms, so just pedal without thinking much we should be home before sunset. As usual the plan was going to fail.

The suffering

The Next section was khodala to Wada approximately a distance of 42 kms. And the most beautiful and difficult section of the ride. Immediately 5 min into the ride, we got our first climb which we conquered (the high-end bikes). Now we are on top of the climb and the hydration has depleted. We had two options to look for water from some general store or ask for water from small huts on the way.

Anthony ruled out second option backed by logic that the folks are carrying water for their usage on their heads in pots, so we should not increase there burden anymore. So just keep riding we will find some shop during 40km to hydrate. However, the only water source came after 30kms into the ride with two small climbs of 3-5km uphill.

An event which happened before reaching this source was Anthony loosing his mobile phone on one of the climbs, and Anthony made me climb that small ghat thrice justifying that I am in 30s he is in 60s. But no luck there and we could not find the phone. Since I did the hardwork I was grumpy, asked “Anthony why are you worried so much of phone we will buy a new one”. And then, the moment when he took my phone and called his wife to inform that he has lost his phone and post that he was silent and was getting some instructions. Our superhero senior citizen rider was weak because there was a stronger force on the other side. I somehow felt very good inside that I am not the only one even it happens to people with wisdom (Married people will understand this line much)

Anthony is superfast rider he is 64 and we have done straight 40kms at an average of 30kmph on straight roads on steel frames.

The End

Anyways we reached wada after all of that, around 6pm. We had not eaten much as we could not find a proper lunch or, so we were craving for a meal. We managed to eat something at wada. And it was dark already now. The route would become more difficult now because we entered the industrial area, at this point of time we decided to take a ride to our next point 30kms. We got a ride around 7.30 pm and reached by 9. Now we were on familiar route, 35kms away from home now. In this majority of ride would be from interiors and with no traffic.

We just rested for 1 hr talking and eating whatever we could find at that time. Finally, we were off to home around 9.45. Night-time made it easier to ride and we reached home at 11.10 pm.

Total Distance we rode was 220km and it was a ride to remember.