It’s every Bangalore bikers’ dream to ride to Nandi. When I searched online for information, there were thousands of blog posts. This deterred me to write about it. It was a few months back, maybe 6 months back. I rode to Nandi with a friend of mine and was too optimistic to scale it. 0.5km done and my first pit stop, what followed was a series of stops and I pushed through it. 

It hurt my ego, it hurt me bad. This is when I realized failure takes you to greater heights in life than success ever will. 

These lines by Henry Ford are very much true and are close to my heart.

Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure.

Now I just couldn’t control myself from penning this down. Let this be the 1001^st blog post about Nandi betta, am still gonna write about it and feel proud about my accomplishment

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After my first brevet (read here–Krishnagiri brevet ride), my trainings have been on and off. My sleep times are more than necessary. These 3 weeks of semi hibernation mode took a toll on my fitness. This is when I decided that I wanted a kick to restart my training regimen. 

What else will be a better time to conquer Nandi than now? This would definitely boost my morale. If I don’t, well I will work harder and achieve it.

It was 13^th of June 2015, Saturday, my planned date for the ride. A night before the ride, I gathered all my accessories and tuned my alarm to 3.30am. I had planned an early 4am start.

Oh, my bad! I overslept and woke up at 5. After gathering everything, I could only start at 6am.

I regretted initially for starting late, probably this is the problem with the solo rides 

(No sense of responsibility :P). 

Once I started, the nice weather blew me over. Maybe, the early start would’ve not let me enjoy this beautiful weather. 

At the 24^th km from my home, this was my first pit stop, reached here in an hour, which was a good mileage. Had my favorite breakfast (Idli + Kesari bath+ Coffee) at the favorite place which we had discovered earlier.  

The weather was splendid, probably one of the best rides. It was cloudy with some chances of rain. I soon reached the base. So far, so good. 

This was one of the coolest moments of my life! Very much ready to conquer the hill and I felt nervous. I felt goose bumps after a very long time. Can I do the climb?

I started; gear ratio was at 2-6. I decided to change after a few meters. The gear wouldn’t fall to 1. I just didn’t want to stop after just a few 100’s of meters. 2-1, 2-1, 2-1…. finally the gear fell to 1. Probably the last time I had used 1^st gear was in this climb only. 

Some relief and the climb started. Saw the 7km to go mark and felt good. Just 7 more boy!!

The only thing I learnt here was to be patient and that was the only thing needed for now. I started chanting my favorite mantra and felt relieved. 

Now, I saw an idiot riding down on his motor cycle. 

“Do you really want to do this?”

“Is it required?”

I felt like punching on his face. Probably he will never in his life understand how much blessed a biker is! A sincere request to motorists is we never expect help from you, at the same time, at least show some courtesy to runners/bikers/pedestrians by making way for them. All that we burn is our fat and not oil.

One off incident and the focus was back on the goal. 

I had a sip of water and was still holding on to the 1-6 gear ratio. I wanted to hang on with 1-6 as much as possible, anything lesser than that might make me tired and I might have to stop. Initially I decided to drink water every 2km, so that I don’t over hydrate and get tired but later whenever I could make time for it. My hydration pack with a sipper was handy now. 

Effectively, I had completed 2km of the hill. Now was the gradual uphill. It’s now or never. I thought that if I pass through this, I can conquer the hill. I passed but it was not end of the story.

Small climb and a flat road for a good stretch, finally could relax. 1-7 combination for a while now. The uphill started again.

1-6, 1-5, 1-4. Well, this was the moment I was waiting for. It was my mind Vs the hill, body wasn’t even in the picture. At times till now, I used to stand and peddle, just to relax but now during the curves, it was inevitable but stand and peddle. Never in my life had I stood and peddled in 1-4 gear ratio. Every 20 strokes and cycle moves a little distance and leaves you more tired.

If you have made it this far, better make it to the end. I was toggling between 1-4 and 1-5, didn’t want to go to 1-3. 1-3, curve and I would be finished.

There was a father and kid in the front, also a group of people taking snaps and me crawling up. What a sight for them! I could’ve been one of them but I chose to do this. Another curve but this time more challenging, felt like keeping the leg down but the heart wouldn’t agree. Stood, peddled, used the last ounce of energy and moved ahead. Sight of the arch was bliss. 

Pic courtesy: Indiamarks.com

The pain disappeared and I made it to the end. The satisfaction was immense.

It was tough, I was tougher.

Nandi betta conquered. Now, I know which one next. 

Total 70km completed in 4hrs. Probably last 8km took a lot of time. I refreshed, relaxed myself and started the downward journey. Initial plan was to rest for some time at the base but I decided against it and moved ahead. 

At 94^th km, I touched the main road. Pain started showing up. I stopped for coconut water and continued. The headwinds were high. Sun and the winds played around with me. I stopped again after 10 km or so for a few minutes and continued. 

120km completed and return was much slower than expected, I have to get stronger. My core strength should improve further. Now, I stopped and had rice bath+ lemon juice.

 It was a good carb loading. I hit the speed again only to be stopped by heavy traffic. Lost 30min on the way and finally made it to home. 

Apart from the return journey, everything else was very memorable. Now, I am in love with this solo rides 🙂. You get to talk to yourself and satisfaction is a measure as defined by you.

Total distance covered: 139.88 km

Total time taken: 7:56: 09 (I know this is bad pace compared to my 200km ride :P)