It was just a week since I had got the cycle. I had been on some initial training rides of 10-15kms daily, but never had been on a long ride before. The cycle was new, and the overall experience of riding it so far was way better than the one I used to have in my childhood with a Hero Jet first and then a Hercules MTB, Both of them were fixies with reversing paddles. This one on the other hand was a hybrid with gear, and tilting more towards road-bike category with tall gearing, lack of suspension and roadbike style saddle. Quite light, it raced with wind downhill and was not a big deal to drive up a climb, provided you chose the right gears. I was enjoying it so far and was itching to test myself on some mountainous ground. So Lavasa, being touted as quite a tough climb in the cycling community, was always on the back of mind as a challenge to take up as soon as possible.
On Sunday, 2nd Oct, I left home for Pirangut around 9am. It was not that hot, and even after reaching Pirangut, I didnt feel tired. So went on towards Mutha ghat. The idea was to turn back when it stops being pleasant. The Mutha ghat climb was quite an arduous one. Lack of training and you start feeling exhausted quite early. Sangli is laid out on a plain with hardly any elevation change throughout. So I was a total newbie to ghat-climbing ovrall, and naturally I struggled. I took couple of breaks and reached the top with quite a bit of effort.
The descent to Mutha town felt very pleasant due to the cool breeze that accompanies speed. On reaching Mutha, a roadside board announced Lavasa was mere 18kms from there. Too close to turn around from a tempting challenge. Lavasa, I had heard, was a pretty hard climb. I had been therer on bike and in car, but had never appreciated the toughness of the climb from a physical-energy perspective. So I marched on.
After pedalling for around 10kms, I reached Temghar dam. There was quite a bit of crowd in front of the Temghar wall. All weekend public. Loud music in the cars, trendy show-offs with slicks and goggles and fake accent, and quite a bit of fresh plastic garbage around. Not to mention the 'water-sports' going on in the released water. This waterfall and getting-wet fetish people have is beyond me sometimes. One drive on a rainy Sunday in the Tamhinis and you will understand why my cynicism borders on the lines of disgust.
Right after the Temghar wall started the real climb. From Temghar wall, Lavasa top is around 7-8 kms. All of that is energy sapping climb, with a kilometer of pleasant descent till the Lavasa gate once you reach the top, thrown in as a reward. In the first couple of kms itself I started realising how grim the climb was getting. It was gradually getting tougher and tougher. I had to take a lots of breaks - for water, for catching my breath, for stopping my lungs from exploding any moment and for keeping my leg muscles from tearing apart. There were quite a few on-lookers - bikes, cars, buses, tempos, who were craning their necks to have a look, with a combination of who's-this and what-the-heck questions written all over their faces. Some of them smiled, some waved, some of them had a cheerful word while passing by.
It was all misery nevertheless. Especially the climb between "Lavasa-4km" and "Lavasa-3kms" milestones was absolutely brutal on me. There were switchbacks which were inclined so terribly that if one would stop pedalling, he would start rolling down immeditely. Later on I figured, this particular climb is part of a stretch that gains 372 mtrs (~1220 feet) of height in mere 4.6kms! That's a freaking 8.1% gradient, and it kills. A point came when I couldnt take the bicycle over even a single climbing switchback without panting for breathe. These switchbacks were getting severe and I had to do something about it, since turning around was not an option, and I didnt want to push the bike even a centimeter to blot the final achievement. So I altered the riding pattern a bit. Rather than taking break just at any point, I would ride till the base of next intimidating enough climbing switchback, and then take a break for sometime. Would freshen up with a sip of water and then would 'attack' the climb with all the gathered energy. It worked.
Those 8kms of climb took me an insane 1.5hrs. By the time I reached the top, I was as miserable as a wet dog. Exhausted and hungry, I took a sumptious lunch at one of the hotels near the entry gate. Idled for about an hour, sitting on a chair outside, taking in the views and the movements, and wondering how in the world was I going to make it back to home. I had come till there alright, but home was still ~50kms from there; the only saving grace being there was no other Lavasa climb on the way back. Took a look at the GPS track from My Tracks android app which showed I took ~5hours for home-to-Lavasa journey. That was a long time, and it was a long way back home now. Unfortunately, the battery had depleted and I had to switch off tracking and the phone altogether, during the return journey.
Once the lunch was settled, I got back on the bicycle and started towards home. The Lavasa descent is not *that* pleasant due to the same dangerous switch-backs where one has to slow down or skid off the edge.
The reverse Mutha climb (towards Pune) is even more arduous, than the one coming from Pirangut. But climbed it without a single stop and took rest only after reaching the cusp of the ghat. Mutha descent is pleasant on both sides, and it doesnt take much time to Pirangut after that. The Pirangut ghat, while climbing towards Pune, is mighty exhausting. But did that without a rest too and took rest at the top. Small challenges like climbing ghats without a stop or timing the climbs make things interesting and take your mind off home and hunger.
By the time I reached home, it was 6pm and I was again very hungry and exhausted. I had left Lavasa around 2:45pm and that meant I took around 3:15hrs for journey back home.
Surprisingly, there were no pains apart from the exertion pains, which are actually pleasant in a way because they indicate evolving muscles. I had a fear that the knee pain I had developed during Katraj-Sinhagad trek would show its ugly head. But thanks probably to my prudence of maintaining good cadence throughout, no injury (re)occured.
Here is the GPS track (one way till Lavasa) on Sports-Tracker. And here is the speed and elevation profile along the route -
I had used My Tracks android app for tracking, and it recorded the GPX file well. But it was a battery hog and compared to it, Sports-Tracker offered much better features and eye-candy plotting (the one you are seeing above, is from Sports-Tracker). So I uploaded the GPX file from My Tracks to Sports-Tracker. I tried some other apps as well, including Endomondo, but chose Sports-Tracker finally, despite few of its irritating niggles (like slowy slow UI). So far, it hasn't crashed on me mid-ride, touch-wood.
On Sunday, 2nd Oct, I left home for Pirangut around 9am. It was not that hot, and even after reaching Pirangut, I didnt feel tired. So went on towards Mutha ghat. The idea was to turn back when it stops being pleasant. The Mutha ghat climb was quite an arduous one. Lack of training and you start feeling exhausted quite early. Sangli is laid out on a plain with hardly any elevation change throughout. So I was a total newbie to ghat-climbing ovrall, and naturally I struggled. I took couple of breaks and reached the top with quite a bit of effort.The descent to Mutha town felt very pleasant due to the cool breeze that accompanies speed. On reaching Mutha, a roadside board announced Lavasa was mere 18kms from there. Too close to turn around from a tempting challenge. Lavasa, I had heard, was a pretty hard climb. I had been therer on bike and in car, but had never appreciated the toughness of the climb from a physical-energy perspective. So I marched on.
After pedalling for around 10kms, I reached Temghar dam. There was quite a bit of crowd in front of the Temghar wall. All weekend public. Loud music in the cars, trendy show-offs with slicks and goggles and fake accent, and quite a bit of fresh plastic garbage around. Not to mention the 'water-sports' going on in the released water. This waterfall and getting-wet fetish people have is beyond me sometimes. One drive on a rainy Sunday in the Tamhinis and you will understand why my cynicism borders on the lines of disgust.
Right after the Temghar wall started the real climb. From Temghar wall, Lavasa top is around 7-8 kms. All of that is energy sapping climb, with a kilometer of pleasant descent till the Lavasa gate once you reach the top, thrown in as a reward. In the first couple of kms itself I started realising how grim the climb was getting. It was gradually getting tougher and tougher. I had to take a lots of breaks - for water, for catching my breath, for stopping my lungs from exploding any moment and for keeping my leg muscles from tearing apart. There were quite a few on-lookers - bikes, cars, buses, tempos, who were craning their necks to have a look, with a combination of who's-this and what-the-heck questions written all over their faces. Some of them smiled, some waved, some of them had a cheerful word while passing by.
It was all misery nevertheless. Especially the climb between "Lavasa-4km" and "Lavasa-3kms" milestones was absolutely brutal on me. There were switchbacks which were inclined so terribly that if one would stop pedalling, he would start rolling down immeditely. Later on I figured, this particular climb is part of a stretch that gains 372 mtrs (~1220 feet) of height in mere 4.6kms! That's a freaking 8.1% gradient, and it kills. A point came when I couldnt take the bicycle over even a single climbing switchback without panting for breathe. These switchbacks were getting severe and I had to do something about it, since turning around was not an option, and I didnt want to push the bike even a centimeter to blot the final achievement. So I altered the riding pattern a bit. Rather than taking break just at any point, I would ride till the base of next intimidating enough climbing switchback, and then take a break for sometime. Would freshen up with a sip of water and then would 'attack' the climb with all the gathered energy. It worked.
Those 8kms of climb took me an insane 1.5hrs. By the time I reached the top, I was as miserable as a wet dog. Exhausted and hungry, I took a sumptious lunch at one of the hotels near the entry gate. Idled for about an hour, sitting on a chair outside, taking in the views and the movements, and wondering how in the world was I going to make it back to home. I had come till there alright, but home was still ~50kms from there; the only saving grace being there was no other Lavasa climb on the way back. Took a look at the GPS track from My Tracks android app which showed I took ~5hours for home-to-Lavasa journey. That was a long time, and it was a long way back home now. Unfortunately, the battery had depleted and I had to switch off tracking and the phone altogether, during the return journey.Once the lunch was settled, I got back on the bicycle and started towards home. The Lavasa descent is not *that* pleasant due to the same dangerous switch-backs where one has to slow down or skid off the edge.
The reverse Mutha climb (towards Pune) is even more arduous, than the one coming from Pirangut. But climbed it without a single stop and took rest only after reaching the cusp of the ghat. Mutha descent is pleasant on both sides, and it doesnt take much time to Pirangut after that. The Pirangut ghat, while climbing towards Pune, is mighty exhausting. But did that without a rest too and took rest at the top. Small challenges like climbing ghats without a stop or timing the climbs make things interesting and take your mind off home and hunger.
By the time I reached home, it was 6pm and I was again very hungry and exhausted. I had left Lavasa around 2:45pm and that meant I took around 3:15hrs for journey back home.
Surprisingly, there were no pains apart from the exertion pains, which are actually pleasant in a way because they indicate evolving muscles. I had a fear that the knee pain I had developed during Katraj-Sinhagad trek would show its ugly head. But thanks probably to my prudence of maintaining good cadence throughout, no injury (re)occured.
Here is the GPS track (one way till Lavasa) on Sports-Tracker. And here is the speed and elevation profile along the route -
I had used My Tracks android app for tracking, and it recorded the GPX file well. But it was a battery hog and compared to it, Sports-Tracker offered much better features and eye-candy plotting (the one you are seeing above, is from Sports-Tracker). So I uploaded the GPX file from My Tracks to Sports-Tracker. I tried some other apps as well, including Endomondo, but chose Sports-Tracker finally, despite few of its irritating niggles (like slowy slow UI). So far, it hasn't crashed on me mid-ride, touch-wood.
2 comments:
Man, this time you are provoking me to get a bike. :D The idea was already there, buried somewhere in the heart. You are digging that out... :)
Impressed with the show so far! Keep the craziness up!
dots will connect...
( blogger and G+ accounts are not properly unified it seems. my deleted comment was the same, but didn't want my old profile to appear, hence deleted. )
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