Woke up @4, got ready and off to cubbon park, started a bit late with a fantastic rider Harish (met him on TFN), good steady ride once the highway started. First break and breakfast after 50 km. Targeted to reach the 104KM mark by 11 AM

BUT…

around 86 KM down (in close to 3.5 hours) – 2 spokes of the rear wheel broke. The wheal bent and jammed against the break in the middle of no where… No bike shops around, closest place to sit & eat was 3 KM behind.

So the ride was over for me, I walked 3 KM back to CCD at the nearest town Maddur. Informed the Ride Director and called Varun (a very close friend) to come and take me home…

Bad luck or bad bike ? Not too sure… The same thing happened to me on TFN and now I am planning to change all the spokes on my bike.

I wish I had bought a better bike! But when I bought the bike, I never knew I would be doing this distance and this pace

I was super excited about TFN last year (2009) and was preparing well for it. I didn’t get an invite from the famous Jack Lee I got busy with work and couldn’t get on the saddle for a few months. I registered within the first 25 seconds the registration opened this year and I was in

I had around 4 – 5 months to prepare and I thought I would train as hard as I can, get in shape and do the tour as if I was doing Tour de France All I did was plan to train and couldn’t get to training… There were a lot of opportunities to train, a couple of really long rides, back to back Bangalore – Mysore (150 km mostly downhill) & Mysore – Bangalore (150 km, steady uphill I guess and strong head winds I have heard) but I couldn’t take the time out. So my first long ride this year was Day 1 of TFN.

I replaced my office chair with a gym ball a month before TFN (in order to strengthen my back) and it helped a lot! (Actually, I have switched to gym ball permanently now)

I bought a couple of riding jerseys & shorts, spare tubes, brake pads, puncture kits, sipper bottles, I had a cut on my rear tyre so I replaced both front and rear tyres, got the handle bar tape on my BTwin Sport 1 changed from white to black, bought enough electral and gluconD, bought a water proof video camera and changed my pedals to platform pedals for TFN.

Bike Clinic

TFN organizes a bike clinic (in association with BSA, BSA is one of the major sponsors of the Tour) where they service your bike and get it in shape for TFN. I wanted to get the handle bar tape changed, FD & RD adjusted and chain degreased and lubricated. They did a good job on the FD & RD adjustment, but I guess they used a bad lubricant (My chain was squeaking on Day 2) Also I thought, they would check the wheels for trueness, which they didn’t and I had to pay the price on Day 4! The tape came off on Day 4 too

Next year, no leaving the mechanic’s work on anyone else, I would do it myself…

There is anyways a bet between Gupta and Khurana about me getting on the saddle on the third day. I plan to ride all the days !

Will keep posting the updates.

Cycling
And we are back again !!!
Started with cycling today, rode 12 Km or so… (was coughing like hell by the end, hope it would get better with time)

Nebulization !!! – was getting Duolin for the last 2 day ! Finally got that over with…
Now Inhalers for the next month !

Have been recovering form – severe cold then bad through & now chest congestion

Cycling

Rode around 23 Km at an easy pace. Target was to have MTR idli + sambhar + coffee and get back by 8:30 – Done

Was cleaning the bike yesterday evening, I screwed up the FD’s cable and settings. Would work on it today evening and would go out on a ~ 5K run + walk to make up for all these days

Still recovering. Only shoulder needs rest.
(went on a super fun trip to Savandurga with Varun, Romil and bhabhi…)

Ride to Savandurga could be a nice weekend TFN Prep ride ! patchy roads, a lot of ups and downs along the route.

Rest – recovering. Knee should be in good shape in next 2-3 days. Elbow has recovered well. Shoulder hurts – need to get it checked if the pain persists even on Sunday…