Biking 600KM @ Malnad mountain range & learning it bought in

I was relishing biking ~50K rides ones a week, felt like its fun how would it be to do long ride and explore nature, well timed got to know about greatmalnadchallenge.com.

Without second thought I registered as it meet all the checkboxes, I was looking for long endurance 8 Days, 600+KM, Biking in mountains and pushing to limits at same time enjoying nature.?

Meet diverse riders from different age group 13-65Years, profession from Doctors, Engineers, Sales & Marketing, Private family business, Micro-financing, Hotelier and many more. Obviously when you are in among so much diverse group of people you learn a lot. While the sport gave natural learning riders diversity enhanced them to next level.?

I intent to share my log here as the tour progressed which taught me invaluable lessons and I hope some of them may be of use to you as well.?

Commitment

In such endurance rides enough obstacles are sufficient reason for not doing and only way it can be achieved is to have commitment to tackle one bit a time. This ride challenged with peaks to climb on bike such as Mullayanagiri(MSL 1930M, Highest peak of Karnataka) to Kundadri Hills peak(MSL 826M, uphill gradient varies all the way to 20 degree, with no downhill to take breath on broken tarmac).?

Bike rear tyre burst day 8 with 70KM to ride        

Surprise

There will be surprise despite your preparation, it doesn’t mean dont be prepared, Preparedness only helps navigate those surprises. When riding in Kalasa region we were faced with enormous amount of leeches( Its wonder of nature as Dr Paul (Fellow rider) explained leech have local anaesthesia and anti blood clotting chemical which allows free flow of blood to feed them without a pain. I had encountered leech but not in these numbers before and only way we could navigate is helping each other and learning how to keep them away or rescue when in contact.

Conserve Energy in unknown situations

First few days riding those hikes I was exhausted and expert mentor rider Sunil/Prakash was very comfortable riding those hikes and still at ease.?When asked how you deal with those hikes “Dont burn your energy if you dont how long is this hike and focus on cadence with comfortable heart beats, if you burn your peak energy you may not complete the hike or you may not able to take advantage of flats and downhill post that” great lesson unknown situation we should keep moving with regular energy rather bursting all and nothing left for easy days to cover on.?

Focus a bit at a time

When riding uphill having the knowledge of how high is peak sometimes psychologically drains and doesn’t allow to achieve whats achievable, Again to rescue Sunil explains focus only next 10 meters ahead, and see you will be able to climb KMs long hikes with ease. Bisle ghat is 14KM stretch with almost 1400M elevation gain and formula just works.?

Learn

Every individual have something unique hence they are in that game. Interact and find opportunity to learn from them.?

Ask for help

In a need and don't have resources, ask for help and situation will be definitely better than before.?

Invest in to true relationship

I usually try be in my world but this time I was meeting people learning and sharing, same made some great friends. Such long enduring rides cannot finish without accident, I bit the dust on 5th day during 48KM race stretch just 2KM before finish line, when I fell just behind was Dr Gowda[General surgeon] who immediately took care of me and help me consoling, medication, I was still able to complete the race & rest 3 days another 300K ride as well. I had never meet Dr Gowda but first 4 days of meeting learning and sharing helped me make so many true friends for lifetime.

Enjoy have a Fun

Doing things can be lot more easy when we enjoy them doing, I was burning every day in excess on 2000KCAL which isn’t fun but as I was enjoying it wasn’t difficult either.?

Focus

loosing focus at any time during your course of achieving your goal can be tragic. The day I had fall, I did some of most technical MTB rides first 45KM and when I was on smooth tarmac is where I lost control and fell, It tells only one thing I took for granted as it was smooth, and a lesson focus throughout journey of achieving goal.?

Good times and Bad times

If there are good times bad time will come, if there are bad times good time will come. The only thing constant is Change.?

Diversity

Is way to progress and innovate together, Having people from various background helped rinding as professional at same time negotiating local situations as they arrived.?

Doing together

Can bring outcome greater than Sum of two, Tandem riding is such technique which allows riders to conserve every and achieve together bigger and better goals.

Partner

Having partners enables to pull along and keep motivated. In this journey Sandeep helped me pull certain day when I was not at my best and other days I did the same. Its so fulfilling to doing together and achieving together, which alone we would have never thought of.

To sum it up 8 days, every day moving places from Kukke Subramanya, Sakleshpur, Chikmanglur, Tarikeri, Attigundi, Kalasa, Sringeri & Kundapur

Travelled 600+KM accumulated elevation gain of 12500+M in lush green untouched natural Malnad mountain region with mind-blowing inspiring challenges every moments. I hope you enjoyed reading log and hope something to carry with you.?