This is the first group ride in the land of beauty, also the longest ride for now. This ride was planned by Robin, the same guy I went last sunday ride with.
I was been added to a whatsapp group called NDD friends, which is a group of riders based on Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram. There, Robin posted this ride notification and asked whomever interested to join.
The ride plan was to start at 6:00 AM in Chullimanoor and reach Thenmala, which is about 50 kilometers away. In the group, myself, Aditya, Robin and three more riders were there. Those three new riders are, Vibin, Sreeganesh and Amar. They are pro riders, and their ages were above 40 atleast. I was impressed by the mismatch of their ages and their appearance, stamina and power.
Myself and Aditya started from the campus sharp by 5:50 AM, I was surprised to see Aditya being ahead of me in preparation for the ride. He was at the SAC in the institution, preparing his bike while I met him. To be frank, I thought like he will be sleepy and I have to wake him up, but he gave me a surprise.
We went to Chullimanoor and saw a notification in the whatsapp group about the first rider I met, Sreeganesh. He shared his location where he parked his car and preparing his bike. We went, met him and waited for the two more riders, Vibin and Amar. Among us, I think Amar is the oldest in terms of age alone, not definitely in terms of his power. Through out the ride, he was the one leading or precisely, flying ahead of us.
Sreeganesh and Amar had a decent bikes, costlier than mine ofcourse. But, this was the first time for me to see a much costlier, full carbon bike had by Vibin. It had electronic shifters. Others told that he is a pro rider, practicing for a long time.
All five of us left from Chullimanoor by around 6:30 AM and met Robin on the way from his place, Nanniyode. We then proceeded towards Thenmala. I was surprised to see Palode almost immediately after Nanniyode, ofcourse they are next to each other on the map, but by the distance I thought it would take an hour or so to reach there from Nanniyode.
The roads were full of climbs and decents. Nothing can beat the morning beauty of Kerala, specially regions around Thiruvananthapuram. Seeing the Sun rise behind the Western Ghats, is an amazing feel. A couple of pics I took of the sun rise on the way. I took them near Madathara, which is a place I visited by bus to Thenkasi only. I was happy to see the places that I see through Thenkasi bus travel, on my own effort.
On the way, a change of plan happened. We discussed to take a diversion at Kulathupuzha and go towards a place where Sreeganesh’s mom lives. That route had superb climbs. On the way, some other plan was happened to Vibin, and he left the group to go somewhere else. That was last I saw his bike.
We were riding in pairs, because some were able to handle the climbs and others couldn’t, they were moving slowly. Luckly, I was able to handle the climbs and joined the subgroup made of Vibin and Amar, going ahead of the other three. I felt like Aditya may think that I left him, but he didn’t show any such reaction in his face and talks, I don’t know.
We stopped at a hotel, where we had our breakfast and proceeded further to Sreeganesh’s mom’s home. We met his family, which had a beautiful house built around a scenic place. There we took a couple of pics with his family, refilled our water bottles, and started return ride within some half an hour I think.
The return ride was through the same route as forward ride. The only difference was the sun. Forward ride was easy, and return ride quite drained me. Luckly, I had that hydration powder mixed water, as suggested by Robin. It helped me. On the way, Amar headed way further than us and he told like he is waiting at Kulathupuzha junction where we took diversion. Myself and Robin were riding ahead of Sreeganesh and Aditya.
On our way, Robin received a call from Sreeganesh stating that Aditya was having muscle cramps. Infact, he fell once while going to Sreeganesh’s home, because of uncliping issues from the pedals during a steep climb. We waited in a juice shop, and once they both arrived, we had some coconut based shake and then left again. Amar was waiting about 1 kilometer ahead of us.
Once we saw Amar, we proceeded towards Palode road. I felt like Robin, Sreeganesh and Aditya were slow riders, and I slowly moved closer to Amar. Since then, I was riding with Amar. He is a fast guy. I understood how he is changing gears for the climb and descent, and implemented the same on my bike.
We both took two short rest stops. The last stop was somewhat closer to the destination, Chullimanoor, so we decided to reach there and wait for others to catchup. We reached Chullimanoor at around 01:10 PM. We were waiting for almost 40 minutes until Sreeganesh and Aditya come. Aditya had a flat while coming back. He changed the tube with a spare and continued riding.
Robin had gone to his home from Nanniyode point itself. Remaining four of us, after we met at Chullimanoor, delivered our byes and separated. Aditya was exhausted from the climbs. We decided to go to campus through its back gate, as the front gate path has 3 consecutive steep climbs. I stopped my ride recording at Chullimanoor itself, showing 111 kilometers with about 1.4 km elevation. We came back to the campus and settled. I didn’t go for lunch as the bananas given my Sreeganesh’s mom had filled my stomach. I came to my room, refreshed and settled.
It was my first group ride and a longest ride here. It is a good thing, that Robin added me to the NDD group. Looks like I will be going on regular rides during weekends. It is a good choice I took: riding, as it can be with me till my end of life, as I saw other experienced riders in the group.
Below are the photos and video taken during the ride.
Below is the Strava log of this ride.
