This is the second group ride with Cyclotrivians. This was initiated by the rider Shaini, the one with eye-catchy color bike from Trek in below media. I was the first to join in this ride in the whatsapp group, followed by over 11 members. A lady rider was also joined initially, but dropped from it on the day before the ride. This ride was planned on Sunday.
There were three sub-groups in this 11 members: myself and Robin, one team from Attingal and the other team from the city. On sunday morning 05:30, as per the plan, I came to Chullimanoor junction where Robin will also be coming. He came right on time, we decided to go towards Nedumangad to catchup with the other riders and ride back. We caught the riders over Anad and were riding with them.
There were two MTB riders, one hybrid, one RC120 and remaining were road bikes. The costliest roadbike was having by Shaini: Trek Emonda SL6 with over 4 lakhs. He is over 40+ in age at least. In the group I was first introduced to the MTB rider Jithin, he is a young and beginner rider. He found me to be admiring and asked many questions and had many conversations.
I was then introduced to Arun Raj, he is also 40+. He then introduced me to Shaini. We were riding till Vithura, where we had breakfast at around 07:30. I had two appam with kadalai curry. In the hotel, 4 - 4 members took tables and sat, leaving me and another guy on a separate table. This another guy has a surprise that I will tell later. Robin saw that we are alone and rearranged the chairs to have two groups of 5. I was joined with Robin where Shaini and Vibin was there. Vibin told that I have a nice name.
After breakfast, we started towards Ponmudi. I was switching between different sub-groups among them and reached Ponmudi check point with Shaini. We took the passes and waited for others to come. On the way, we met another 3 riders from the same Cyclotrivians who were also heading towards Ponmudi. We joined together and reached the starting point.
After all assembled at the starting point, we took photos at the checkpoint mentioning it as starting point and started to climb. Myself and Robin were the first to start, but Robin was unable to keep up his pace due to his bike condition. He started to slow, pulling me as well. On the way, I saw other riders crossing over me, I gave Robin an energy gel to boost him up. Shaini crossed over us and I joined with him. On the way, I saw Arun stretching up, I gave an energy bar to him and continued with Shaini.
The “another guy” from breakfast, he was the first to reach top. He went there way ahead of all of us. The surprise that I later got is that he is 38. But, he looks like a btech guy, and got stamina to reach top in first. It was his first ride on Ponmudi too. I joined with Shaini and climbing.
The view was unbeatable, with mists and clouds, just wow! There are videos of me and Shaini going through the mists and clouds below. Shaini’s aim was to reach the top in single stretch, and he did it. I felt very very easy this time, last time it was easy. Shaini told that I got my capacity increased.
We reached the top, Shaini bought me an icecream and we were waiting for others to join. Once all were joined, we went to the top, along with our bikes and crossed the barricade, where last time those in charges didn’t allow me. The views were awesome. Robin took me to a few spots, where we sat for a while and came back to join with others.
We took a bunch of photos, and we left the top by around 12:00. Shaini was holding a chest mount with his phone and gopro (it was brought by an MTB guy). He took the recording of all our decents. It was great. And on the top, I tried that Trek bike, it was nice. The key point I liked is the rachet’s sound.
After decent, we had briyani at a shop in Kallar. During return, Robin was unable to continue due to some issues with the briyani he had. I joined with others and we stopped at Koraliyodu. After all have reached, I saied bye to everyone and left to reach campus. It was a nice ride! especially the views.
I shared the experience over instagram and Swapna, the lady rider from Tour de Kanyakumari 2026, liked it. I asked her if we can make a group ride with her team to Ponmudi sometime. She said that she would love to and get back to me after discussing with her team. If she gets back, then this will be the first group ride with tamil nadu riders.
Below are the photos and videos took on this ride.
Below is the Strava log of this ride.
