Started off in the morning at about 4:45 in the morning. I had the Navigator all decked up with the Topeak Aero Wedge Pack and some other bag previous night. I had head-lamp and tail lamp deployed during the previous night and realized that was some good thinking, as the darkness followed me all the way till Vadgaon. Those lights blinking in the night made others aware of me.
Also, learning from previous experience, I had some chicken sandwiches packed with myself, I would end being hungry almost every 1.5 hours, get weak and tired, those muches helped me a lot (Thanks wifey). All said and done, hit the Lion's Pt. at about 8:05. I don't have any climb experience and that fact glared at my face during the climb, add into that there was some incessant rain happening, I was all soaked in no time.
During the climb realized following two:
[*] My front dérailleur had some problem, as I couldn't hit the left most gear. Not too much of a problem.
[*] My brakes were gone really weak, all tightening and it would be flat in next 10 mins. Does soaking have anything to do with it?
Realizing that above two are dangerous facts, I decided not to continue ahead and hit back ( I was planning to go as much ahead as I can, but felt all too much risky, since visibility was hardly up to some 10 meters). I had to walk back to climb's base, as I had no confidence on the braking. How do I avoid this problem?
Lessons learnt:
[*] Carrying your own food supplies makes plenty of sense.
[*] Avoid rain, but then where is the fun?
[*] Pleasure has to be mixed with the ride, just keep on pushing self to reach a place in shorter time is not really fun.
Due to brake problem, I returned back in slow pace, as it would take some time for braking to be effective. On way back, past Karla, Sumit waved at me, then somewhere past Vadgaon he overtook me. I was beginning to get tired by that time, realized that I was hungry had my last sandwich just before dehuroad. Reaching back home via traffic was really scary due to the brake issue, was going really slow due to this.
One temptation though, looking at the way Sumit sprinted on his road bike, I am very much tempted to get those thin tyres. Ditto when I was following Pranav on Kamshet ride. Ahh, but then the fun is not falling to temptation and winning over them. To his each own
.Would I do it again? Yup, winning is not just matter of once, it has to be over and over, again and again.
+LT
