The Knight Riders 200 from Pune is done and dusted. A great bunch of people with lots of newbies in sneakers tackling their first night brevet, often on lower-end bike with kickstands. All credit to the finishers.
Apart from some stonking climbs (which gave wonderful views), most of the route was not particularly exciting. Because minor roads are often in very poor condition, Audax India Randonneurs tend to route their brevets down major highways. This routing also gives plenty of opportunities for riders to pick up food and water overnight. Apart from the start and finish, the only controls were at the turns, so 100km between controls at night.
What is it like riding your bicycle on an Indian highway at night? Think riding the A14 but with zero lane discipline, many vehicles having non-functional lighting and horns sounding every 30 seconds, on average. Trucks usually sit in the middle or outside lane, so the inside lane or hardshoulder is often used for overtaking, also occupied by swarms of motor scooters and motorbikes. That can get uncomfortable at times, as that is where you are riding. Drivers are less aggressive to cyclists than in the UK but quite relaxed about proximity to each other, pedestrians and cyclists. I was less on edge by the end of the brevet than at the start but still elected to walk a section of highway near the top of a pass where a single lane of asphalt had trucks overtaking each other round bends with less than touching distance to each other, the guardrail on the right and the gravel on the left. The local riders just laughed about truck drivers following on their back wheels and hitting the horn.
I'll edit this, before my randonnesia (randonneur's amnesia) kicks in too hard.
Saturday morning, I was picked up by my prebooked taxi for the 150-ish km from Navi Mumbai to Pune. Yes, I could have taken the train or bus but frankly I didn't want the extra effort needed to buy tickets and the extra hassle required to get around both cities. The drive to the start didn't ease my anxiety about Indian driving standards, particulalry since I'd managed to put myself in hospital that last time I'd ridden in a foreign country. It was easier to bury myself in a book to avoid my imagination, though a stoking climb out of Mumbai resulted in some wonderful views. Once we eventually found the right address in Pune, I arranged to meet my driver the following morning at the same bike shop. It wasn't till he'd left that I realised that I had no way of contacting him if he didn't turn up, or vice versa. Oh well, it'd all work out somehow.
I'd emailed the Track and Trail Surendar Cycles shop in Pune for a hire bicycle and they were confident that they had something to fit my 180+cm height. In the Netherlands, I am no more than average height but in India, I tower over the locals and most of the available bicycles are sized to suit. A glance through the half dozen bikes and a well-worn hybrid with an eclectic mix of components and decent tyres caught my eye. This one would do just fine. I borrowed some tools for a couple of hours, checked that nothing was going to come loose, trued the wheels, fitted my GPS and lights and put pump, tube, etc. in my back pocket.
http://www.surendarcyclestores.com/My first venture onto Indian roads wasn't as bad as it had looked from the roadside, though still chaotic. Everything was travelling in different directions at different speeds but the honking was more along the lines of 'Here I am and I want to pass' than 'Get out of my way or die'. There were pedestrians, bicycles, motor scooters (with up to five aboard), motorcycles, auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks in other countries!), cars, vans, trucks, cattle and camels(!) to watch out for.
MORE TO COME
