Spinning the Wheels: Chennai Ride, launching BSA Tour of Tamil Nadu

I quite feel like I have wheels on my feet these days! Seriously. How else can one explain a life that is in motion constantly? We just finished ASHA 8K run, organized by my fellow runner and friend Santhosh, and we set off to Chennai to participate in a BSA Tour of TamilNadu launch ride organized by another friend, Suresh. Manjula and I reached Chennai at about 8pm, and decided to explore a bit of the place where we were staying and set out on foot. We had seen an authentic Saravana restaurant on the way in, and with hungry stomachs, and temptation of good food at hand, we weaved our way to the place through traffic filled roads. It rained heavily on the drive-in but nothing can change Chennai’s humid weather! It was pleasant though that evening to walk the rain soaked roads. Saravana restaurants aren’t famous for no good reason. Its authentic vegetarian food appeal goes a long way, and a wait of atleast 15 minutes to be seated is the norm. Once we got seated though we were ready to devour whatever was placed in front of us. Alas my appetite had taken a beating over the last few days, and all I could eat were mini idlis and a cup of milk! Manjula though enjoyed her meal, and we hung out chatting for a little bit until we realized our table was needed! Such is the demand for that place 🙂

Suresh having been tied up with the ride logistics was unable to meet us

early that evening, and we decided to call it a night so we could be out and on our way early in the morning. We had unloaded our cycles and stored them in the guesthouse office just so no one dreamed of walking away with them! Temptation, you know!

GR Photofile: Breakfast before the ride

Having been talking to Suresh about the event, I knew it would be spectacular and. it was! The group of cyclists included those we knew earlier, either via facebook (I have come to like fb quite a bit these days for having reconnected with a lot of my friends, and having met some very nice runners, and cyclists!) or personally. Others we got to know very quickly, introduced by Suresh, and cycle speak doing the rest!! BSA official, General Manager N.Shankar and AC Mohandas, IAS of TN tourism. S. Ramaswamy, CFO, Star Health and Insurance, Stewardson Raghavan, COO of EMRI, 108 Ambulance support were there to flag us off, and say a few words about the event and their association with it. Its great to see such support to events in India as they are just beginning to take off, and interest has increased multifold in the recent few years.

GR Photofile: Sponsors meeting the riders, and representing their organizations.

GR Photofile: BIkes at the ride.

GR Photofile: Before the ride at the Island Park.

GR Photofile: Chennai riders.

GR Photofile: On the highway

GR Phtofile: On Chennai roads.

We set off at 8.10am to cover a distance of 85kms from Island Grounds to Vedanthangal bird sanctuary. Riding through the city is a very different experience in general, and getting to see Chennai on wheels was a totally memorable experience. We weaved through traffic or should I say heaved through? 🙂 It was fun but at times a little scary with buses and trucks whizzing by at high speeds, and not bothered to look left or right! Once we got out of the city and to wider roads, it was all the most enjoyable, and Manjula and I found ourselves quite ahead of the pack, and were joined by a few riders, Bharani, and Gokul. Anuradha took off after about half an hour as she had a concert that night. She is a wonderful playback singer, having sung one of my favorites from Taal – ‘Ishq bina kya’! What an eclectic bunch of riders the group had! Totally welcoming of us, and loving every minute of the ride. There was an experience to be had there, and Manjula and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Weather too held up without run until 10am when it got hot and showed us Chennai might 🙂

GR Photofile: Pit stop

GR Photofile: Pit stop

It was interesting that I couldn’t find bottled water at any of the road-side stores! With sun beating down on us and aid stop a little ways, I tried getting some water and was out of luck. Suresh, the efficient guy that he is, showed up just in time in his support vehicle, and replenished our water resources. We rode along Ryan for a while and powered on to find ourselves in the lead pack again. This time Bharani kept us company all the way till we reached the sanctuary turn off. There we found one of the riders struggling through cramps, and stopped to look in to it, and then took him along to complete the last 6 kms at a slow pace. It took us 3 hours 35 minutes to complete the ride.What awaited us was a feast, sponsored by Ananda Bhavan. A vegetarian fair of rice, roti, curries, and yogurt was yummilicious to stay the least!

GR Photofile: Suresh saved us with water, and Ryan road with us later!

GR Photofile: Vibhav, the youngest rider with Suresh.

GR Photofile: Everyone devouring food 🙂

We were seriously tempted to stay and ride the ECR the next morning. Suresh lured us with promises of splendid dinners and personal tour of Chennai or wherever we wanted to go. But, our commitments back in Bangalore had us loading up our cycles, and heading back post lunch. We couldn’t say enough goodbyes as we were so taken by the crowd, and were smitten by their affection and care! We are certain we will go back to ride with them at the earliest chance we get, and look forward to them coming to ride with us in Bangalore. Srinath Rajam, and Neville were to come for Bulldog Sportz’s Bangalore – Chamundi – Bangalore ride, scheduled for November 5th, but said they might not be able to make it. It would be great to see them compete.

GR Photofile: The group after the ride, and lunch. Needed the food to revive on that hot day!

Sundar Rajan, 62, rode a full 170km and was the senior most rider, while Vaibhav, 12, was the youngest rider to complete 85kms. Venkataraman Venkatadri, Vaibhav’s father rode with him, making it a father-son duo, and an awesome image to take away from the ride. Vasanth Ramaswamy who is also the leader of TOT is a co-founder of TamilNadu Cycling club along with Sundar and Suresh Kumar.

There was Kenny from the Times, who suffered a minor fall but was a sport and tagged along in the support vehicle to see everyone finish. Besides that the event was off to a great start and completed successfully.

Gayatre Rajam, an athlete herself, completed 85 kms, and Vidya Singh, not having ever ridden a gear cycle earlier, completed 59 kms. Indira, an active rider, who also is a classical dancer, completed the full 85kms and rode strong.

GR Photofile: Anu, Kavitha, Manjula and Indira at the begining of the ride.

GR Photofile: Vidya Singh at the registration

GR Photofile: Suresh with riders.

GR Photofile: Chennai cheerful riders 🙂

GR Photofile: What an awesome bunch of riders!!

Since we had to head back to Bangalore we could not make it to the tour of bird sanctuary but the rest of the group enjoyed a guided tour that afternoon.

GR Photofile: Riders in the bird sanctuary. Picture courtesy Suresh.

GR Photofile: Riders at the bird sanctuary after the ride. Photo courtesy Suresh.

It was a ride we decided to go to on Suresh’s insistence and for the love of riding, and that weekend is etched somewhere deep down in the recesses of my memory for its fun factor, energy, and the adrenalin rush. Two days of power packed activity made the weekend a perfect one. Here are the details of the tour we launched that day: http://www.facebook.com/simmsimm#!/event.php?eid=127706670583267. Tamil Nadu is known for its temples, rich history and beautiful coastline. Check it out and be part of the tour that drives home the message of a cleaner, greener environment.