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3ennyj · 7 years ago

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Road race on a fixie?

It’s been a while since I’ve written something. I prefer the visual media, probably because it’s easier or that I’m lazy. Also Akul I know you’re reading this and wondering where the fuck is part three, it’s coming maccha.

2017 has been a great year so far, in a nutshell, spent the NY’s with my best mate Sid, made radical changes to my lifestyle by staying clean (drug and smoke free), continued to eat clean (plant based food), committed myself to make it into the final bunch of the Red Hook Crit 2018 at London, started the store (LBB cycles) with my dope ass partner Shariq and started dating the coolest gal ever, Steffi.

Just two days back I participated and completed my first road race and the longest race ever on my fixed gear bike. Honestly I was nervous, like really fucking nervous. Had these various thoughts lingering in my head, will I hang on with the main group?, am I on the right gear ratio?, will I cramp up?, will I manage with two bottles of water and the ride food or will I bonk like a boss?, the one thing I knew for sure though, was I’ve been consistent with my training, my recovery and with the food that I’ve been eating, and the faith people near and dear had in me.

Lets zoom out to the week that was leading up to the BBCh Bangalore Classic. I was into week 18 of structured training that I developed for myself based on research and mostly based on talking to mates like Francis and Naveen who were and are elite national racers respectively, and getting feedback from online acquaintances who’ve ridden the Red Hook. I decided to do one day of mid week training on the rollers working on my lactate tolerance efforts or pyramid intervals and skipping my strength session at the gym. After all you don’t want to stress your legs out too much on race week, rather keep them fresh though I commute to the store. What I did keep keen attention to was my food and hydration. Eight weeks back I did my first elite criterium with the roadies and put out an OK-OK performance, I mean I was under-geared (48x15:”84.16GI), for the non trackies, that means at 90rpm my speed would be 36km/h, which is not that great for a flat, and fast circuit, also I was just 10 weeks into my training with no strength training and my legs weren’t ready for more gnarlier ratio, back to the point I was making, I did not keep a check on my hydration, salt intake and the finer details such as are the right minerals getting into my system, and I cramped like a mother fucking goat! I couldn't ride for the next five days, I literally thought my cycling days are over, and the doctor who I’d not like to mention, told me I had a lack of B12 and Vitamin D, since I’m on a vegan/plant based lifestyle. Turns out I had a lack of salt and essential minerals that come from green leafy veggies in my food, and the absence of using an ORS post hard training rides. Since then I’ve been best friends with methi (fenugreek) and palak (spinach). Also I stopped using all forms of processed junk that includes alternate protein, I now use a bunch of superfoods such as spirulina, amla, moringa, chia seeds just to name a few as a part of my recovery meals and shakes that I source from, I must mention them, Happy Health Me. Must I say, I am getting stronger. Not bragging but, I ride 300+ kms a week, work out, work six days a week, prepare my food and manage my house, to be able to this day after day, and still stay fresh as fuck, I blame it on the plant based diet. If you need to know more, talk to me.

That being said, three day to go and I was still nervous, they say the best way to make sure you’re going to do something, is to announce it on social media. That’s what I did. I announced that I’d be doing the 132km elite road race on the fixed gear. You know that made no difference. I was still nervous as fuck. Speaking to Steffi, she reassured me that I’d do well, rather I’d send it, and that really helped. I made sure I loaded up on the carbs “ethically”, stuck to eating a higher potion of Matta Kerala rice than normal with my usual array of mains such as rajma, channa and black eyed peas. The only thing different about race prep, was eating little more rice than usual. Another saying, a clean bike is a fast bike, not only did I clean the bike but I spring cleaned my house, I don’t know if that made a difference but it’s a superstition now. Cleaning the bike involved transforming this bike into a race machine. Out goes the tyre liners and bike lights, after all every gram counts, throwing out the tyre liner turned out to be a big mistake though, you’ll know more.

I usually do all my rides fasted, and again after much research I figured that having a good healthy meal, two to four hours before a road race is essential. I made my usual power porridge potion though half in size two point five hours before the race. The slow digesting oats along with the fresh fruits, nuts and superfoods makes for an explosive pre race meal. I pre packed six pieces of my brownies which I happily forgot to carry in my tote. Shariq picked me up and we were running late thanks to a flat car tyre, these were signs that I should have seen, and we made it just 20 minutes before the race kicked off. I’ll be honest with you, I was so nervous, I did not realise when the started, next thing you know we’re rolling down NH7 and I’m asking Vivek, has the race started!

The next 72kms was one of the best rides I’ve ridden so far. Averaging close to 38km/h, with a bunch of highly energised individuals from the likes of national, state, category champions, and my friends who I’ve made thanks to cycling. It felt like we were on a happy go lucky Sunday group ride. My plan for the race was very simple, ride hard, have fun, stay safe and finish. I was staying true to the first three parts for sure and that made sure that the fourth part was easily achievable. Since we had a good tail wind on the way out, I decided to do my bit by heading up front and working to pull the group. The feeling is amazing. I was out in front with Venky, Aman, Tarun and a couple of solo pulls, until we reached this flyover may be 25kms out, unlike the roadies I cannot coast, so I continued to churn down the flyover at a high pace, I did my usual check glance to see no one’s on my wheel, and what looked like a solo breakaway that I did not ask for. I kept checking as I descended at about 45km/h to see that the peloton was taking it real easy for some reason, except for Vinesh and Tarun who decided to chase me. Why did they do it, no one knows, not even them. Then next thing you know we’ve officially formed the first break away of the race with an ever increasing gap.

I mean we were like three little children laughing and chatting, having the most jolliest of time thinking why the fuck did we do what we just fucking did, this was an epic uncalled for photo-op, with Krishna pulling up near us and Shariq and the photographer having a field day capturing us. Everyone loved it! Vinesh suddenly calls out, man it’s 10kms and these guys have still not caught up, well that’s because I was setting a decent pace of 39km/h through our breakaway. After much discussion, actually none, we decided to slow ourselves down and join in with the peloton as it made no sense to breakaway so early and waste our energy, Good call. Our pace was now down to 32km/h and the next thing you know we’re back with the peleton. Honestly we could have pulled it off. Vinesh and Tarun, I know you’ll are reading this, we should do it, for the Nandi Epic may be? Back in the peloton life is good now. We came up on this really awesome descent which of course had a speed breaker and for some reason I really slowed down on this, the next thing you know I got dropped like a fucking hot iron, I was over revving at 155rpm doing 67km/h and still couldn’t catch up with the bunch, which then led us into a gradual climb, this was my place to attack to catch up, with my heart rate reaching the lower end of my zone 5, I finally did catchup with the peloton, cause’ I knew if I got dropped here it was going to be a lonely ride back to the finish, I knew things would change at the U-turn, just that I didn’t want it to happen this early. The feeling of catching up to the peloton can be compared to getting lost in a crowd as a kid and then finally seeing your parents, I swear that’s how happy I was to catch up and join the peleton. As we approached the U-turn I could see the positioning get into place, and riding brakeless in a group of roadies, it’s situations like these that you have to be the most careful, I almost touched Maninders wheel as we took the turn because he jammed his brakes, thankfully I weaved around and took the patli galli out. As soon as you exit the turn the pace was full gas. I held on for about 5 kilometres before being dropped on one of the descents yet again. This time a catch up was not happening, with an insane headwind and a gnarly climb I eased off and worked on bringing the heart rate down, that's when Shariq and Krishna pulled up next to me, motivating me to go on and kill it. They said the guy in front of you is Nagraj Harsha, the ironman, bridge the gap and work with him. He was probably around 300m ahead of me when I started to bridge the gap and finally caught upto him. I’ve never met the guy and we didn’t speak, all we did was work in a pair and work hard we did to fight the headwind and the climbs. While I did most of the pulling, I was more than happy too, we slowly started caching up with the other dropped riders. I wanted to build a group of the stronger riders like Vinesh, Tarun and Rajat, but that didn’t work too well. Oh and special mention to Riyaz for tanking my bottle up when I went dry, it was my first bottle refill/transfer on the road while moving, it felt very pro for some reason! So Nagraj pulled away and went on ahead and it was just Rajat, Tarun and myself that remained. Then Tarun and me, the next thing you know we see Rajat flying past us, I have no idea where did the lad create that energy, but he was flying, since Tarun was cramping out already, I told him I was gonna chase him and stick with him. I clung onto him for dear life literally and we covered a solid distance. We were now 20kms from the finish when I decided to ease it out. I could feel the bonking’ness feeling set in, and that’s when I had the Lärabars, that Tarun saved my life with, remember I forgot to pack my brownies. Big thanks to you man. 13kms from the finish, 119kms down averaging 34km/h, I was switching bottles, both hands of the handlebar replacing the water bottle that was now empty with my ORS bottle in my jersey when I almost felt my front wheel sweep under me. I quickly got a grip on my handle bar and countered the fall. As I settled into finishing mode I could feel the loss of traction from my front wheel, what do you know I have a puncture! The kind of cuss words that came out of my mouth would have made the devil happy. I couldn't believe it. I was fighting fit, ready for a spectacular finish, by the looks of it was going to make it to the top 15 at least. I pulled up on the side and looked out for help. I wasn’t carrying any spares on me as everything was in my tote that I though Shariq was carrying. The Spectrum Racing team car pulled up and Vivek, Shankar and their other team mate who I didn’t know were super helpful. They gave me a tube, a CO2 cylinder and a phone to call Shariq. I told Shariq my location and was waiting on him as I needed a 15mm wrench to unscrew the bolts of the front wheel. Almost 20 minutes passed and I did not see him any where, that’s when I decided to walk and find a wrench. Tried my luck at a petrol bunk, and finally after a kilometre of walking I found a bike puncture shop and started working on the bike. Of course I was surrounded by 30 odd villagers all interested to find out what a fellow in his undies is going to do with a bike tube. The thing is when Shankar gave me the cylinder I asked him how to use it, which he didn’t know, so when I attached the cylinder and did some twists and turns it worked and the tube was filled with this cold gas, the villagers were so amazed by this process I told them this was magic which broke the ice and got them laughing. After a quick 20 second breakdown of what I was doing with my broken Kannada I was back on the road. I lost 45 minutes to this fucking puncture. Though disappointed that I could have finished better, I DID FINISH. I’m happy. I’m looking forward to my rest week starting next week and to my first fixed gear crit I’ll be doing in Dresden, Germany later in September. T-41.

Video: https://goo.gl/zhKjui

Strava: https://goo.gl/fU4dvX

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