Firstly a big ‘thank you’ to all the people who have shown interest in riding TFN 2009. We were a bit busy behind the scenes and so we had not had time to keep the site updated and we are sure we are back in action again before you begun thinking that we had forgotten you.
We have been on our toes and working towards making TFN bigger and better this year. There would a new route this time without stretching the distance to more than about 80 km per day. If that sounds incredulous to you then don’t worry there are 4 more months to go and we are certain you have time to train for the event.
The final registration and other details about this year’s route will be put up shortly, please do watch out for the details.
All good memories should be cherished. The first edition of the TFN must be, we are sure, a special memory for all the riders one which should be cherished, relived and bragged about.
Our Documentation partner and our photography enthusiasts have come up with the photos and videos of TFN.
For the video above and other short clips to show to your friends and family and brag about having ridden the very first edition of the Tour of Nilgiris please visit:Â http://www.vimeo.com/user1030582/videos/
Dattatreya Patil, the grape farmer from Sangli who was part of TFN had a surprise announcement to make at the end of the tour. Every year his cycling club at Sangli identifies an exceptional cycling talent between the ages of 11-15 and confers a “young achiever” award named after Swami Vivekananda. Previous recipients of this award have gone ahead and represented their states and country in cycling events. This year he announced that this award would be given to our own Sukhdev Muralidharan, 11, who studies in class 6 at Cambridge Public School, Bangalore. Sukhdev cycled 75 km on Day 1 of the tour to Mysore and another 74 km on Day 7 of the tour from Mysore to Bangalore. He rode under the supervision of his parents and the eagle eye of the doctors from Manipal Hospital.
We are touched by Dattatreya Patil’s gesture and wish Sukhdev the very best. We know he has the talent — and we hope that one day we will see him rise to the international level of cycling. We certainly hope that Sukhdev will be the first in a long line of cycling talent that TFN will help identify and nurture.
The Tour of Nilgiris riders are on their way back (see pictures by Prashanth Kota shot this morning on the way to Bangalore)Â ie 31 December!
Nachiket Ulhas Joshi
Deeksha
Joshine Antony
You can join them at around 4 pm at the Mysore Satellite Terminal or a little later at Vidhan Soudha. Plus don’t forget that if you are in Bangalore you are invited for the party on 1 January, 2009. Details are with Sameer Shisodia.
TFN participants ride the finishing lap in front of Vidhana Soudha on their arrival in Bangalore
Ooty is 2286 meters above sea level, and it can be quite cold in winter. Yesterday there was frost in the morning. Today it was 11 degrees C at 7 am, rising to 17 degrees C by 10 am. Rushing down the 12 per cent descent through the Kalhatti Ghats and through the 36 hair-pin-bends the temperature felt more like in the region of 10 degrees C for a while. And then everyone was in the Bandipur forest, making their way to Mysore. It’s clear that the day’s rest in Ooty has had a big impact — everyone was fresh and ready to take on this leg.
Vasu, from the support team, had to peel off today for some personal work and he looked really mournful saying, “Can’t believe I got to know every single rider - I am missing them already.” Goes to tell you what the bonding on TFN was like. At dinner no one wanted the day to end as tomorrow would mean the last day of being together.
Sankar P
Sudhir P
Virendra Sangwan
But, all is well on TFN and the riders are having a swell time (as the lovely pictures above by Prashanth Kota taken a little earlier show).
The team returns tomorrow, and will be at the Mysore Satellite Terminal by 4 pm. From here they will cycle down together to Vidhan Soudha and end the ride at Cubbon Park at 5 pm. Feel free to join them on the last lap of the memorable journey and catch their stories while they are still fresh.
29 December is a rest day. We will not be reporting on TFN. Everyone deserves their privacy.
But our guess is that a whole bunch of riders will go out to enjoy the sights, many will service and clean their bikes and of course many bonds of new friendships will be sealed over hot cups of chai. A good account of the rest day with some lovely pictures is posted here by Minakshi Menon.
We also thought it is the perfect day for you to admire the stunning independent documentation happening of TFN:
