It's Wedding Season in India!!

Namaste!

"January is wedding season in India", we are told at our first riders meeting - get ready to party!  In fact, there was a wedding going on at our hotel....

Delhi is crazy - I've seen none of it beyond a 1.5 hour drive from airport to hotel in pouring rain when we arrived.  Dennis (fellow rider and Brit) was on the same flight as me which was reassuring.  The money changing is very challenging since the government is trying to curb corruption and you are limited in how much money you can change at one time.  

Our first hotel (Vivanta Taj - Surjkund) is on the south side of Delhi to facilitate leaving the city on our first ride day.  This means it's about 3 hours into Delhi to see the sights in the most daunting traffic.  Stayed at the resort instead.  It's so beautiful - had a swim and a massage and the towels are changed every 5 minutes or so in the room - every very time I returned to my room, the slippers they provide were in a different spot, along with clean towels.  

First riders meeting on Jan 28 - met our small band of like minded travellers, 10 in all + 3 staff.  Daily schedule reviewed (bags to van @ 6:45; breakie @ 7:00; and on the road @ 7:30). Reviewed the use of the white boards which will identify our daily route; the rules of the tour and rules of the road.

Day 1
(84 km, 350m climbing), smog/fog, warmish (14'C -> 21'C)

Group photo, Priest gave us a blessing, gift of a bracelet from the God Ganesh to protect us on our travels and provide a safe journey, including a blessing for our bikes with coconut water.
  
We had our 2 vehicles (1 in front and 1 behind) escort us for the first 10 km out of Delhi, then a straight shot to our destination - Kosi.  This was an experience - horns are constant, signalling rare, and the slow'ish speed of the traffic makes the "dance" doable for all shapes and sizes.  The best part is the maze of traffic going through any community along the way. Why not go the opposite direction on the road - you can fit, just honk your horn -organised chaos....   The road was paved and a bit of construction, but in much better condition than I expected.

Lunch just beyond half way (50 km) - sandwiches, chai, fruit, veggies.  I hope I'll enjoy it as much on last day of tour as today!  

Our hotel for the night is pleasant - had my first, of I'm sure many, experiences with a bucket wash to wash the grime of the day off.  

Temp Check

Namaste!

I have some bike routes that I could probably do in my sleep as they are very familiar.
Today was one of them and I was fortunate to ride outside as the wind wasn't blasting from the north at 50 km/hr.  It was a tad chilly, but I was happy to be out.  Missed my usual Sat ride to due to my confusion on when we were celebrating my Dad's birthday, so completed an outside ride today instead.

I rode from my house to hwy 22 and back via Springbank Rd - 75 km round trip.  I completed this same ride in Sept this year shortly after I decided to sign-up for the Hippie Trail with TDA Cycling.

Some observations from today - the 1 km kick up Edworthy hill was doable today and I didn't come close to falling over b/c I was able to keep my cadence up - yay progress!
The last roller back into Calgary on Springbank Rd can be daunting as you approach it and think you're going to die on this hill (Sept) when I actually had to stop at the top, get off my bike and rest for a couple of minutes vs. today - plough up, albeit slowly, carry on to the finish (home), no stopping.

Tried a pair of clip on tri-bars on my Kona Sutra today, but I didn't really like them.  An experiment for India - thinking a change of position may be beneficial from my regular handlebars.  I think being able to go into my drops should be enough.  These tri-bars don't have a lot of adjustment, so may try them a couple more times and then make the final decision.  Also need to consider it may be more important to be able to mount a handlebar bag than have tri-bars.  Since I'm figuring a potential extra few hundred kms due to being lost and backtracking in India, the handlebar bag to hold my daily trip sheet to refer to at a glance may be the more important priority.

Ciao, happy training
Cindy

Steady as she goes....

Namaste!

First month of training for Tour d'Afrique - Hippie Trail in the bag!  No missed workouts and solid start to my preparation for India.  As always - I feel very fortunate to have the supportive coaching from the Talisman Tri-Club custom coaching packages, as well as the coaching from the classes I'm currently in.

I'm training with Paul this year and so far so good (I think - right coach?). I've known Paul since 2005 when I started at the Talisman and through the bike classes he's coached.  He has mountains of cycling knowledge that he willingly shares, a great sense of humour and he agreed to get me to the start line of this big exciting adventure - even though he and his wife welcomed their second son in early Sept.  Congratulations!

You know when you watch a charity event and at the end they parade out the grand total on one of those giant cheques?  Well, when I sent my cheque to TDA to pay for my trip - I felt like it should have been one of those enormous cheques, because it was an enormous cheque!!  It is going to be so worth it.  I've had my eye on this trip since 2012 as it's one of the shorter trips and I'm finally able to swing it with vacation time from work.

I'm also happy to say I can check off all the boxes in my last post!

Carla has been very patient and extremely helpful in my prep for touring too - thank you friend!  She completed the "big one" - Tour d'Afrique and is also a member of my tri-club.  I may have bombarded her with endless questions from the first day I met her in bike class.  I recognized her from her blog (I know kinda creepy, but that's the internet for ya).  Her sense of adventure and travel knowledge is amazing!

The other thing that's happened in the past month are some kick-ass shopping sales - Bow Cycle 30% off customer appreciation night --> BOOM bike parts list done!  Spin Sisters, MEC shopping night 10% off --> more essentials off the list. Trying really hard to pay cash for all the incidentals for this trip.  I know that Speed Theory also has some crazy bike (i.e.: road bikes) deals on at the moment.... must stay focused on India.

OK - back on the bike....
Ciao Cindy