BJ5 - Day 5 - Wed May 19 - Gadag to Kittur

BJ5 - Wed May 19 - Gadag to Kittur

6.15 am/6.15 pm/6.15pm/125/12.5/50%/595

nice and comfortable ride

great roads - strong head winds througouht - speed reduced to a crawl
- never cycled so much with such consistent head winds - felt nice
since in the first half it was cool - had to sailboat most of the way
- need to keep at easy levels for the first half of the tour to avoid
risking an injury and for the adaptation response to be fully in place

subdued temp - cloud cover throughout - had rained the night before -
went up to 35 by 1 - peak at 38 - remained 35-38 second half -fist
half was sub 30 - pleasent

having food every 2-3 hours

nh63 till hubli was nice and low traffic - got lost in hubli trying to
connect to golden4 - landed up on sh63 - went to dharwad via that -
eta dharwad 3.15

was thinking of halting at dharwad since belgaum still 100 km away -
decided to first see the connecting route to nh4 - was a 7 km descent
- not too enthused to make that ascent back - decided to halt at
kittur - largish town as per the atlas i picked up at hubli - missing
my escorts maps where i can clearly gauge acco availibility from the
city lettering

the golden4 was as beautiful as ever - rode till kittur 25 km away on
the shoulder as usual

had taken the ease of cycling on the golden quads as granted -
realized the value only after experiencing the wild west highways

was running short on water - but skipped the first few shops just
becos they were on a decline, and when i was picking speed - time for
food also, but skipped many of the places becos they were not exactly
right - the golden quads spoil you -

mentally less taxing too - the wild west ones need immense focus and
concentration compared to goldens - like debugging an automated
reporting code written by somebody else - goldens are like no
brainers comparitively speaking

the last food stop owner suggested this hotel - hotel gajraj - ac 800
- neat and clean room

could hv gone the 40 odd km to belgaum but would have got dark

bot a lots of soda, water, nimbuz for rehydration - but realized wont
need so much - the sugar in homeo pills in the sack had melted in
yesterday's heat

beginning of ride the pain in that one inch crotch area had gottten
worse - on verge of becoming a wound - used vaseline laced with
calendula - adjusted the seat angle down - caused the pressure to trfr
to wrist and knees - was a little worried - but by end of ride the
knee and wrist held up well and the sore had nearly healed - will need
to monitor knee/wrist for a for a few days - slight strain on left
foot lat. Pl. Fac. - getting better with coorg oil and change in foot
position - seems like a minor one - not a constraint - the other minor
aches and strains have also healed up with the coorg oil - zero butt
pain even with the local seat cover - the extra fat deposits of the
past few months + training with the seat cover seem to be helping

low stock of calendula Q - had not checked the bot before leaving -
might need to take a break in one of the larger cities to pick up
these kind of essentials and also get the cycle fixed - maybe in pune
- lets see

feeling pretty strong - capacity up by atleast 30%

overall till now the ride has been 1.5x tough compared to kanyakumari
- combo of inclines / rollling and head winds - had expected to be
around 1.25x due to inclines but had no idea of wind - all the long
distance speed rides in peak heat in bangalore, with full tour gear,
helping

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