Nov 2011: Arkavathi 150: Ride along the river populaire

The RideWe present the third populaire of the 2011 season. This is also the launch ride for the brevets starting from 26 November 2011. On this ride we catch the river Arkavathi at Kanakpura riding along NH 209, which is probably the best national highway for cycling around Bangalore. Then we follow the river upstream, reaching Manchanbele through Ramanagara, along a scenic and peaceful route.

Like a brevet, this populaire is a completely self-supported ride to be completed in a fixed time. A populaire is usually of a distance less than 200K. Note that brevets and populaires are not competitive rides.

Ride Summary

Date: November 12, 2011, 06:00 AM -- Registration formalities start at 05:30 AM

Start: Indian Institute of Science Gymkhana Gate, Yeshwantpur

End: Indian Institute of Science, A-Mess Gate/Kendriya Vidyalaya Gate, Mathikere Road

Distance: 147 km

Time limit: 10 hours

Please note that the road between Mariamma Circle in Malleshwaram and C N R Rao Circle is closed. Please approach via Mekhri Circle if you're coming from South Bangalore.

Note that this is a challenging route which will test your climbing skills with an uphill return to Bangalore.

The ride is open to all cyclists regardless of their affiliation.

Online registration for the populaires is FREE.

However, if you register on the spot at the venue, a surcharge of INR 50 will be applied since we'd like to minimize the inconvenience of handling on-the-spot registrations.

Rules and Regulations

Please read the rules and regulations for a randonnée.

Since this is a daylight ride, the following rules are relaxed for this ride:

1. You do not need to wear a reflective vest.
2. You need not possess front or rear lights. If you do, however, they must meet the regulations.

Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that you possess a reflective vest and lights in working condition in case you are forced to ride at night due to delays.

Registration Information

You can register online using RRBM. Online registrations are free.

You will need to sign a waiver at the start, if you haven't done so already.

Please note on-the-spot registrations at the venue will attract a surcharge of INR 50 since we'd like to minimize the inconvenience of handling on-the-spot registrations.

Route

Surface: Roads are in good to excellent shape for most of the route. One section has a few bad patches. There is another section with about 1 km of bad road.

Traffic: NH 209 till Kanakpura has medium traffic, SH-85/Magadi Road on the return has light to medium traffic and the Mahalakshmipuram Layout road on the return has medium to heavy traffic. The rest of the route has very low traffic.

Terrain: Here is the elevation profile generated from the GPX by utrack.crempa.net for the route, there is about 1300m of climbing, with some very steep climbs (6%) and descents.