The big thumbs up 👍

From 3 February 2020, I will be taking on the epic challenge of cycling 4,500km across the entire length of India. Starting on the very southernmost tip in the city of Kanyakumari, I will end up 45 days later in Kashmir, almost in the foothills of the Himalayas! 

My goal is to raise $450,000 for the Loomba Foundation. Each cent I raise will help to empower widows in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.  

Day 11 From Anantpur to Kurnool – 1,100 km completed (3,400 km left)

We’ve just finished day 11 so its 1,100 km completed which is great!

My new personal best

I reached a new personal best today. I think 4h 17m was my previous personal best and the one before that was 4h 18m. Today was 4h 14m so that’s cool and I hope one day I might be able to do a 4 hour 100 km. Let’s hope so and we’ll see.

Today’s drama… the missing tyre levers

The drama today was Sachin joined me cycling for the first 20 km but at 15 km we had our second puncture. I then got on the spare bike to cycle the remainder of the 20 km, finishing for breakfast, and that’s when the fun and games started.

Instead of me having my physio the bike needed some treatment so it was upside down on my yoga mat while Sachin went to search for the tyre levers to remove the tyre from the wheel. He was getting increasingly stressed as he couldn’t find the tyre levers and then he looked some more and some more but to no avail. The tension was rising and it looked like we weren’t going to fix the tyre because the levers were missing. All of sudden Mahadev appeared with my tyre completely off the bike, which he did as a result of the last team talk when we talked about using our initiative. Mahadev had found the tyre levers and had taken the tyre off while Sachin was frantically searching for them, so that was quite amusing.

Sleeping with other men

I slept in a sort of store room today which belonged to restaurant. There were two other beds and there were two other guys also sleeping there. So the three of us were happily sleeping together which was an interesting experience. You don’t get that in the Taj too often.

Cycling is my new job

Today was one the first days that I thought of myself more as a cyclist. I remember when I did the marathons Sachin told me that I need to think about the marathons as my new job… I don’t have a job and I cycle for pleasure. Cycling is my job and it’s what I do each day. I have breaks, finish my day and my day basically involves cycling.

And I remember the quote from Ed my younger son from the marathons where the encouragement was “Walking is what we do”. Now the quote is just “cycling is what we do”.

Andhra Pradesh/Telangana

We were in the state of Andhra Pradesh for three days and we’re now into Telangana. Andhra Pradesh was split in 2014 as the northern part of the state became known as Telangana, the 29th Indian state.

Hyderabad, where we are heading now to meet Pawan, is currently the shared capital of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In due course it will be the capital of Telangana and, Andhra Pradesh will have a new capital. It’s new capital is actually in the process of being built and is called Amravati.

Sachin gives me the big thumbs up

People have kindly been interested in my bottom as a result of the pain I have been in since day 1. The good news on the bottom front is that the outside of the skin seems to have hardened but I still have some internal bruising. Sachin has given my bottom a big thumbs up (not literally, that would be obscene).

I should have had an ergonomic assessment!

Sam, my oldest son, asked me today if I had a full ergonomic assessment on my bike before starting the cycling so I could get the saddle position right, the handlebar position, my pedals and so on. That was a mistake as I definitely should have had a full assessment. Just so that I could optimise my position on the bike. I think I’m close to being in a good position but it still doesn’t feel quite right. When you spend an hour or two on a bike you don’t notice these things but when you spend between 4 and 5 hours on a bike every day, you want to be in the best position possible.

Another team meeting

We thought it would be a good idea to have another team meeting seeing that we’ve now been going for 10 and a bit days. It was to share how we thought everything was going. It was important so we could all raise things and feel comfortable doing so. It actually proved helpful because Mahadev in particular had some stuff he wanted to get off his chest. He was becoming increasingly vocal and loud and in a way it was good because I couldn’t understand him which meant I was calm and focused. The other guys could understand everything he was saying and it was good because he got it off his chest.

I guess we all have to understand that we’re going to have good days and bad days. All of us, and we’re going to have in-between days and other days on a scale of 1 to 100. As we say in Alcoholics Anonymous, ‘this too shall pass’. The good stuff, the bad stuff, the in between stuff and we need to get comfortable with our feelings and how we are in the moment.

The 1,000 km celebration dances

To celebrate yesterday’s achievement of reaching 1,000 km I did a little Bollywood dancing. I didn’t get a chance to share them yesterday so here they are.

Wedding celebrations

I also didn’t get a chance yesterday to share the noise from last night ‘s wedding when I was trying to get to sleep so here’s the clip.

A shout out to James and Anne

I had another section today of 15 km with my music which was nice, and it’s nice to have that as a change, not all of the time. A shout out to James and Anne for introducing me to Christina Perri as I’ve been listening to a number of her tracks including Jar of hearts.

The smell of dogs

Atul took a rather amusing photo of a dog with half his body on one step and the other half on the lower step. There are dogs everywhere in India and they’re poor scavenging things. Chasing people, chasing me and there are loads of puppies around as well. Sadly there’s quite often a reminder on Indian roads of how dangerous things can be because I’ve seen many many poor dogs that have been run over. It’s quite a powerful thing because the odour from their bodies is incredibly strong and overwhelming. I can now pick up the odour from maybe 200 metres away. I know there’ll be a poor dog, either in the road or the side of the road, that’s met it’s end via the front of a lorry.

Atul is handing Pawan the baton

The other big news is that Pawan, from the Loomba Foundation, is joining us. He’s already at the hotel so we’re looking forward to seeing him and having dinner with him this evening. Atul is getting very excited about his holiday. No, no, no, its not holiday as he’s just going home and going back to work in Delhi. Basically, it’s a holiday and Pawan will then take over and if he does a good job we certainly won’t want Atul back (I’m being sarcastic).

Circular ride tomorrow

In terms of route we ended up about 120 km short of Hyderabad so we’re now driving there. We’re staying near the airport and then tomorrow we’re going to do the usual funny day of a circle and end up back at the same hotel.

A nice message from Lord Loomba

Lord Loomba who is the founder of the Loomba Foundation shared a nice message with me yesterday after my 1,000 km milestone:

Chris,

Congratulations for completing 1000 kms successfully. I am proud of you.

Best wishes for the remaining 3500 kms, which you will also complete with your efforts and God’s blessings.

Lord Loomba CBE

That’s all for today.

Chris

Why I’m cycling across India 

Unfortunately, many widows in India are very badly treated when they lose their husbands. As well as facing verbal and physical abuse, rape and the threat of being evicted from their homes, they often have no income whatsoever after their husband dies. 

This is where the Loomba Foundation comes in. Through their empowerment programmes, the charity provides skills training and other support to help widows become self-sufficient so that they can support themselves and their families. 

I’d like to ask for your support I am already more than half way towards raising $450,000 – I’d love it if you could help me smash my target. Your support would mean the world to me and would help to change the lives of thousands of widows and their families. 

If you are in India, you can make a donation here: 

 Ketto (India) 

If you are in the UK or elsewhere in the world, you can make a donation here:  

JustGiving 

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