You may not have seen the results after day 3/4. I have not completed entire log. But imagine on day 3/4, the stages were like from Darcha to Patseo, all tarmac , steep uphill and long straights. A stock karizma does not stand a chance before Dr650. Or one should strategise like pro-boys who accumulate good lead time on first 3 days.

Rest of the stages are like Patseo to Nakeela, all tarmac. Imagine a karizma competing with 650 on Sarchu plains. Imagine Rumtse - tanglangla-Spangmik stage, then wakha-Khalse.

congratulations vivek bhaiya....

Indeed!.. thanks

some pics of Vivek Bhaiya from Kurien Phillip's picasa album...
posting these for the ease...







viveksh....

No words to say about who participate in this Raid De Himalaya.. win or not they still are great riders.. Hats off for there courage, determination and passion

What a write-up! Disturbingly real. And yet so inspiring.

So much depends on so little. That I believe is the real 'pressure' of the event. Just not falling would be an achievement but then adding a qualifier to it 'not falling to the left'.....amazing!

Now that I believe is the understatement of the year!! Downhill from Kunzum towards Batal with the umpteen hairpins iced up and just 'tricky'. Supremely capable and yet supremely modest.

Thats sportsmanship at its noblest, Vivek. My respect for you only grows with this. You build up and prepare for an event for the better part of a year, disregard injury to participate and when you are leading more than half-way through, are willing to give it all up just to facilitate a friend and fellow competitor who just might win a position on 'your' spare that you needed. Hats off man!!

@Oldfox- Thanks. But such type of rally is 80% luck , 10% skill and 10% preparation. It was a matter of chance that I was carrying that spare and it was somebody's luck that I had spare when he needed it. Next day itself I broke the borrowed left footrest again. Isn't it just a matter of chance? So it's always better to leave certain things to chance. As you will read, next day onwards , it was all luck game, the riding skills counted more on first few days only.

The story goes on

Next day the flag off was at 7:00am in the morning. Competitors were required to be in the parc ferme by 6:30am. I met one of my service team members standing outside the camp at 6:00 am. I was told that Qualis has gone to the end of competitive section 1 i.e Nakeela Pass and pick up van is stranded somewhere between losar Gramphoo with broken leaf springs.He had stopped at Patseo for refuelling the bikes.This meant we had only one service vehicle left. That would wait for competitors at Nakeela, to refuel. It was assumed that no competing bike in our team will need a service after yesterday’s stages. Thankfully service team had left some petrol for us to refuel. Though I did not need it, WRs need that. Bhaskar on WR450 was the first biker to be flagged off and second vehicle after Suresh Rana on a gypsy. Mr Dilip on KTM 640 was flagged off right after me. He caught and overtook me just 13 kms on the stage after zing zing bar while climbing Baralachala. Everyone was warned by the organizers about the ice patches on the way. On Baralachala, one could see snow clad mountains, and clear road, good tarmac, but good tarmac turned out to be slower for us than gravel stages due to black ice and altitude.Big bikes were doing well. After reaching SurajTal, 2kms before Baralachala, I saw Bhaskar Ramani. He had parked his bike across road where the ice patch was. He was guiding all others though a dry off road patch. Apparently he had a bad fall there. We later found out in Leh that he had broken his wrist. After reaching Bangalore, he got to know that he had broken few ribs also.
As Bhaskar guided me to follow the safer track, I crossed over, parked my bike on a side and proceeded to help him. It was then I realized, it was difficult to even walk on the surface. Bhaskar asked me why did I park and coming towards him. I told him I wanted to help him start his bike. He said “I am done. If you see an official inform him”. He was prospective rally winner that time and he had to leave it. Well, that is luck. I took it really easy. After the downhill at Bharatpur, there was a stream with a bridge. The entire bridge was occupied by a truck that had broken down in the middle. So the rally traffic had to pass though the stream. There was a photographer too. On the raid, the moment you see a photographer, you should slow down. They want to shoot all the bikers when they are either in the air or have fallen down. I did not slow down. I went into the stream , came out on ice patch and front flew in the air. Bike fell on the left. I quickly lifted and started to run again. Certain off road section started. I had to put some more weight on the footrest. I was already cautious about the fall I just had. I was worried about the footrest. Then I stopped to check the footrest before applying anymore pressure on it. I was hopeful it should not have broken since the fall was really minor. But it was broken. I took it easy. On Sarchu plains, the road is really fast and good. One could ride fast if he has entire weight on footrests otherwise the hidden dips throw you in the air. I rode as fast as I could with weight on right footrest, but I know I was very slow compared to all other riders.
While carrying on, I saw someone riding with one(left) foot absolutely out in the air. I said to myself- another Karizma with broken footrest. Then I said to myself –“This problem happens only on group D karizma, that means some group D rider has overtaken me”. While closing up on him, I found out that he was Rajan Siddu, Group C rider riding on 2nd position in his group. He was a candidate top 5 finishers over all. He was riding with a rear flat. I asked him if he needed a puncture repair can or something. He told me he was ok and he wanted me to inform his service team in Sarchu. I carried on. There was no service team in Sarchu. As I was looking for service team, I saw another video camera at the Sarchu bridge. I slowed down. Entire bridge is in the shadow region and was full of black ice. I gently accelerated and got out of it. Later I came to know almost every biker was caught unaware of this and fell there.
Then I saw Anand riding some 1km ahead of me. If I can see him, I have made some time on him. Then I chased him till Nakeela, but the lead was constant. It was a clear indication that we were riding at the same pace, but he might have lost time on a fall.
The 103km stage was over. Now I realize that even tarmac stages on raid are not very easy . After getting the entry done in the time card, I reached the service crew. My service team had met me after one day. Seeing them, I could not complain about anything. The team had been standing there since very early hours. Probably they did not sleep yesterday.I told Jitendra bhai, the chief mechanic that my footrest has broken. He told me that it is common in rally. He did not know this is the second footrest I have broken. He tied it to the frame, chassis etc very well with nylon ropes. He assured me that it will last the entire day and he will reach Leh as soon as possible. This stage claimed a lot of damages to almost all the bikers. Probably the toughest day for bikers. I saw Rupinder the eventual Group D 1st runner up, with torn riding gear, some bruises, torn riding gloves and lot of damages to the bike. That day he made a lot of time on me and others, but the cost he paid was too much as far as I understand. Then there was a long 77km transport to Debring the foot hill of Tanglangla. There were no tents at Sarchu or Pang this time. I regrouped with some riders after Pang and carried on to Moore Plains. There was a time control there and we followed the main road to Debring. At Debring, Rajeev wadhwa realized that he had lost some nuts and bolts to hold his box at the rear. I gave him a bungee cord as I wanted to take next stage real slow. The stage started, I saw Prashant taking off on his WR250. What a sight it was. A single bike riding across moore plains with a trail of dust. Though this is a common sight there, but one hardly sees anyone doing it on moore plains at rally pace. I did not overtake anyone on this stage, nor was I overtaken by anyone in the entire 82km stage. After Tanglangla, everyone was scared of black ice, but I hardly saw any. At the end, I closed on Anand again. After the stage , me and Anand rode together and reached Leh at around 4:00pm. At Leh tourism reception centre, we were allocated the rooms and I got hotel Pangong with a nice garden. There was still sun when I checked in. I placed my boots under sun to let them dry up. It was a long day for everyone. All early bikers had checked in and narration of different versions of the stories started. Service crew reached there at around 7:00pm. Later everyone came to know that Rajan Siddu rode all the way till Leh on a flat. Imagine, I saw him at Sarchu plains struggling to balance the bike. This man can ride. He did not give up and rode all the way in a single day.
He was given MPL. But this time in Raid even after MPL, everyone was allowed to start next day. I am not sure why that was. Rumors were about super rally format being in force, some people said it is because of 10th Raid , but Rajan did not know about it. He left for Wakha with service crew at 4:00am before next comptt stage in service car. At 6:00am , he had his name in start list. Bad luck.
At the end of this stage, I was 8th again, with Rajan Siddu going down in the positions. Mr Dilip went one position ahead of me. Overall start order was 18 or 19 including the gypsies.

Just from the last post, I can eventually see the hardships this Raid had. I m certainly not in the league of the raiders yet but I m sure Vivek your experience every moment of the word counts and the raid comes as a part of experience and adrenalin running together.

I simply have to say, Hats off to you again.
Though I m on a 600 these days with a little heavier revving machine kicking in the power at 5500rpm, the old fazer at 93bhp does a world of good riding on the motorways. Nothing like those indian himalayan adventures in this country but I m sure, I have to experience this part of the life as well..

Though I will keep learning from your experiences as I always did...
Cheers to keep up the pumping revs back in the red zone

Kudos to the King
M.

Vivek Da,

Didnt you miss the % of Nature involved with the whole Raid, one of the crucial parts for whole of the deal..

Nature? I guess it doesn't matter. You just gotta race no matter what be the mother nature's mood .

hats off to you vivek bhaiya...

OMG Vivek! What a read. What a write up! What an experience!!! I am simply blown away. Really enjoying reading all this.

Your preparation, your ride, and the raid is showing on your body as well. Did you guys notice the difference.

I hope your wrist is doing better now. That is VERY important.

Thanks yet again for sharing these amazing experiences.