Manali-Leh Highway
Distance — 450km
Height Elevation — 4,000m
High altitude endurance training, just my cycle and I on and off roads through The Himalayas.
Day 1
MARHI to KEYLONG
Distance – 75km
Time Taken – 6hrs (excluding rest)
Average Speed – 12.5km/hr
Top Speed – 56.2km/hr
Max Altitude Crossed – 3,979m
Minimum Temperature – 15 degrees Celsius
Touching speeds of around 55km/hr on downhills and taking hairpin bends at 30km/hr. Who said MTBs aren’t fast, but even then Day 1 wasn’t easy.
Day 2
KEYLONG to ZINGZINGBAR
Distance – 60km
Time Taken – 7hrs (excluding rest)
Avg Speed – 8.5km/hr
Top Speed – 53km/hr
Max Altitude – 4,280m
Min Temp – 16 degrees
People were taking my picture and were cheering me on…On the 40th km, I thought I’ll only do 50km but I pushed to 60. (Hoping the next day would be a shorter and easier ride)
Day 3
ZINGZINGBAR to SARCHU
Distance – 55km
Time Taken – 6hrs 50min (excluding rest)
Avg Speed – 8km/hr
Max Altitude – 4,850m
Min Temp – 12 degrees
I walked the last 5km while climbing up to Baralacha Pass as I was feeling dizzy and losing balance. Slight pain in the right knee had started and experienced a mild headache.
Day 4
REST at SARCHU
Cleaned the cycle, patched up a puncture, oiled the chain, checked the brakes. Pain in right knee had reduced, but a new pain on the lower left calf had started. (no more headache)
Altitude – 4,196m
Day 5
SARCHU to PANG
Distance – 80km
Top Speed – 40km/hr
Max Altitude – 5,035m
Min Temp – 9 degrees
Slight headache, major leg pains…Still hoping to reach Leh under 10 days. The odometer got damaged while going fast on a downhill (bad road) so can’t record the speeds any more.
Day 6
PANG to TSOKAR LAKE
Distance – 50km
Max Altitude – 4,650m
I’ve been ignoring any sort of pain that I am experiencing.
Day 7
TSOKAR LAKE to UPSHI
Distance – 80km
Max Altitude – 5,359m
Min Temp – 10 degrees
I started playing a game while going downhill — how close and how fast i can cycle as close to the edge as possible…It got a little scary when I saw the gravel flying off the cliff.
Day 8
UPSHI to LEH
Distance – 50km
Target of under 10 days achieved…I did it