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

Min Temp – 13 degrees

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