Final Day of Mountain Terrain Biking, Himachal Pradesh, Oct-2011 :: Dhomri(Narkanda) to Ridge(Shimla)
Final day of 'Mountain Terrain Biking Himachal 2011' started from Dhomri, which is one of the popular places for skiing in Himachal Pradesh. It's near to Narkanda and nice place surrounded by high cedars. Temperature was very low in the morning and day was bit lazy as compared to other 7 days...
As you can see, sun has started touching camping ground but still many folks are inside the tents. Narkanda is nearby market and some of the folks wanted to have nice tea, which was obviously not available at camps :) ... During this time I was alone as my gang was also in market to have some snacks and morning tea...
After leaving Dhomri, we followed main highway to reach the starting point of only stage of 8th day. On final day, there was only single stage and it was same as that of starting stage of MTB 2010/2011. Since we had to go via main highway, the roads were jammed due to some political rally. Actually we crossed starting point and thought of entering into the stage from the other end as Final Flying finish was more important... After fighting with traffic at Dhali, we reached Mashobara and had to wait for some time. During that time we visited one of the resort there, to meet one of the friends.
Soon after we heard some noise in air and reached back at flying finish point.Above photograph shows the winner literally flying on top of Finish line of MTB Himachal 2011. Now I know, why they call it flying finish. This was the first group to hit the flying finish on final day.
Most of the riders were happy with mixed emotions about this whole race and others had already started thinking about offices. Anyway, everyone was now more involved in activities like - Photo-shoots, email/cell-number exchanges etc. Everyone wanted to be in touch with others and photographs were best way for keeping these memories alive.
Here is another troop with two folks who broke their arms on the way of MTB Himachal 2011. Mr. Andre, on extreme right, was winner of MTB Himachal 2010 Masters. Since he had to quit this time, Amitabh won this time. Amitabh is second person from left, who won Masters of MTB Himachal 2011.
Few more folks joined in ... Mr Rohit making them cheer :)
MTB team was mostly worried about their banners and branding posters, which are important to have money :) ... So here is one photograph with MTB 2011 banner. This was the time when every rider just wanted to reach at their Hotels in Shimla. Everyone wanted to have some rest now...
Finally everyone started the free ride from Mashobara to Ridge through Sajauli and IGMC. This photograph was clicked where Mashobara road hits main highway again.
Now all of them needed to ride in high traffic areas, markets... and this one is at Dhali !!! I was on a motorbike and scared of the situation when 100 odd riders were on the road and the traffic was not very disciplined. This is one of the very difficult problem on hills and dangerous as well.
Rider crossing Saljauli Market... From Sanjauli Chowk, we had to move towards Indira Gandhi Medical College, which leads to Lakkar Bazar and then Ridge. On reaching Ridge, plan was to have a quick ceremony to announce winners and exposure to media.
But Marshal who were guiding this group got a signal from Ridge that preparations are slow and they need more time. Now, it was their headache to manage the delay :) ... So many times these riders were stopped on the way, to make sure that we reach just in time. Although many folks were annoyed...
After a break we again started. This shot was taken near Shimla College which comes on the way from Sanjauli to Ridge. This was a wonderful road and there was a time when people used to rent out a cycle from lakkar Bazar to have a round till Sanjauli chowk and come back. Now cycles on rent are not available, but people still prefer to walk on this road.
Anyway, this kafila was about to reach IGMC and everyone stopped. And this was final halt of 45 minutes because preparation on ridge were not done. But for of the folks it a good opportunity to show some cycle stunts on wide roads of Shimla.
And why motorbikes should stay behind !!! Aneesh also tried some stunts, but still riders wanted to move towards Ridge and wanted to have some rest at their hotels.
Glimpses
Himachal Natti during bonefire
Good Morning Sarahan
Let's move towards Bahu - The next Camping Site
Day-5 : Part-2 : Mountain Terrain Biking towards Bahu
MTB Himachal 2011 - Day-6 - Bahu, Jalori, Sarolsar, Shawadh
7th Day - Towards the Skiiing place, Dhomri (Narkanda)
Glimpses
More Photographs of the event to come... So keep watching this place and get in touch at VJ@travellingcamera in case of more information about this event !!!
FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MTB 2011 :-
Flag-Off from Shimla-Ridge
Day-1 : Shimla to Ghada Kuffar
Day-2 : Ghada Kuffar to Tanni Jubber
Day-3 : Tani Jubber to Kullu Sarahan
Some motorbike stunts at Kullu-SrahanFOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MTB 2011 :-
Flag-Off from Shimla-Ridge
Day-1 : Shimla to Ghada Kuffar
Day-2 : Ghada Kuffar to Tanni Jubber
Day-3 : Tani Jubber to Kullu Sarahan
Himachal Natti during bonefire
Good Morning Sarahan
Let's move towards Bahu - The next Camping Site
Day-5 : Part-2 : Mountain Terrain Biking towards Bahu
MTB Himachal 2011 - Day-6 - Bahu, Jalori, Sarolsar, Shawadh
7th Day - Towards the Skiiing place, Dhomri (Narkanda)
Please keep in mind that I was not a rider in this event and can't comment anything about the difficulty level of these stretches... If I have mentioned anything about the same, that's my personal opinion and feel free to correct me...
Please leave your comments about this post and share suggestions for future postings...
To know more about this event, I can be reached at VJ@travellingcamera.com