Cycling in the mountains is a whole different experience. What you discover about yourself, and life in general, you just can’t beat. I promise you that. A poll conducted by interviewing the members of the team resulted in these top findings.

1. You really discover that you CAN do it. You CAN cycle 115-120 Kms in a day in the mountains. Only, start early morning, and you will enjoy lots more. And obviously, pace at night is much slower than the day time

2. You discover new muscles (and bones)

3. People in the mountains are supremely friendly, they keep cheering you on and everyone waves to you.

4. You discover cha-chas, tayas (a term used for father’s brothers), uncles and aunts you never knew you had.

5. Kids are amazing everywhere, they will always be so excited when they see you cycle. Great to shout out your Hi to them as you go whizzing by (or in some case, panting and puffing and huffing by, make that most cases)

6. Morale and incline are inversely proportional

7. Uphills are ALWAYS much longer and steeper than you imagine, and they ALWAYS are much longer than downhills

8. Uphills make you question life, the very basic ones that is. They also make you ask a lot of WTF questions

9. Downhills are mad amazing. They make u feel the age old good stuff, freedom, flying and all the other cliche words.

10. You zip past the world at crazy speeds (you can actually get to 50-60kmph, and gimmie a break, we are on cycles!) on a downhill. And you’re seriously connected to nature. You really do feel the wind blowing right through you. Its just a gorgeous feeling. It is so worth doing the crazy inclines to get to the downhill section.

11. Trucks, buses, cars and other POLLUTING sissys are no match for bikes on a downhill. We won’t talk about uphill here. We were overtaking cars, buses, trucks, jeeps at will.

12. Exposed body parts get a new layer mostly consisting of sweat, grime, soot, dust and other stuff

13. The truck driver who you overtake on a downhill will come back on an uphill to deposit more soot on you. He will also make sure he presses the accelerator when he overtakes you.

14. End of the day, a bed seems like the most amazing thing. Nothing can come close to that (did I hear someone say TLC? Yeah that is the best anytime)

15. Cycling is completely awesome. It really doesn’t get better than this.

16. When you pass by people at this pace, you see a whole world you didn’t know about and perspectives you never bothered about. Driving by in a car is nice, but there is a lot of essence of life that you miss. Nothing really beats cycling.

17. TRAIN!!! TRAIN LIKE HELL for any kind of crazy cycling expedition! Especially if it involves 100Kms a day in the mountains!