Student Foundation for Sports (SFS) organized the 1st Edition of District level road cycling championship - a 49km race starting from Emerald Isle resort, Hoskote on NH4 on 28 July at 7AM IST (= 8AM)
Mass start: Riders tune in to instructions - NH4 completely blocked to traffic on one side for the ride till U-turn point at Volvo factory ~12.5km away. Ride back to start point, to complete 2 loops for the 49k distance!
The peloton: The tail winds make the ride to U-turn easy as the bunch averages 35kmph on the undulating highway. A pilot car, support vehicle & ambulance make it picture perfect.
Falling back: On the second lap, after about 30k, I began to fall behind trying to get sweat off my eyes... there was no catching up the accelerating peloton.
The Sprint finish: With 6 places to fight for, the teams sprint off the saddle with the finish line in sight.
The Finish line: I finished 10mins behind the lead pack, managing a respectable average of 32kmph, finishing 49kms in 1h:32m (the first 25k @ 35.5kmph and last 24k @ 29kmph).
The icing: There were medals for the top 6 in each of the 3 categories (women, under 23 men and above 23 men), championship trophy for the top team. Kudos to the organizers SFS foundation, to the Bangalore police for the support and Bangalore Amateur Racing (BAR) for marketing the event and Veloscope for the excellent pictures.
Additional reading:
Perspective of a lead rider. Venky in this report
My previous efforts at bike racing here (the motorized kinds) and here and here
All photo credits: Veloscope
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No one comments on my posts. I thought I should be the one who starts. If you have reached here, no harm dropping a note, what say?
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