Mumbaikar touches finishing line at European cycling event

The others were Sameem Rizvi,who finished in around 74 hours but had registered with a US address,and Bangalore resident Shreyas Kumar,who completed the ride in 93 hours as he was given a medical buffer of three hours.

Patil is the first Super Randonneur from India,which means someone who has completed four endurance runs of 200,300,400 and 600 km,known as brevets,within the same calendar year. “I am thrilled to have completed PBP as I have been preparing for the past two years. I have done about 3,000 km just in qualifying rides besides my daily practice,” Patil told Newsline on the phone from Paris. He is not a professional cyclist and works for an IT services company.

One of the most challenging things about the ride for Patil was coping with the cold weather,including thunderstorms,and keeping himself motivated. “During the race,I got a message from the team that I was the only one on the road as others had dropped out. That give me the push to do it,not only for myself but for them and I rode the fastest during that patch,” he said.

This year was the first time that a group of 14 cyclists represented India at the event which is the oldest cycling event in the world that is still regularly run. Besides Patil,Satish Patki (58),Anil Uchil (41),Sumit Patil (26) and Kaushik Iyer (27) qualified from the city with five cyclists from Pune and four from Bangalore.

However,the number of finishers was not as high as expected. “The terrain there was unlike in India as the the roads were high friction and continuously winding,which made it difficult for us,” said Sumit Patil,who finished 525 km in the event.

“I think we weren’t focussed enough and the planning could have been better,” said Satish Patki,who brought randonneuring to India two years ago and completed 618 km in the event.

The international exposure has taught the riders many lessons. “We got a lot of support from riders from Canada,US,UK and other countries and they motivated us to participate in other events like the London-Edinburgh-London. I will participate in Race Across America if everything goes well,” said Sumit.