Mysuru: The 10th edition of Tour of Nilgiris (TfN), the annual tour of RideACycle Foundation which has attracted celebrity cyclists to pedal the grand tour flagged off from Bengaluru on Sunday morning reached Mysuru in the evening. On day one cyclists pedaled from Bengaluru to Mysuru – nicknamed The BreakAway – covering a distance of 167 kms , of which 11.1 kms was the competitive segment (between Ugranapura Doddi Village, Malavalli and Opposite to Police Station, Kirugavalu, Malavalli-Mysuru Road).
Addressing a press conference here today, Satish Belawadi, Tour Director, TfN 2017, said, “We are witnessing the largest cycling contingent participation of 128 cyclists and what is more satisfying is that the tour has attracted top ranking cyclists who have impressive cycling credentials to their name. The tour has proved to be a stepping stone and launch pad for budding talent – Naveen John and Kiran Kumar Raju have already proved their mettle at the national level. The celebrity cyclists to pedal include Alexi Grewal – an Indian American to win an Olympic Gold Medal in road cycling in 1984; Lt. Col Srinivas Gokulnath, India’s first RAAM finisher (Race Across America – 5000 kms in 11 days 18 hours). During the seven day tour the cyclist will be touching three states, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and will be covering more than 1000kms.
Riding for charity: TfN 2017 witnessing 4 charity riders riding to support the social initiatives dear to them. While, Rajanikanth Puttabuddi will be the charity rider for Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (This organization focuses on wildlife conservation in the Melagiri forest region spanning the Hosur and Dharmapuri Forest Divisions of Tamil Nadu); Shankar Jayaraman will raise funds for Sita Bhateja Speciality Hospital (The aim is to make spine surgery affordable and accessible to everyone especially the underprivileged); and Vivek Radhakrishnan & Rajkumar Khot will pedal for Iksha Foundation (a charitable trust focusing on Retinoblastoma (eye cancer).
Mindset of the people is important: “Whether you have cycle path or not that is not important the most important is the mindset of the people. They should know how to treat people riding bicycle” added Vivek and Alexi Grewal. Alexi also mentioned that in Bengaluru there is lot of traffic and riding bicycle is not at all easy task but it’s not the same in Mysuru where we feel relaxed to ride the bicycle. “When we entered Mysuru it was like piece of cake for us”. He also mentioned that in Netherland 75 percent of people use cycle as their mode of transport.
Last year in the 9th TFN edition 110 took part in the tour but ten percent of them discontinued the race due to various reasons which includes breakdown of the cycle. Every day at an average the cyclist will pedal for eight to nine hours and at an average will cover 100 to 150 km with an average speed of 15 to 25kmph. The tour which was flagged off on Sunday will conclude in Mysuru on October 17. On Monday morning the cyclist will proceed to Madikeri . Of the 128 cyclists set to pedal TfN 2017, 120 are men, while 8 are women. Further, 110 cyclists are from different parts of India, while 18 are from overseas and hail from The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, USA and Russia. Profile of the cyclists pedaling TfN 2017, reveal that 65 per cent of the cyclists are senior and middle management professionals from different industry domains.
Competitive segment result: 11.1 kms was the competitive segment (between Ugranapura Doddi Village, Malavalli and Opposite to Police Station, Kirugavalu, Malavalli-Mysore Road).
Leaders:
Mens Category – Naveen Thomas John
Womens’s Category – Lena Mareike Josefine Rob
Master’s Category (between 35 and 45) – Nils Eigil Bradtbrg
Veteran’s Category (45 and above) – Alexi Singh Grewal
