The Race of Truth
The first road series race of BBCH is always the Individual Time Trial that truly sets the tone for the season. It also helps as marker for improvement, a baseline to compare your fitness as it changes both in the season and across seasons. A benchmark we tend to measure ourselves against. Be it breaking past 25kmph, 30kmph, 40kmph or 45kmph and beyond, everyone has something they are targeting at this race.
Not aero enough but, deep in the pain cave! PC: Veloscope
A Special Kid!
At a training talk that I was giving late last year at Crankmeister Bicycle Works, before the talk, a young man came up to me and started typing something on his phone. It read, “I cannot hear and I can’t talk. But, I want to be here and see.” I was impressed with his spirit and the passion that was shining through his sparkling eyes.
After the talk, he showed me his rides on Strava. Through sign language and typing on his phone, he conveyed that he was struck between 25-30kmph and wanted to reach 40kmph average speed. I saw that he was doing all those rides on an old Hero Hawk single speed bike. I watched him for a few weeks following that and observed his was consistent and rode regularly. His general passion for the sport appeared very genuine and impressed me.
I decided to help and organized a fund raiser through Bangalore Amateur Racing (BAR). Good souls from all over the country and a few from outside the country also contributed. One of those kind souls, Vidya Ranga, offered to pay for the bike and we got him a second hand Ridley carbon bike that’s in a decent shape. To say that he was elated with his new bike was an understatement. I wish I could capture the joy on his face that day and share it with those who contributed towards that.
The good folks at the Crankmeister Bicycle Works have been a big support for him from day one. They helped select the correct size bike and helped with his bike fit. They also have been offering free service for his bike to keep it running smoothly so that his training doesn’t get affected.
The good folks at 2GoActivewear and Bachi Pullela supported him with free kit including the bibs and the aero race fit jersey he used for the race.
He continued to put in regular rides and joined us for our group rides. We took him under Spectrum Development team and I began to help him with his training and cycling needs via BVCoaching for free. His consistency and hard work paid off and today he achieved his longtime dream of hitting 40kmph by putting in a solid ride that saw him finish the 33.5km course at 40.5kmph. He finished 2nd in his category(U-18). Really proud of him. Thanks everyone who have been supporting him in various ways.
Results!
In Master’s category, I managed to take the win by a couple of minutes going at ~42kmph in Merckx style. Rushit Davda of Team Crankmeister finished second while Gokul Krishna of Team TBA Racing finished 3rd in the category.
In Women’s category, Abhirami Sudar took the win by improving more than 2 minutes from her last year’s time for the same course. Very impressive show. BVCoaching athlete, Lena took 2nd and Pooja Srinvas took her first podium at BBCH by finishing 3rd. All three of them for personal best times on the day!
In U-18, strong rider from Mumbai, Saurabh Kajale, took the win while Manigandan finished 2nd followed by Ajith at 3rd.
In Amateur category the young rider from LBB racing, Imaad Sait took the win. BVCoaching athlete, Harry Gunasekaran took 2nd and Cycle Station’s Shivraj Patil took 3rd.
In Non-Road bike category, Abhishek Sheyte, took the win followed by Umesha and Mayur Bhatija at 2nd and 3rd respectively.
In Elite category, Naveen Raj of BMR took the win with an impressive 46kmph ride. Aman Punjani took 2nd and Sanresh took 3rd with an impressive race.
