“You are strong, you are fresh, you deserve to be here!”

The sweat was pouring down in buckets. The legs began to tingle with the early signs of cramps. Every muscle in the body was being recruited in moving the bike forward. But, the face did not give away any signs of pain. “You are strong, you are fresh, you deserve to be here”, he repeated the chant in his mind for the hundredth time as he took his 80kg body climbing up the Anmod Ghat with a couple of 50kg climbers!

The Equipe Goa Dream!

Equipe Goa was formed about 5 years ago by a bunch of passionate cyclists in Goa. They have not only been passionate about riding and racing in different events around the country but also were pivotal in reviving the amateur racing scene in the state by organizing a series of races around the year.

Their passion for the sport did not stop at racing and organising races but also went into finding talent and supporting/nurturing new talent. They have been trying find and support a number of riders to excel at the state level and represent the state at the Indian Cycling Nationals. The usually football crazy state has managed to field a few talented riders at the Nats courtesy Equipe Goa and clubs like Xaxti Riders and Panjim Cycling Club.

Ajay Mendes, one of the founding members of Equipe Goa along with Neeraj and Gaurav Gupta, has been talking about having a marquee event for Goa for the last couple of years. He’s been a great friend of mine and has been kind enough to host me whenever I visit Goa for any cycling over the years. Our discussions would eventually lead to his dream of having a prestigious race that can host some of the best riders in the country.

That dream has taken the shape of The Goan Classic, a three day stage race. The inaugural edition this year has seen 65 of some of the best riders from all around the country including the National time trial champion, Naveen John.

Something For Everyone!

The 3 day stage race is designed in such a way that there is something to look forward to every type of rider. The problem in most stage races is, that the top guys can kill the competition very early on. Especially if there is a climb involved.

Stage one is a 20km individual time trial on a 6.8km loop that is mostly flat. The second stage is a 96km(5 loops x 18.8km circuit) race on a rolling terrain.

Third stage is a 80km race ending on to top of a 10km climb called Anmod Ghat.

When you look at the stages and see a long climb at the end, you’d think the race is made for climbers to win. But, that’s not the case here. The General Classification for the overall win is not based on overall time over the three stages but on points gained on each day.

In each stage the first 5 riders in each category get 10,8,6,4,2 points respectively. The rider with the most points wins the race overall. So, it doesn’t matter if you are a climber who can put 10 mins on the next rider, unless you can do well in time trial and flat stage racing as well, your chances to win over all will be limited. All types of riders get a decent chance with this format.

The Race Against The Clock!

The first day’s race against the clock was kicked off at 6:15am with 30 sec gaps between riders. As we waited and moved around in the start area, it was like wading through an invisible blob that was the humidity of Goa. We were sweating even before we put a pedal stroke.

My teammate Rajesh Nair(BabaVelo) was a few riders ahead of me. Mahesh Iyer was one minute ahead of me and Richard Mueller was 30 secs behind me.

I started off at 6:35am. 3..2..1.. Go!

Let’s go! Come on, we can do this. Let’s focus on one pedal stroke at a time. Push.. Push. “Shut up ya..we don’t want to push.” The legs promptly barked back at me. I had to listen to them this time and let them do what they could on the day. They survived the 16 hour drive the day before without much sleep or proper food afterall!

Right at the end of the first lap of three as I was in serious negotiations with my legs, I heard something that sounded like a steam engine right next to me. It was Richard Mueller pushing a massive gear and giving me the Lance look as he rode past. He was my 30 sec man. It only took him 7km to make up that much time on me. Oh well!

I kept trying to negotiate with them legs and somehow made it across two more laps to finish the race.

Was thrilled to note that Rajesh took the win in our category with a super strong ride. The flat to rolling courses are typically not his strong suit for the lean climber the he is. But, to nail it in such a strong fashion is great to see. Mahesh finished second followed my Richard at 3rd and David at 4th followed by me.

The Elite race saw some amazing performances with two riders going sub 30 mins for the distance. Naveen John took the win and Emil Joseph finished 2nd with his teammate at CBR, Saurabh taking 3rd!

In Women’s Category  Anjali put in a strong ride to take the win followed by Angie and Priti!

Part-time Cyclist, Full-time Footballer Wins The Roller Fest!

Stage 2 start of The Goan Classic was nearly 50km away from where we were staying in Swimsea Beach Resort! Bikes were loaded in various cars by the volunteers and the riders boarded a bus and started towards the start point by 5am.

The race was flagged off from Hotel Amigo sharply at 6:30am. Elite riders were started off 2 mins before Masters and Women riders.

Both groups had a lead vehicle and the first lap of 5(each about 19km) was a neutral lap to allow the riders to get familiar with the course and warm up.

Even at the easy pace of the warm up lap, we began to sweat. The pace picked up a bit in the second lap. The course was full of rollers, with the road either trending up or down and very little flat portion.

At the end of the first lap, I was surprised to see David Mc Donnell getting distanced from the group. I tried to get to the front to increase the pace and increase the gap from him. I was equally surprised to see him catch up to us at the U-turn in the middle of the second lap. I later learnt that he had a mechanical. He had to sort out his wheel and took the help of a car to pace him back to the group.

The 65 year old, Dr. Aditya Ponske, from Pune, was enthusiastically at the front most of the neutral lap and the second lap. A few of us tried to get him to relax but he would march ahead. But, once Rajesh Nair put in a dig in the third lap, the group broke apart. I almost got popped as well but, somehow hung on.

Some riders made it back when the group slowed down while others had to ride on their own. There were a couple of surges here and there that kept losing riders from the group. There was a sprint prime at the end of the 3rd lap which I happily took since no one seemed to remember about it.

Towards the end of the 4th lap, Mahesh Iyer surged and the elastic snapped for me. In retrospect, I should have ridden my tempo but I almost came to a halt when I got dropped that I didn’t have a chance to catch back.

I took a minute to recover and started riding tempo again. Angie Fernandes joined me along with Rohit Rajiv and we made across to Sundaram who also got dropped.

There were only 4 riders ahead. Rajesh, Mahesh, Richard and David. At the start of the 5th lap I saw Mahesh and Rajesh were away from the other two. Richard, David and Anjali were riding together.

By the final U-turn, I saw Mahesh broke away solo with Rajesh behind him while Richard Mueller dropped David and was riding away with Anjali on his wheel.

After working with Sundaram, I dropped and went ahead in the last two km to take another 5th place.

In the Elite race, after 2nd lap, a big break of 10-15 riders formed with Fredsan Marshall from Equipe Goa, Avinash Shridhar from SL7 Racing, Aditya and Kiran Raju from CBR, Mihir Bhatija from VeloStudio Racing along with a few others.

The chase from the peloton wasn’t much effective in closing down the gap and it kept increasing with each lap.

The final sprint and the win was handsomely taken by Fredsan Marshall, from Equipe Goa! Funnily enough, Fredsan apparently trained for all of 7 days for this race. That too after he almost got kicked out of Equipe Goa team a couple of weeks ago since he was spending all his time on the football grounds and not enough time cycling. A Full-time Footballer and a part-time cyclist thus took the win. Equipe Goa was betting on the right horses for sure. Pure raw talent.

Although, football took centre stage for Fredsan, he has been a part-time cyclist for a while. He came down to BBCh back in 2014-2015 when he was a teenager and talks fondly of seeing Naveen John and Naveen Raj race in the Elite bunch.

Avinash and Mihir finsihed 2nd and 3rd respectively. With both of them being strong climbers, it’ll be an interesting fight on the mountain top finish of the final stage. With Aditya, Emil and Saurabh of CBR in the mix, it’ll definitely going to be an epic show down on the Anmod Ghat.

In Master’s both Rajesh Nair and Mahesh Iyer are tied up on the points with everything to ride for on the final stage.

The Epic Showdown on Anmod Ghat!

The Stage 3 of The Goan Classic was an 80km race finishing on the top of Anmod Ghat, a 10km climb of about 500m. It is not a particularly hard climb if one were to climb at an easy pace. However, coming after about 70km of racing already in the legs and going head to head with some of the best climbers(read, stick figures the can produce impressive power on the bike), it is going to hurt for most.

Starting at Hotel Amigos, we were to do 3.5 laps of the 19km loop(same as on day 2) and climb up Anmod Ghat.

The first loop of 3.5 loops was neutral and we picked up the pace right away in the second lap. In the master’s race, my Spectrum Racing teammate, Rajesh Nair and Mahesh Iyer from Pune Wolfpack were tired with 18 points each and it was everything to fight for on the last stage.

On paper, Rajesh Nair, who is a strong climber was a clear favourite with a hill top finish. However, the Goan heat and humidity played a number on him after the first two stages and he lined up at the start with overnight fever and a paracetamol in the system. During the neutral lap he told me that he’s going to stop after the neutral lap as he’s not feeling well.

I was a bit disappointed for him but it is what it is. David who was 4th in the GC also did not show up for the 3rd stage. If Rajesh was to not finish, that gives me a chance to move to to 3rd place overall after 3 stages of I managed to finish at least 4th on the day.

Richard, Mahesh and I decided to up the pace and started taking turns from the start of the second lap. The group became small with Sundaram, Anjali and Angie managing to stay with the three of us. As we took the U-turn on the second lap, however, I saw Rajesh on the other side of the road.

I initially thought, maybe he still wanted to do the climb and was heading directly there. When I saw him at the start of the third lap as well, I understood he changed his mind about giving up and wanted to finish the race. It made sense because, if he just finished the race, he would still be second on the GC podium.

Through my good friend, Vinayak Gaonkar, who was on the motorbike as a volunteer, I sent a message asking him if he wanted me to fall back to pace him to the base. The answer came back negative. He was about 5 mins behind riding his own tempo at that point of time.

With 3 laps done, on our way to the hill, Mahesh attacked and rode off solo. Sundaram, Richard and I were riding together. Anjali rode off leaving us and her main competition, Angie behind.

Once we reached the base, I got distanced. I thought I could get into my own tempo and catch them on the climb. Neither could I get into any rhythm nor see any of them again until the finish. However, halfway through the climb, Rajesh caught up to me and rode past. He was looking in his element in the climb. He eventually caught Richard and finished 3rd for the day just behind Sundaram. Mahesh won the stage by finishing a few minutes ahead of everyone.

Mahesh won two stages and the overall GC. Rajesh took the win in stage 1 and finished 2nd overall and Richard Mueller finished 3rd overall in Masters.

In the Elite category race, many attacks and breakaways went starting right after the neutral lap but nothing substantial stuck. That was until Avinash Shridhar of SL7 Racing went with Kiran Raju of Cycling Brain Racing.

Eventually, Avinash ended up solo with another two riders from CBR chasing. Saurabh Singh and Aditya S Vishwanath started chasing him once Kiran rejoined the group.

By the time they reached the base, they caught Avinash. Once the climb started, the pure climbers in Mihir Bhatija(VeloRacing), Mustafa(VeloRacing) and Derwyn Viegas(Xaxti Racing) caught up to Avinash Shridhar, Saurabh Singh and Aditya S Vishwanath.

As the climb went on Avinash ramped up the effort and slowly put a gap to others. Aditya found it difficult to stay and began to pace himself. His TT specialist 80kg teammate, Saurabh Singh, was left to fend for himself in the company of three 50-60kg climbers on the hill.

Saurabh however decided to forget about his weight or the fact that he wasn’t a mountain goat. He told himself all that mattered now was to stick to their wheels as long as he can. Preferably until the finish line and attack them just before it.

The sweat was pouring down in buckets. His legs began to tingle with the early signs of cramps. Every muscle in his body was being recruited in moving the bike forward. But, his face did not give away any signs of pain. “You are strong, you are fresh, you deserve to be here”, he repeated the chant in his mind for the hundredth time as he took his 80kg body climbing up the Anmod Ghat with those three of 50-60kg climbers!

As the final line came nearer, Derwyn attacked and got away with Saurabh in hot pursuit of him. Saurabh finished just behind Derwyn in 3rd. He was elated to end up as the designated climber on the day for his team.

With 8 points on stage 2 and the win on stage 3 and taking 10 points, Avinash took the overall GC win in Elite. With the 6 points he had on stage 1, and the 6 points on stage 3, Saurabh ended up 2nd. 3rd place was tied between Mihir(4 points 4th on stage 3 and 6 points 3rd on stage 2 total 10 points) and Fredsan Marshall(10 points with a win on stage 2). But the tiebreaker was the number of wins and hence Fredsan took the 3rd overall in GC!

It was an exciting fight and epic showdown on the final stage!

Thanks A Ton to the Organisers and Volunteers!

To pull off any race is a mammoth task in our land. To pull off a stage race, all the more so. But, Ajay Mendes and his team have hit it out of the park with this inaugural edition of The Goan Classic!

I am privy to the amount of work that went on behind the scenes to make it appear butter smooth for all the participants. All the organisers and volunteers are very passionate cyclists themselves and it showed in every little detail that they took care of to make it as safe and as smooth as possible for the riders.

The support on and off the course was incredible. The arrangements including the stay and transport etc were top notch. It was amazing that they were able to pull off such a massive event so smoothly.

Thanks to each and everyone of the volunteers and more so to Ajay and the core team he put together. Looking forward to the next edition of this amazing race!