10 riders complete 300km BRM

While the BRM went beyond Multai along Betul Road, the BP went to Umari, 10km past Saoner.

All 10 riders who registered and started the 300km brevet finished the ride in the allotted 20 hours. The brevet, which started at Ncyclopedia in Pratap Nagar at 4 pm on Saturday, ended Sunday noon.

The finishers include Vikas Patra, Parvez Ali, Kiran Bhonde, Vinod Bhandari, Rakesh Naidu, Sudhir Choudhary, Mukund Kamath, Piyush Dekate, Amol Borkar and Somsuvra Chatterjee.

Of these, Somsuvra and Mukund deserve a special mention. It was a daring attempt for Somsuvra, who chose 300km to be his debut BRM and that too on a rented bike. He struggled, particularly in last few hours as the sun bore down, but pulled it through in the nick of time.

Somsuvra clocked 19 hours 51 minutes, 9 short of closing time.

The BRM was a testimony to the determination and perseverance of Mukund. The randonneur had been trying to achieve the title of a Super Randonneur (SR) for the past 2 years without success. He kept going at it despite repeated failures and finally became an SR this Sunday, having already completed 200, 400 and 600km BRMs this calendar year.

Of the 26 riders who registered for the 100km BP, 23 lined up at the start line at 6 am Sunday. All, including woman riders Rajeshree Dange and Prachi Kukde, finished much before the closing time of 1.30 pm.

The other BP finishers are Fazleqadir Chimthanawala, Swapnil Kashikar, Anirudh Ncyclopedia, Chinmay Kaloti, Shiokumar Wankhade, Avinash Thakare, Jagdish Kukreja, Ashish Bisen, Kartik Zambani, Vishal Awachar, Akash Sakhare, Vinod Kale (of Babhulgaon), Nitesh Moundekar, Pratapsing Yeotikar, Mayank Gopwani, Sanjay Wakde, Dhiraj Choudhary, Vivek Bhapkar, Anurag Kumar, Sandeep Pasalkar and Shantanu Padhye.

Of the BP finishers, Vinod merits a special mention. The Babhulgaon cyclist bought a new bicycle on Saturday and rode a 100km the very next day. This was the first 100 of his life and he achieved the feat in style with childhood friend and fellow cyclist Pratapsing.

NR volunteer Samadhan Unhale sacrificed sleep to support the riders the whole of 300km and Saturday night stretching into Sunday afternoon.