Nagpur, Jan 4
In a healthy start to 2021, 58 cyclists, including 10 women, rode 100km under 7 hours on Sunday in a Brevet Populaire (BP) organised by Nagpur Randonneurs under the aegis of Audax India Randonneurs.
The ridewhich started at Zero Mile and went to Umari beyond Saoner, was led by Dr Bhupendra Arya, who, at 77, is India’s oldest randonneur. A cyclist who completes a brevet is called a randonneur. Brevets are self-supported long-distance checkpoint rides of 200km, 300km, 400, 600, 1000, 1200 and 1400km. The BP marks restart of randonneuring in Nagpur, which had come to a standstill due to Covid.
The 100km will be followed by a 150 next Sunday (10th) and a 200 on the 17th, giving riders the opportunity to become a randonneur in 3 weeks flat! The woman riders who participated in the BP include psychologist Sneha Damle, CA Swati Thakkar, Dr Prajakta Aswar of Chandrapur, Dr Anne Wilkinson, Dr Swati Kulkarni, Dr Trupti Dongre, Mamta Sarda, Maha Metro additional GM Shwetali Thakare and entrepreneurs Sweta Dandare and Sarah Shafiq.
Prominent among men participants were Madhur Agrawal of BD Agrawal Jewellers, CA Satish Sarda, Milind Chittawar of Seetech Solutions, Dr Amol Dongre, Apna Bazar owner Jetane Gopwani and doctors Ajay and Atul Kulkarni.
A Nagpur Randonneurs team comprising randonneur Yogesh Dapurkar, Super Randonneurs Vikas Patra and Aniruddha Ncyclopedia and randonneur Urmila Dhanke provided great support to the participants.