26 cyclists ride 300km in a night

Nagpur, March 14

In the first night brevet of the season organised by Nagpur Randonneurs, 26 cyclists rode 300km to and from Amravati between 4 pm Saturday and Sunday noon.

A total of 30 riders belonging to Betul, Yavatmal, Aurangabad, Chandrapur, Gondia, Sewagram, Amravati and Nagpur had registered for the BRM. Of these, 27 started and 26 completed the distance in the allotted 20 hours.

The BRM, which started at Zero Mile at 4 pm on Saturday, went up to Panchavati Square in Amravati. The riders rode the whole of Saturday night, braving unexpected chill in the air, early evening and late morning summer heat and climbing the steep Talegaon ghat, to complete the distance in a maximum of 19 hours, 17 minutes.

Riyansh Sontakke at 19 was the youngest to achieve the feat, while Atul Tayade of Sewagram the oldest at 60-plus.

The others who completed the brevet are Ajay, Swati, Atul and Pushkar Kulkarni, Rakesh Aglawe, Parvez Ali, Vikas Bhat, Suresh Bhusange, Rajesh Chansoriya, Rahul Dighade, Sumit Ghate, Avinash Jadhav, Malinath Koli, Jagdish Kukreja, Pandurang Lahane, Saurabh Lunge, Ayush Mishra, Naresh Moharkar, Amogh Palande, Roshan Suryawanshi, Ameya Swami, Shakir Ukani, Pramod Vishwakarma and Aniruddha Bhende.

Rakesh Naidu rode almost 250km but could not complete as the spokes of his bicycle gave way.

Ride responsible Amol Ramteke, Yogesh Dapurkar, Mangesh Pahade and Samir Lohi were on the road the whole night marshalling, while Jitesh Thakkar and Anand Kalchuri manned the start and end points.

The second and last night brevet of the season, a 200km BRM, will be held on April 17.