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Fun Sustainable Transport

Time Trial – Bangalore Bicycle Championships (photo by Deepak)

The first leg of the Bangalore Bicycle Championships was a Time Trial, held last Sunday (24th May 2009).

Results of the race

A detailed version with timings of all participants is available here ( pdf version ).

( an interesting thread on BangaloreBikers on interpretation of the results )

Recap

Race day was awesome. The weather was perfect and over 50 people turned up at the designated location in the wee hours of the morning. This is the first time a bicycle race of this kind was conducted in the city. We had around 38 Participants and the rest were volunteers who helped make this event happen.

all participants and volunteers, apart from the photographers

The route was a good 14Km stretch – superb roads and hardly any traffic. The participants were let off with a gap of a minute each and times were recorded to give us the overall standings as shown above.

Various kinds of bicycles were used in the Time trial – road bikes (some full carbon ones), MTBs, Single speeds, foreign brands and local brands. Some folders too ! All re-emphasizing that It was ‘Not only about the bike, but also about the racer and the spirit of racing’.

Everyone had their own style at the Time trial, some folks gave it every bit and pedaled like crazy, while some were a bit more relaxed :)

George spinning fast on his small set of wheels

Shashank, taking a call very close to the finish line

The route was clearly marked with chalk every two km – and was easy to pace. There were a lot of folks who had come to cheer on the participants and it was very nice to see a packed crowd at the finish line egging you on.

The Time trials got over pretty fast, after which we had a quick group photo and headed out for an typical BangaloreBikers IVC (Idly, Vada, Coffee) Breakfast

In Retrospect

Overall a fantastic experience. Our initial idea was to push the sport aspect of cycling. We have a lot of bikers in the city/country who have taken to recreational cycling. While this is great, we wanted to consciously promote a different experience and I think the Bangalore Bicycle Championships has hit the spot !

Its all about having a burning desire to be the best and being extremely sportive at the same time. This is where we hope bikers will want to train, figure out how they can shave off seconds and get better technically – all very much required to take your skills to the next level and enjoy biking that much more.

Whats next

As per our plan the next leg of the championships would be a mass-start road race on June 21st. Check the Bangalore Bicycle Championships page for the latest up to date details and race rules.

Do check out all the photos from the Time trial – photos by Dheeraj, Shreelesh, Deepak and Rohan

Ready for more ???