In a healthy and positive start to 2021, around 60 cyclists, including 10 women, rode 100 kms under 7 hours on Sunday, January 3, in a Brevet Populaire (BP), organised by Nagpur Randonneurs under the aegis of Audax India Randonneurs.
The BP, which 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 200 kms, 300 kms, 400 kms, 600 kms, 1000 kms, 1200 kms and 1400 kms.
The BP marks restart of randonneuring in Nagpur, which had come to a standstill due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The 100-km will be followed by a 150-km next Sunday (January 10) and a 200-km on January 17, giving riders the opportunity to become a randonneur in 3 weeks flat.
The women 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, Dr Ajay Kulkarni and Dr 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.
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