Imagine covering 190 km in a day by a bicycle on the National Highways of Odisha!
Members of the Bhubaneswar Cycling and Adventure Club (BCAB) have done it with ease. led by Manoj Ahuja, the team included Sanjeeb Kumar Panda, lalit Das and Rajesh Mafidar.
Empowered with recent adventure of covering the most difficult 450 plus km from Manali to leh, the team took it as a challenge.
While people were enjoying Durga Puja festivities, the BCAB team planned its cycle ride from the State capital city of Bhubaneswar to the steel city of Rourkela. The target was huge as they had to cover 341 km in two days, October 1 and 2, as per the schedule.
Sanjeeb Panda, IG of Police, Modernisation, who is an ace cyclist, recounts his experience of Day One.
“In order to cover Bhubaneswar to Khamar (190 km), we started early morning, covered about 40 km on NH-5 up to Manguli Chhak after crossing river Kathjodi, Cuttack city and river Mahanadi. From Manguli, we moved on NH-42 up to Dhenkanal passing by Choudwar, Bali, Khuntuni, Govindpur for about 45 km”, said Panda.
“From Dhenkanal, we moved to Kamakhyanagar for about 30 km on a reasonably good quality 22-feet wide blacktop road. Then we moved on NH-200 upto Pitiri for about 30 km. From Pitiri, we moved on the new NH-23 up to Khamar (40 km). We had the best ride on this patch as the road is excellent with barely any traffic and any human settlement,” said he.
“The landscape was enchanting with green paddy fields, silver-white flowers of wild shrub Kashtandi and Saal trees with lush-green leaves all along. As the sun was going down, the reflections on the Dadraghati reservoir was just mesmerising,” said Panda.
“It took us back to our Manali-leh trip. We will love to cycle on this patch of the route again and again. By evening, we reached Khamar and halted for the night covering a distance of about 190 km,” said Panda.
In fact, the BCAC team broke its earlier club record of cycling 171 km in a day from Bhubaneswar to Gopalpur-on-sea.
Panda continued, “On Day Two, to cover 151 km from Khamar to Rourkela, we started from Khamar on NH-23 up to Pallahada (23 km). It was a tough climb. But as it was beginning of the day and we were fresh, it appeared less difficult. Also, we feel the strengthening of the muscles after the Manali-leh cycle tour.”
“From Pallahada to Barkot, we moved on NH-6 that runs from Kolkata to Mumbai for about 25 km. After about seven km from Pallahada as soon as Deogarh district started with a signboard ‘NH Division Deogath Welcomes You’, the NH vanished with lots of potholes and nonexistent road. One wonders how a National Highway could be so bad!”
“At Bahadaposhi about two km before Barkot, we took State Highway-10 A for 48 km to reach lahunipada. This is just another beautiful road; any cyclist would yearn to have a ride. It gives the feel of riding on a 22-feet-wide cycle track with zero traffic and beautiful landscape,” said Panda.
“We then again moved on NH-23 for 45 km to reach Rourkela, passing Rajamunda, Chandiposh and lathikata, before evening covering 151 km in the day. So, in two days we covered 341 km,” said he.
“In order to promote cycling and motivate local cyclists, we undertook a 18-km ride on the ring road of Rourkela with the local cyclists on October 3,” concluded Panda.