City’s cycling enthusiasts covered a distance of over 44,000 kms which is more than the Earth’s circumference in a span of 15 days. Bicycle Mayor Kanishka Poddar in association with various cycling clubs of Ranchi organised the October Cycling Distance Challenge-2020 from October 1 to October 15.
As many as 151 cyclists participated in the challenge while 77 managed to complete it. Divided in four categories and based on their level of fitness, the participants could either ride for 300 kms in level 1, 500 kms in level 2, 750 kms in level 3 or 1000 kms in level 4. The contenders could also ride at a time as per their convenience while the data of all the rides was recorded on a mobile application called Strava.
About 39 members completed level 1, 27 completed level 2 while level 3 and level 4 was successfully completed by only three and four cyclists respectively.
Rakesh Kumar Pawan covered the maximum distance of 1838 kms in level 4 with 15 centuries while Vinay Vibhakar rode for 763 kms in level 3. Rajeev Gupta with 686 kms in level 2 and Md Shafiur Rahman with 467 kms in level 1 were declared as the champions in their respective levels.
Four female cyclists also completed the challenge. Priya Budhia and Simran Chadda Modi completed level 1 while Aditi Sharma and Bindiya Arya completed level 2.
“The numbers clearly indicate how much dedication one needs to complete the challenge. Seeing the passion of all the participants it can be said that a new cycling chapter will soon start in Ranchi. The challenge was also aimed to inculcate a habit of riding regularly and also push people to use bicycles for commuting to their workplace,” said Poddar.
Sharing his experience, cyclist Hitesh Bhagat stated that with regular cycling he has managed to reduce about 7-8 kgs in the past four months and is now more fit both mentally and physically.
Sunil Barnwal feels that cycling helps one in developing a positive thinking and lifestyle and bicycle tourism should be promoted in Ranchi.
“The growing cycling culture in Ranchi is a direction by the citizens to make the City cleaner and greener. The State government and district administration should focus on creating cycling zones over weekends and government holidays in order to enable and inspire more people to ride. There is also a need to build bicycle friendly infrastructure like pop- up cycling lanes and parking stations in commercial and government buildings,” added the Bicycle Mayor.