Pune v/s Mumbai Road Race 1st Edition

It was about time that cities like Mumbai and Pune where competitive cycling has been growing by leaps and bounds to start having regular events. This was one of such initiatives to promote the culture of racing. More events means more exposure for the local riders and eventually resulting into improved performances. It was jointly decided to have a friendly road race to start with, with no prize money at stake. All thanks to Parvez Mundroina, Siddharth Hivarekar, Giant Starkenn Cycling World and all those involved in the organisation of the race. Fortunately, the event got the attention of a lot of elite riders and now it was a matter of pride and not prize; it never is the prize.

Pune was the host city for the race, so I didn’t have to travel this time. The route was of 70 km from Pune to Kamshet and back, on the old Mumbai-Pune Highway which has a mix of flats, rolling terrains and a couple of short climbs. It was a perfect set up for a fierce race with all the favourites yearning for the win; in no ways it was going to be a ‘friendly’ race. I reached the start point in time and exchanged pleasantries with all the riders I knew and without any delays the race was flagged off at 6:15 am. The lead bunch formed quickly comprising some 25-30 riders and as expected, surges started happening right away. I knew Mumbai riders would be teaming up and there will be a lot of fake attacks happening. But the thing about fake attacks is that you would always find some rider chasing it down and in the process helping other riders to catch the attack.

Lot of moves were made by Mumbai’s domestiques whose job was only to take their rider ahead in the hope of a successful break. Mirza Saaib Bég being one of the favourites was being followed closely by all the riders. He was part of almost all the attacks being made whether they were for him or not ;) . Unfortunately, none of them were successful, until a 1.2 km steep climb (5% avg. grad.) came after 18 km. It’s a beautiful climb right on the highway near Somatane Phata. I knew moves would be made at this point as the BikeShark - The Urban Bicycle Store guys started moving in the front of the bunch. I decided to follow them and be ready for the attack. Just as the climb was about to start, Dhiren Bontra and his team mates made their move. I decided not to push too hard and just went calmly but steadily. At the top there is a slight descent, of which I made full use and re-joined the bunch without straining myself much. The bunch got reduced by a few numbers now and was left with some 18-20 riders now.

Constant attacks were still being made and this time by Bike Shark guys. I knew they were not going to be of any threat so decided to stay with the bunch, but there was always someone or the other chasing down the runaway rider only to re-join the bunch after a couple of minutes. There were counter attacks as well which are the most effective ones, but even they were not yielding anything because of the strong bunch. We were easily cruising at ~45 km/h and to hold this pace alone for 50+ km which was left is not realistic, that too on a rolling terrain, which is why solo breaks were totally futile. From Pune we had Sudarshan Muralidhar Devardekar, Rajat Subhra Roy, Mahesh Iyer, Makarand Mane and myself going strong with the bunch, while marking each other.

After 30 km, the U-turn was about to come which was again on the top of a short climb just like the previous one. This was the Kamshet climb, but this time the bunch didn’t seem to be much aggressive. Although some riders did try to break by climbing hard, but were caught soon on the climb itself. We made the U-turn peacefully and descended peacefully as well, which was quite unusual and then we saw Dhiren making his move when he went flying ahead solo in a full aero posture. This time I found myself at the front of the bunch so decided to contribute in catching the break. He was hardly 500 m ahead of us and was only coming closer, so there was no point pushing too hard. This is when a Bike Shark rider came ahead of me to slow down the pack. Mirza signalled the same to me from behind and we overtook him and decided to set our own pace. After some 4-5 km we were able to catch him and things went back to normal.

It was 20 km to go and there were no attacks happening now. The pack was led mostly by Rajat followed by Mirza. Rajat was making a huge effort to pull the bunch and was not getting much help from other riders. It was 15 km to go when Dhiren made his move once again at the Dehu Road intersection in a similar fashion. The bunch surged once again to catch him. Rajat was still leading, but after a few km he was pulled back and others were made to lead. He was finally caught after some 7-8 km. At this point the crew told us that 7 more km were left and the bunch was left with only 8-10 riders now.

Everyone was getting ready for the final sprint and the speed got reduced slightly. It was 2 km to go when there was a slight descent and I made the mistake of pushing too hard at this point. By the time it was 1 km to go I was all out and was struggling hard to stay in the bunch. I knew I had nothing left in me for the final sprint, but still wanted to stick around. I finally got dropped in the last 500 m when I saw the final sprint happening from behind. Unfortunately, because of a cleat malfunction, Sudarshan who was looking good to finish in the top 3 had a crash while sprinting, just before the finish line. He only managed to have external bruises, the internal ones were only of a heart break for him. The top 3 riders to finish were Meherzad Irani, Kunal Mahaveer and Dhiren Bontra, all from Team Bike Shark. Mirza managed to finish at 4th position. These were the ones in the final sprint followed by the rest of us. I had a wry smile on my face, very well knowing my mistake. Adding it to the list of lessons learnt and moving ahead is the only thing I could do.

We had bananas for everyone after the race. Overall, it was all very well managed and the crew support was amazing. We didn’t face any problems with the traffic. The weather was superb after the rain last night. Once again, thanks a lot to the volunteers and all those involved in the organisation of the race. I might not know everyone so cannot tag them here. Races like these would definitely encourage more riders to join the pack and present riders to improve immensely. Looking forward to have an ITT or a TTT now which would be pretty exciting. I hope the organizers are listening!

Link to my Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/985112617

Image Credits: Sushant Jadhav (It’s of 3-4 km before the finish line)

#Mumbai #Pune #Cycling #Racing #RoadRace #Strava #WSSM