Cleated Chaos – the 2012 Bangalore Bicycle Championship cranks off

Sunday February 19, 2012: Carbon and steel, TTB and MTB, MAMIL and Mamma, Cervelo and S-Works, Mavic and Easton –droolworthy bikes faced off and grim-faced warriors girded their loins (in lycra) and did battle against the clock.

All bicycle roads led to the Nandi Hill toll for the first race of the season. The Bangalore Bicycle Championship kicked (or cranked rather) off with a massive turnout of nearly 90 competitors from across the country. Armoured bikers on Harleys and Ninjas were given nary a second glance as the crowd of about 150 or so riders, volunteers and enthusiasts drew the stares and puzzled queries of locals and picknickers on their way out of town. With the first rider taking off sometime after 8.30 and riders leaving at intervals of 1 minute, the mercury soared and later riders were left rueing the fact that they didn’t get in to register earlier.

The course was a 20km loop (10 up and 10 back) starting from near ‘Friends Dhaba’. Conditions were sunny to begin with and pretty hot by about 10 a.m with some stiff-ish head and crosswinds. The races went absolutely down to the wire. The Kynkyny army came to town with about 12 or 13 riders (I lost count) and dominated the early timings but Team Naesar caught up in quick time (pun intended). The Bijapur brigade also made their presence felt, and then some.

Lokesh, took off like a bat out of hell and rode a brutally powerful leg, as is his wont. Roopak sliced through the rising heat on his gorgeously aerodynamic Giant Trinity TT bike and whispered his way to a solid time. Samim was a blur of pink as he crossed the finish on his Cervelo. Vivek Radhakrishnan languidly rode past the finish to discover (somewhat to his bemusement) that he had finished on the podium. Naveen and Darren dropped the hammer and finished with strong sub-31min times. At the end of the day however, Asif Attar of Team Naesar claimed the gold when he crossed the finish line in a blistering 29 minutes and 5 seconds. The podium honours were even with two members each from Naesar and Kynkyny (Samim and Vivek sharing third).

I can’t help but be partisan and make special mention of the MTB tribe. It takes some granite cajones (and perhaps a bit of softness in the head) to ride a mountain bike in a time trial and I doff my helmet to those who did. A loud ‘Booyah’ goes out to MTBeer-in-Chief Nelly who achieved his goal of dropping a roadie on his hardtail.

By 11 a.m it was all over. A fantastic way to kick off the season and what a shot in the arm for bike riding in these parts in general. What began a few years ago with a few random ‘nutters’ racing their way to Nandi has quickly turned into an organised racing scene run by an enthusiastic community – a community that does this purely for the love of the sport. Whatever it becomes in the future, one does hope that the organisers and participants never lose sight of that.

You can take a gander at what it all felt like here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/beingthomas/sets/72157629434913725/

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