Cycling scene in Bangalore has grown very much over the last few years. There is no surprise that India’s IT capital is becoming the cycling capital as well.
BBCh – or Bangalore Bicycling Championship is a racing forum in Bangalore, formed by various cycling enthusiasts. BBCh conducts races on the 3rd Sunday of every month and the races are usually very friendly and still competitive in nature. There are races conducted for road cyclists and for off road bikers.
BBCh Endurance Race – May 2013
This was an off-road race inside a reserve forest at north Bangalore. The venue being about 15Km from my house and that I am familiar with the race venue, I decided to ride to the venue to witness the race. The race was supposed to start at 7:30, and with a delayed start from my home, I somehow managed to be there in time for the race start. Among the riders were the Specialized Kynkyny Cycling Team (SKCT) and probably a couple of other major cycling teams from Bangalore. Except Venky from Spectrum Racing, I hardly knew any of them, but that didn’t matter me being at the venue to witness some cycling action.
The race started on time at 7:30. Cat1 riders started first followed by Cat2 and under 18 riders. Once the race was started from just outside the forest, I sneaked into the forest to do some photography clicks and to see the riders on the trail. The race also needed some volunteers who should support riders with directions and support them in case of flats etc. I had not signed up to be a volunteer, but I soon found myself being an (unofficial) volunteer inside the race trail. Though I was interested in clicking some snaps, I stayed on one of the turns making sure that the riders are not missing their route at that point.
I later found another volunteer at some 300 meters away from where I was, his name was Ashutosh and he rode all the way from Rajaji Nagar on his Trek road bike to make himself available as a volunteer. I spent time clicking snaps of riders and some of the forest trails and started to like off-road biking a bit. It is certainly a different ball game, but it has it’s own pluses and minuses compared to road biking.
The race was completed at around 11am and the prize distribution happened thereafter.
By then the sun was directly above my head and I was missing my breakfast. I almost finished my 600ml Gatorade mix and half of water from another bottle along with some dates which I had carried. My wife called me to ask if I am going to have breakfast of lunch, on which I settled on lunch and rode back home slowly to be there on time at least for lunch.
It was about 29Km total ride for me excluding a few Km inside the race trail on my Sporterra. I managed to avoid a flat riding a hybrid inside the forest :). The day’s mission accomplished in having a ride, witnessing a race and having some snaps clicked. The ride also burnt 1100 K cal from my fat in addition to the calories I didn’t take from the breakfast 😉
I did close to 29Km of ride to and from the race venue, and also did cover some distance within the Jungle where the race was conducted. My ride stats for the day can be found at my Garmin Connect activity details page
Here are the snaps I clicked.