Another Bicycle Chronicle (Part-1)

Chronicle of 2010

          

           

Reaxion Ride on 11th April 2010 

Ever since my college days I have had great admiration for Kalhana and Anantha Ranga Pillai, to me the writings on life and people of their times would even withstand the critical scrutiny of present day scholars and these works exemplified a bench mark in writing of history in India. Here is one such attempt by me in trying to follow their footprints at least to the barest minimum and just as the memories of the Valentine's Day 2010 appears like yesterday a day when I got hooked into cycling much water has run down in these five years just as I now attempt to write another episode of life in black and white.

Tour of Tamilnadu 2010

As a rank outsider and novice my initial days of cycling was truly by trial and error method. The cycling scenario in Chennai was very much different from the present, the only known cycling event to me during those days was the monthly CRX Reaxion Ride to Mahabalipuram and having attended a few of their monthly rides in February and April it was getting bit monotonous even though I almost managed to put an average of minimum 20- 25 km daily with my Schwin MTB, on 19th September 2010 the newly formed TCC (Tamilnadu Cycling Club) conducted individual time trial from ECR Toll Plaza to Scenic Spot, being my first it was indeed exciting but my timing of 44 minutes suggested a great scope for improvement. The person who got me into the cycling community had recently opened his BSA Go bicycle shop at Kodambakkam. Frequent visits to his shop made me get much more involved and passionate about cycling. During that period the role of facebook in connecting the community was also very limited or perhaps my role could have been lesser.

At Taj Connemara Hotel

The next big event was the launch of Mongoose and GT Bicycles in India by its CEO on 29th October at the Taj Connemara Hotel which was closely followed by my first 100+ km ride to Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary on 31st October incidentally this was the Inaugural ride for Tour of Tamilnadu, by this time came into contact with many fellow members of the cycling community who in years to come became good friends. The weeks ahead was meant for training for the cycling tour which had the

theme 'Hills' with not much of preparation or not even possessing a proper cycling gear except for the helmet I embarked upon my first long distance cycling tour. The seven day tour called Tour of Tamilnadu began at Coimbatore on 25th December and covered the hills stations of Ooty, Yercaud and Kodaikanal, during the tour I was mostly a passenger sitting in the support vehicle during the climbs and enjoying the rides on the downhills or in the plains the longest being Karur to Bathalgundu 100+ km. This tour became a trendsetter since it included participants who over the course of time began to contribute much to growth of cycling in Chennai . The memories of December evenings midst the hills with camp fires, fun and frolic brought forward joyful moments, the tour came to an end on the last day of the year with many aspirations and good will to look forward. On the way back to Chennai I had a stop over at Srirangam having a blissful time at precincts of the temple during the dawn of the new year.

  

At Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary on 31st Oct 2010