India’s varied terrain offers a plethora of options for cycling tracks, with excellent opportunities for downhills, sprints and cross country. Its potential is far from fully harnessed but race director Sunil Nanjappa has big dreams for its success.
The former investment banker quit his job to cycle his way through India’s races, learning everything he could about organisation and discovering what was lacking. He found that a majority of races in the country are not up to standard and are formed around existing jeep tracks instead of being designed specifically for cycling races.
So he did the next best thing he could – organised his own races. So far, he has organised the Goa International Mountain Biking Challenge (GIMBC), the Bangalore Mountain Festival (BMF), and the Tour of Goa.
It’s 2006 and India is still new to skateboarding. A board with four wheels is a strange ride; tricks on it stranger even. It isn’t until four years later that it creeps onto the surface and then slowly takes over pockets of the country.“I think the skate scene is about six years old now. Before that, there were a couple of skaters sprinkled about, but there wasn’t really any culture of it,” said Abhishek, co-founder of Bangalore-based skateboarding company HolyStoked Collective.
Built by hand, literally, the skate scene grew due to the undivided passion of India’s small, but driven, group of skateboarding enthusiasts, with help from international friends.
The fifth edition of Hero MTB Shimla in Himachal Pradesh ended successfully for India’s young guns. From more than a hundred cyclists, they emerged at the top after the gruelling 120kms race across Shimla’s toughest routes.
The annual two-day race was organised by the Himalayan Adventure Sports & Tourism Promotion Association (HASTPA), with trails across a variety of terrains including off road, broken tarmac, rock, sand, mud, streams, tarmac and single-track terrains.
This year, Devender Thakur, 22, from Shimla finished first overall with a time of 4:44:08, with 16-year-old Akshit Gaur pulling up after him in 4:58:50, followed by 18-year-old Shiven in 5:03:39. The categories included Men’s Open Solo, Women’s Open Solo, Masters Solo, and Student Solo.