THE bone-chilling weather with dense fog through parts of the route and presence of wild boars apart from other challenges could not deter these brave cyclists who completed 400 kms brevet on Sunday in just 27 hours. Thirty cyclists overcame difficult challenges between Arni and Yavatmal to complete the brevet which was organised by Nagpur Randonneurs. The brevet started from Zero Mile at 4 pm on Saturday and went to Lonbehal beyond Arni in Yavatmal district. Forty-two cyclists from Nagpur, Warud, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Mauda and Ghatanji took part in the challenging brevet. The route was from Zero Mile to Wardha Road bypass to Yavatmal bypass to Arni, then Lonbehal and back.

 

The riders included 18-year-old Ali Ukani, 19-year-old Devesh Tiwari, 60-year-old Dharmapal Fulzele and two woman riders Anne Wilkinson and Swati Kulkarni. Riders moved through dense fog between Yavatmal and Lonbehal with near-zero visibility and temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. Most riders slowed down on this stretch, losing precious time, but still managed to complete the brevet in the allotted time of 27 hours. Those who completed the ride include Rajesh Chansoriya, Ashish Gawarshettiwar, Bhushan Vaswani Sadanand Deshmukh, Ashish Choudhari, Suresh Bhusange, Dharmapal Fulzele, Ashish Gajbe, Mohammad Kanchwala, Swati and Ajay Kulkarni, Krishna Sodgir, Parag Bhonde, Praful Bhupta, Prashant Chandankhede, Sumit Ghate, Liyaqat Hussain, Sunil Junghare, Piyush Khandelwal, Piyush Kotkar, Aditya Lokhande, Atul Mainde, Abdul Abid Qureshi, Riyansh Sontakke, Anil Tahaliyani, Devesh Tiwari, Ali and Shakir Ukani and Aditya Upase. At Arni, the riders were welcomed by members of Arni Cycling Club who provided hydration and nutrition support. Yogesh Dapurkar and Aniruddha marshalled the entire route spending more than 24 hours on the road. Vikas Patra, Sneha Barve, Aarti Kelkar, Sudarshan Varma, Ankita Pusadkar, Nilesh Nimbalkar Amruta Kandurwar and Jyoti Patel provided support at the start and end points.