Bicycle Race ‘for all’ in Mangalore!
Mangaluru: The 7th edition of the ‘WERC Hill Classic Road Race’ was an exciting day for road bike racing in Mangalore. Held on 26th May, on a beautiful Sunday morning, 16 riders from Mangalore and Udupi signed up and lined up to take their positions on the start line as per their pre-assigned start times. The bike race was in the format of the ‘Handicap Bike Race’, a unique format that gives riders of various abilities equal opportunities to win the race.
The Handicap Bike Race format:
All the starters are grouped into similar abilities by a ‘Handicapper’ (Organiser), yes, all the starters (old, young, fast, slow, men, woman,). On race day all the riders are let off with their respective groups onto the same course at different time intervals. The slowest group will start first, the second slowest group will start a few minutes behind and so on. The time intervals between the different groups are determined by the Handicapper. The Handicapper will determine who’ll be in which group depending on the rider’s experience, sprint, climbing abilities. In case of an unknown rider, the Handicapper will simply ask the rider to be in a group he sees fit (All in good faith, of course).
If the race is handicapped properly and fairly, all of the groups should catch each other in the closing kilometres of the race.
The rider who crosses the finish line first wins the race. He/she could have come from any bunch. There is also a prize for the fastest race time. This is the rider who comes across the finish line in the least amount of time.
This format gives everyone a chance to race against each other and have a legitimate chance of winning the race.
You can follow WERC on Facebook to keep a track of their cycling events at www.facebook.com/wercycling/
Summary of the Race:
The 22 km rolling race course tested the riders thoroughly, and 15 riders successfully completed the race, while one had to drop out because of a broken chain.
Shyamprasad B Nayak crossed the finish line first, followed closely by Navin Kotian for the second place and Dipak Kumar of Udupi for the third. Navin Kotian also won a special medal for the fastest race time in the 35 years and above category. Shrinidhi Urala of Udupi secured the fastest race time for the course, and also picked up a medal on the way for the same in the 34 years and under category.