Coastal Cruise 200 Km BRM held in Mangaluru

Coastal Cruise 200 Km BRM held in Mangaluru

Mangaluru: The AUDAX season which started with a 100 km Populaire event a few weeks ago, was kicked off with its first 200 km BRM of the season on Sunday.

The event saw 11 riders registering for the event, some seasoned ones, some relatively new and a couple of outstation riders. After the early morning formalities of bike check, briefing and handover of rider kits, the ride was flagged off by Mangalore’s loving cyclist Joseph Pereira, who was also accompanied by Mangalore’s star riders Anil Shet, Brian, Harivijay, Vinay, Shivananda and Krishal. The flag-off was coordinated by the jovial rider, Ashok Lobo at 5:45 am from Taj Cycles, Bejai, after briefing the riders about the route, turning & control points, tricks & trades of an endurance event.

The early morning ride was pleasant and most of the riders crossed Udupi by 8:00 am, where Dr Tilak & his team rode with the riders for a while, to encourage them and keep them motivated for the rest of the ride.

As the sun starts rising, the pleasant weather turns to hot and humid with some ghusty head winds, challenging the cyclists, and it was no different today. Manuveoiring through these challenges the riders started reaching the turning point of St. Mary’s Orthodox Syrian Church, one after the other, first amongst them being Ms Gleona D’Souza, who was riding her first ever BRM.

The return was more challenging as the scorching heat and humidity started draining the riders’ energies. Bracing all the challenges, the super lady Ms Gleona arrived at the finish line in style and absolute confidence at 3:11 pm, ahead of all riders.

Rest of the riders started reaching the finish line, one after the other including seasoned riders like Dr Gururaj Krishnamurthy, Dr Guruprasad Bhat, Sarvesha, Nithin Mohan, relatively new faces in Suyog Shetty, Aravinda Upadhyaya, Ojas Samaga and riders from Kasargod Nizam & Shabeer well before the cutoff time of 7:15 pm.

The unique feature of this first 200km BRM was that a solo lady Ms Gleaona, attempted the BRM for the first time and completed it very strongly, followed by 15-year-old Ojas Samaga, along with his father completed the 200 km ride for the first time in his life, and a well deserving title of ‘Randonneure’

Team WERC congratulates all riders for taking part in the event, Taj Cycle for their excellent support, and the stalwart cyclists of Mangalore for joining the ride at the beginning to boost confidence amongst the cyclists.

The results of this ride will be updated soon. Get ready for the next BRM, a 300km ride on 2nd December 2023.

Happy Randonneuring!

Submitted by: Sarvesh Samaga