MbC Tour de Mountains 2016 – Agumbe-Kundadri ride-a Super Success!
Mangaluru: “Tour De Mountains” a unique initiative by Mangaluru Bicycle Club MbC in 2016 was a super success. This helped our riders improve their climbing skills and was anchored by Dony Menezes (President), Dr Pritam Sharma (Vice President) and Gaurav Prabhu (Committee member) who are experts themselves.
We concluded this season of “Tour de Mountains 2016” with a memorable ride. A group of 24 MbC riders ventured out for the ride to Agumbe – Kundadri on August 28, 2016, at 5:00 AM from Mangaluru. We reached Someshwara, which was our starting point for the climb around 7:00 am. Bicycles were transported using cars from Mangaluru. We had 4 of our riders, Shameem, Arvind, Sagar and Phillip who peddled all the way from Manipal to Someshwar to join this adventurous expedition of MbC.
At Someshwara we had our breakfast and started off with our first part of the climb to Agumbe, which was around 9 km and without any break we took off to the most adventurous part to Kundadri base covering 15 km and then the toughest climb to Kundadri hill top which was around 4.2 kms. All our riders both amateur and seasoned successfully climbed the great and toughest Kundadri without any hassle. The youngest in the group Master Amoga Vikrama, Age-16 climbed the peak comfortably and so did Maxim Menezes aged 61 inspiring all the fellow riders- Dr. Nagraj Shetty, Ganesh Nayak, Kethan Kevala, Arun Kumar Nayak, Joshua D’souza, Harsha Vardhana, Hari Prasad, Gaurav Prabhu, Dr Murali Shankar, Ankith Shetty, Shubhanand Rao, Sunil Mendes, Masood Teekay, Marzooq Ahmed, Ravish Shenoy, Achinthya Rao, Shameem Shaikh, Arvind K Y, Sagar Kalburgi and Phillip Adkins.
The joy of success was clearly showcased in the group picture which was clicked on the top of Kundadri betta which is priceless! After riding for 4.5 hours of uphill and downhill, covering a distance of 55 km and elevation of 1800 meters in total, we reached back to Someshwara. A very challenging yet a very rewarding ride for all our riders who attempted it. We had 3 support vehicles manned by Dr Pritam Sharma, Subodh Rai, Shrestajna Vernekar, Shivananda Rao and Anantha Krishna following the cyclists throughout the ride.
Our riders consisted of beginners with just 3-4 weeks of cycling experience to the experienced and seasoned cyclists. More than the climb the passion and excitement levels each rider exhibited during the climb and the efforts every cyclist have taken to motivate each other is remarkable. Breathtaking views of the Agumbe-Kudadri routes and pure fresh air only reinforced the positive energy and passion our riders had towards this ride. Our Tour De Mountains initiative of 2016 was received with a very good response by cyclists of Mangaluru, Udupi and Manipal and we will be back with Season 2 in 2017 with very exciting and challenging routes.
Report submitted by Ganesh Nayak- General Secretary- Mangalore Bicycle Club
