They pedalled 167 km of National Highway 209 passing through Kanakapura

The Tour of Nilgiris (TfN), an annual cycle expedition passing through Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, brought 128 cyclists to Mysuru on Sunday evening.

The cyclists, who set out from Bengaluru on Sunday morning, pedalled through 167 km of National Highway 209 through Kanakapura, before entering Mysuru.

In the next seven days, they will pedal more than 1,000 km of country roads cutting across jungles, hills and fields through Madikeri, Sultan Bathery, and Ooty before returning to Mysuru, where the tenth edition of TfN is set conclude.

At a press conference, Satish Belawadi, tour director, said Ride Cycle Foundation began TfN ten years ago in 2008 with a participation of 52 cyclists with the objective of promoting cycling among the masses. “This year we have the largest contingent of 128 cyclists and a support staff of 60,” he said.

The cyclists participating in TfN 2017 include not only amateurs but also celebrity cyclists like Alexi Grewal, the Olympic gold medallist in road cycling in 1984; Naveen John, the current national road race champion; and Kiran Kumar Raju, the national mountain bike champion.

The participants also include a number of hobby riders working in the IT industry, who probably pedalled their first-ever 100 plus km on Sunday, said an organiser. The amateurs had been groomed to handle the challenges, said Sridhar Pabbishetty, race director, TfN.

Six segments

TfN also features six competitive segments, the first of which was held on Sunday. It stretched a distance of 11.1 km from Ugranapura Doddi village in Malavalli to the police station in Kirugavalu.

During the segment, there is a gap of two minutes between the starting time of each participant. “We record the individual time of each participant. We can’t close the roads for traffic so we can’t have a mass flag off for the race,” he added.

The cyclists are expected to pedal their way to Ooty through Kalahatti ghats, which is notorious for its steep hairpin bends.

Kiran Kumar Raju said the record for covering the 12 km distance from the foothills to the summit of Kalahatti range is 59 minutes.

“While professional riders will cover the distance in a little over one hour, others may take upto five hours. Though they are not allowed to ride an automobile, we permit the participants to even push their cycles,” Mr. Belawadi said.

Charity riders

TfN 2017 also has four charity riders participating to support social initiatives.

Rajanikanth Puttabuddi will be the charity rider for Kenneth Anderson Nature Society that focusses on wildlife conservation in the Melagiri forest region spanning the Hosur and Dharmapuri Forest Divisions of Tamil Nadu. Shankar Jayaraman will raise funds for Sita Bhateja Speciality Hospital to make spine surgery affordable and accessible to the poor.

Vivek Radhakrishnan and Rajkumar Khot will pedal for Iksha Foundation, a charitable trust focusing on Retinoblastoma or eye cancer.