What is this Bangalore Bicycle Championship all about?

 

Well it all began a few years ago with a few ‘weekend warriors’ mashing pedals as they raced their way to Nandi every Sunday. In a span of just three years, its grown by leaps and bounds. Today, we have 8 teams, with an average of 5 to 8 competitors each, training all the year-round. Each race day we have an average of about 60 competitors, semi-pros flying in from Delhi, Pune and Mumbai to compete, tons of volunteers and spectators. In short, the Bangalore Bicycle Championship (BBCh) is a bicycle racing championship for amateurs, organised by professionals modeled on an international format.

 

The 2012 BBCh will consist of 10 races from February to November. Race day is always on the third Sunday of each month. We love all forms of biking and our championships reflect this with not just road races but also the first downhill, criterium, cyclocross and team time trial races in the country.

 

But what do people get out of it you ask?

 

No, we don’t have prize money or even great prizes. We aren’t evangelical activists who are making a statement about changing the world through cycling (though we wouldn’t object to decent biking infrastructure in this country). We’re about regular people with regular jobs pushing their own own limits to the very maximum. We have people grimly sweating it out as they train for each race. Its about cartloads of fun, exhilaration, the wind in your hair, pain in your quads, the primal urge to compete and pure adrenalin. In short, its about feeling ALIVE. And its about a little bit of street cred too :)

 

Our race updates can be accessed on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BangaloreBicycleChampionships. You’ll also find it a nice chronicle of our past races with timings, race points, podium finishes and images.