JOIN USA sea of bright orange waded through the dull, grey streets of Outer Ring Road at the Corporate cyclothon event, ‘Embassy Pedal for the Planet’, held recently. Hosted by the Embassy Group, the event was a green initiative to encourage corporates and professionals to cycle to work.
The event saw about 500 participants from various IT companies coming in on a Sunday morning, completely geared up to cycle the stretch.
The event comprised of three races, a 9 km eco leaders race for CXOs and CEOs, the 18km race that was open to all professionals called ‘Greenathoners’ and the 18 km team relay race called ‘Green Crusaders’. The starting point of the race was Embassy TechVillage and back. The event started with the official anthem of cyclathon as the cyclists rode through hotspots like Bangalore Central mall, RMZ Ecospace and Accenture services.
Rahul Ravi, who finished the stretch in 36 minutes, bagged the first place at the ‘Greenathoners’ race.
“I’m used to this sport as I wake up in the morning and cycle for about 25 km. The roads were fine though there were a lot of uphills and downhills. The event was very well organised,” said Rahul. Vignesh and Yuvraj were placed second and third. The three walked away with mementos and lunch buffet vouchers, while Rahul got to open a champagne bottle in style, at the stands.
Leanne, a participant, said that she loved the experience. “It was a brilliant start to my Sunday. The weather and the roads were great. Cycling is a family sport and such events encourage more people to come forward.”
Jitu Virwani, chairman and managing director of the Embassy Group, said, “The turnout was great, considering that this was the first time we put together such a massive event. We have had about 700 registrations in the past two weeks. We have also given strict guidelines to the participants and have disqualified those without proper headgear or whose bikes are not in shape. One core aspect we focussed on was hiring bikes from agencies though most participants brought their own bikes.”
Amit Ahuja, the manager of the Embassy Leisure and Entertainment, said that the idea was conceptualised about five months ago.
“We wanted to do it earlier but we were waiting for the perfect time. We got great cooperation from the traffic police and I am confident that many people will cycle to work after this.”
Mike, the CEO of the Embassy Office Parks said that their next event, which is currently at the planning stages, is a ‘Tricathlon’ which will combine running, swimming and cycling. T Ashok, the CEO of Stag Software, bagged first place in the CXO Challenge Race and the runners-up of this race were H N Ravindra and Rudraswamy. The team of Joseph and Pradeep Venkatraman from Hewlett Packard won the ‘Green Crusaders’ race.