A countryside cycling ride that set a weekend trend

Did your weekend dream of a breezy, energising neighbourhood cycling ride just get punctured by the sight of that impossibly crowded street? Mount your cycle onto a car and head straight to the city's periphery, where the pedalling action has just switched gears.

Last Sunday, as a 40-km 'Signature Ride' beckoned cyclists in droves to Hoskote, weekend getaways gained a whole new definition. The lockdown had revved up the Bengalurean's interest in cycling, but this ride broke the geographical barrier.

Flagged off by former city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao at 7.30 am, the fun ride arranged by Brigade Group, Volvo and Raintree Media had both amateurs and professional cyclists crisscrossing the lush Hoskote countryside. This was not a race, but an experiential ride designed to trigger a trend, as Raintree Media's Aditya Mendonca put it.

Yes, the ride had a cause: Support the India Cares Foundation to procure bicycles for the less fortunate children. Sanitised in pandemic terms, the ride was bio-secured and GPS-enabled with volunteers at all the bends and turns to guide spread across 20 checkpoints.

Decked up in gears, as the cyclists pedalled out from the Signature Towers on Old Madras Road, the sleepy villages suddenly came alive. Children watched and cheered as the cyclists passed them, multi-paced, riding through Hoskote Road, Raghuvanahalli, Hancharahalli Main Road, Jyothipura Road and back.

An avid cyclist himself, Rao found this convergence of the cycling community a welcome step. "As a part policymaker and part policy regulator, I have seen that the cycling community in Bengaluru is growing in numbers and that day won’t be very far off when, by sheer numbers, we will overtake both Paris and Amsterdam," his words at the flag-off struck a chord.

For IT architect Johann Nishanth, the ride on his Firefox Tarmac was a refreshing change. "It was a bit bumpy in some parts and throughout the ride, my thought was to avoid a puncture. But the route was very scenic and the weather good," he recalled. To beat the puncture threat, he carried a tube and a tyre lever.

Completing two loops of 20 km each, athlete Nandeesh Kumar recalled how he had spread the word around about the ride to as many people as possible. It was about promoting fitness and health consciousness, and cycling was the best way to do it.