WERC Hill Classic Race – A race within race
Mangaluru: While the entire city was coming to terms after the spectacular show and the carnival atmosphere of the Dasara festival, it was equally an exciting early Sunday morning around Padil, BC Road and Benjanapadavu.
16 riders of different age group and abilities were competing against each other in a unique bicycle race called Handicap Race, introduced in Mangalore by Team WERC. It was a 20km race with approximately 17km of flat ride on the BC road highway and 3km hill climb with the hilltop finish.
Instead of the customary mass start, in this format of the race, riders are grouped according to their abilities and they are let off to ride the race course at different intervals.
While this format of the race is gaining more and more popularity amongst the cyclists around the region, this time around it was the participation of 73-year-old George Fernandez and 59-year-old Joseph Pereira, that reminded us that Road Racing has no age barrier! Both completed the race very strongly.
Rest of the riders, with their own individual & group strategy, were pushing the limits and challenging each other. In under 35 year age category, Shashank Pal & Shrinidhi Urala, fresh from State Racing competition, finished the race in 1st & 2nd position respectively, followed by Harivijay Kudva in 3rd position, all within a gap of 60 seconds. The winners of the above 35-year category were Navin Kotian, Vinay Raykar & Dipak Kumar.
Any event without the external support is incomplete and so was this. Team WERC would like to thank IDEAL ICE CREAM for sponsoring the gift vouchers for the winners. A big thanks to all the volunteers and their kids who are budding cyclists, organizers, sponsors, and well-wishers for the continued support in making this event truly successful.
Another race from team WERC goes down the memory lane for its uniqueness, for its presentation, for its participation and the amount of excitement it generates in the cycling community around this region.