Cyclist Dr Amit Samarth during a press conference at Chandigarh Press Club on Monday. (Express Photo: Jaipal Singh)As the second Indian to finish the Race Across America (RAAM) and the only Asian cyclist to finish the Trans Siberia Extreme, 39-year-old Dr Amit Samarth is one of the most acclaimed ultra cyclist in the country. Samarth, who belongs to Nagpur, completed the Trans Siberia Extreme, a 9100 km long ultra event happening from Moscow to Vladivostok in Russia.
On Monday, as Samarth was in Chandigarh to announce his decision to compete in Shivalik Signature, one of the India qualifiers for RAAM, to be held in the city from September 19, the cyclist talked about his experience of competing in two of the toughest ultra cycling events in the world.
“Patience and persistence, that’s what kept me going in these two races. As a cyclist, one knows that training for the whole 9100 km route for Trans Siberia Extreme or 4800 km RAAM route is not possible so we have prepare for the maximum distance one can ride in a day and then train gradually. Chandigarh is one of the most planned cities in India and the city also has hills nearby. It provides ideal platform for training for such events. When I competed in Trans Siberia Extreme, we also passed through Lake Baikal. I also saw many tourists coming there to cycle around the lake. The same thing can happen at the lakes of dams like Bhakhra Nangal and the hill belt of Hoshiarpur and even serious riders can train like me,” shared Samarth.
It all started for Samarth when he competed in his first Ironman event, a triathlon event which combines cycling, running and swimming in 2012. Samarth has finished 16 Ironman events across the world and became the second Indian and the first Asian to complete the RAAM in 2017.
A total of 300 cyclists across the world have so far completed RAAM which happens from west coast to east coast of US and requires the cyclists to complete the event in 12 days.
Last year, Samarth was one of the six cyclists to compete in Trans Siberia Extreme and was one of the four riders who completed the 9100 Km race spread across 15 stages and 25 days with the longest stage being 1372.61 Km long 13th stage apart from the 1094.59 Km long tenth stage. Since 2015, when the race was started, only seven individuals had finished the race till last year with Samarth completing the race in 379 hours, 51 minutes and 44 seconds.
“ The biggest hurdle for competing in any global race is funding. The toughest part in RAAM was crossing the Arizona desert followed by the hill climbs and when I completed the race, it gave me confidence to try for more events. The Trans Siberia Extreme is a invitation based event and when I got the invite, I started preparing for it. I would practice around Nagpur with my wife Mukul following me in her car. As compared to the total elevation gained of 40,000 M in RAAM, the total elevation gain in Russia was more than 77,000 M, which is equal to climbing Mt Everest 7-8 times. Even though it was summers in Russia, the later stages saw lot of rains and with the cold conditions as compared to India at night, it made the task difficult. The stages in Siberia were held in rolling hills which meant sometimes we cycled for more than 700 Kms in the hills tackling climbs and descent and it did made me to think about quitting at one time. But kept I motivating myself,” Samarth said.
Before he concludes talking about his experience, Samarth is quick to add, “When I started in Moscow, I was behind Indian Standard Time (IST) by two and half hours and when I finished the race in Vladivostok, I was ahead of IST by four hours. That’s what I told my family members and I felt like chasing time”.
