NOIDA: Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) 2019, the mother of all endurance cycling events in the world, saw Indian cyclists paddling with all their might and grit.
PBP is considered the holy pilgrimage for endurance cyclists which happens once in every four years. The journey of 1,200km and an elevation gain of more than 11,000 metres had to be done in just 90 hours.
A felicitation ceremony held by Team Lakshya in Noida on Sunday saw the Indian PBP heroes sharing their experiences with cycling enthusiasts.
Many riders from different cycling groups joined in to get inspired by the motivating stories of toil and sheer perseverance of PBP participants.
The PBP participants spoke openly about what went wrong and what they did right. Their stories revolved around what not to do, what ought to be done before registering for such an event, guidance about the importance of nutrition, sleep and, most importantly, time management.
"There is simply nothing else like it. As a test of physical and mental endurance, it is one of the toughest cycling events. There is pain, then more pain and then there is PBP," Deepak Kumar, one of the participants, pondered.
"Your body and mind take you a long way in an endurance sport and strategy makes up for the rest. PBP is a Randonneur's dream event and there is a lot of planning that goes in for completing the oldest cycling event successfully," Karthik Prakash pointed out.
"It was my first experience of riding outside India. It was a tough challenge as we were facing head winds, had a fall too... I hope, I will participate in PBP 2023," said Pratibha Mishra.
PBP is considered the holy pilgrimage for endurance cyclists which happens once in every four years. The journey of 1,200km and an elevation gain of more than 11,000 metres had to be done in just 90 hours.
A felicitation ceremony held by Team Lakshya in Noida on Sunday saw the Indian PBP heroes sharing their experiences with cycling enthusiasts.
Many riders from different cycling groups joined in to get inspired by the motivating stories of toil and sheer perseverance of PBP participants.
The PBP participants spoke openly about what went wrong and what they did right. Their stories revolved around what not to do, what ought to be done before registering for such an event, guidance about the importance of nutrition, sleep and, most importantly, time management.
"There is simply nothing else like it. As a test of physical and mental endurance, it is one of the toughest cycling events. There is pain, then more pain and then there is PBP," Deepak Kumar, one of the participants, pondered.
"Your body and mind take you a long way in an endurance sport and strategy makes up for the rest. PBP is a Randonneur's dream event and there is a lot of planning that goes in for completing the oldest cycling event successfully," Karthik Prakash pointed out.
"It was my first experience of riding outside India. It was a tough challenge as we were facing head winds, had a fall too... I hope, I will participate in PBP 2023," said Pratibha Mishra.
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