Orange city cyclist completes 'golden' ride in just 13 days

Overcoming bad road conditions and a slew of other challenges, Nagpur resident Amit Samarth has successfully cycled the 6,000-km Golden Quadrilateral, which touches all the metro cities of India, in just over 13 days, an effort what can earn him an entry into the record books.

Samarth, 43, a qualified doctor from the orange city in eastern Maharashtra, started from the outskirts of the financial capital in the wee hours of February 15 and completed the ride by reaching the same spot on Sunday, after traversing the challenging distance.

His time of 13 days, nine hours and 50 minutes, is faster than Lt Col Bharat Pannus 14 days, 23 hours and 52 minutes set in October 2020, which is in the record books.

Once approved, Samarth, who has already finished tough rides like the 5,000-km Race Across America (RAAM) and the 9,100-km Trans Siberian Extreme, will be the fastest cyclist to cover the 6,000-km GQ (Golden Quadrilateral).

The ride, which was done by using the best of technology which helped anybody track Samarths progress on a real time basis, saw him go to Chennai first, from where he cycled along the east coast to Kolkata, took the plains to touch New Delhi and finally came to Mumbai via Jaipur and Rajasthan.

Speaking to PTI on his way back to Nagpur from Mumbai, Samarth said he lost time in cities (a 35-km stretch near Vishakhapatnam took three hours) due to bad road conditions at Rajamahendravaram

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)