Cycling from north to south in record time

KOCHI: 23-year-old Adil Teli, hailing from Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, created a world record by covering 3,600 km between Kashmir and Kanyakumari on a bicycle within eight days, one hour and 37 minutes. Adil broke the previous world record for the fastest bicycle journey held by 18-year-old Om Hitendra Mahajan from Maharashtra, who completed the record for the same distance in eight days, seven hours and 38 minutes. TNIE caught up with the young cyclist, who was recently in the city to find out more about his extraordinary journey.

Adil started his journey from Lal Chowk clock tower in Srinagar at 7am on March 23 and reached Kanyakumari at 9am on March 30. “I rode for 21 hours per day, covered an average distance of 400 km and slept only for half an hour at a time during the journey,” he said.

Highlighting the challenges he faced during his journey from Srinagar, Adil says “I came across frequent rain and landslides on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. Riding down to the southern part of the country, I experienced hot climate, which made riding difficult. But I never gave up.” Even though he got a knee injury during the journey, Adil continued to ride and braved against all odds to accomplish his goal.

Adil was passionate about cycling from a young age. He was searching for opportunities to fulfil his long-cherished dream, to set a record in cycling. Besides representing Jammu and Kashmir in various national level competitions, Adil has also played in one junior national and five senior-level national competitions in various sports from 2015 to 2018. It was, however, a ride from Srinagar to Leh that became a turning point in his life. “The only thing that I had in mind was to break the existing world record,” said Adil, who is a physical education student at Guru Nanak Dev University in Punjab.