Going 6,000km on tandem bicycle

AHMEDABAD: With the aim of creating awareness about cycling and the need to keep fit in these trying times, two cycling enthusiasts have embarked on a 6,000-kilometre ride on a tandem bicycle.
A 44-year-old mother of two and a 57-year-old ex-serviceman crossed Gujarat’s border and rode into neighbouring Rajasthan on Tuesday.
Meera Velankar from Bengaluru and Dinkar Patil from Nashik started off from Bengaluru on June 19 in an attempt to cover the entire ‘Golden Quadrilateral’. Covering 11 states and 6,000km, the duo will pass through Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, Lucknow, Calcutta, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatanam and Chennai before returning to Bengaluru.
The two riders said the journey so far has been memorable. People have not only welcomed them, but offered food, lodging and money as well. Their network of cycling enthusiasts has also come handy, helping by booking hotels and the like.
A mother of two girls, Meera Velankar lives in Bengaluru. She has a PhD in life sciences and returned to India after living in South Africa the US. Velankar has been cycling for 10 years, and is among the top long-distance women cyclists, having done the 3,700km from Kashmir to Kanyakumari last year.
An ex-serviceman, Dinkar Patil currently heads security at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at Nashik in Maharashtra. Having taken to cycling as a passion over the past seven years years, Patil has completed several long distance events. “Seventeen years of service made me a strong man, both physically and mentally,” Patil said.
“Our aim was to cover about 200km a day. So far, we have been doing good. We have both done long-distance cycling before and knew exactly what to expect on the highway. The first 1,000km were especially challenging because of the gradient,” Velankar told TOI as they cycled through the state and crossed into Rajasthan on Tuesday.
The duo had their share of amusement as well. Riding a tandem bicycle and wearing brightly coloured clothes, some bystanders shouted that circus clowns were passing by.