Bengaluru: This fixie rider pedalled 100km daily for 100 days

BENGALURU: When

Bangalore Randonneurs

(BR), a cycling club, threw a challenge to ride 100km each day for 10 days on the trot in August, little did its organisers know that there would be one rider who would take it rather seriously.


That’s fitness coach

Anil Kadsur

for you — after completing the 10 day, 100km challenge on a fixie (fixed-gear bike), he went on to pursue it beyond 100 days, and has still not stopped.

Mohan Subramanyam of BR said they came up with the “monsoon challenge” as not many rides were happening due to the

pandemic

. “The

cyclists

were expected to ride 100km on any 10 consecutive days between August 1 and 31. We got an overwhelming response — of the 80 riders who registered, 60 completed the task. The challenge was tough due to extreme weather coupled with wind and rain,” Mohan explained.

Anil, who had already done 30 century rides in June 2016, decided to do as many centuries as possible. Riding independently (with no registration whatsoever) from August 2, he kept hitting one century after the other and completed 100 of them by November 9.

Clock-like precision

Starting off from his Girinagar home daily at 2.50am, he covers 45km till 5am, after which he gets busy with his

fitness sessions

in south Bengaluru. He finishes another 40km between 10.15am and 12.15am, when he is away from the sessions. The last 15km comes after his day as an instructor ends at 7pm. “This has been my routine for the past 100+ days,” says Anil.

On weekdays, Anil takes the

Electronics City

road. “On weekends, I enjoy a mix of Kanakapura Road, Bannerghatta Road and the one leading to Attibele,” he adds.

On the challenge in riding a fixie amid city traffic, Anil says: “As the fixie doesn’t have rear brake, vehicles suddenly coming in my way disturb my momentum. It takes a lot of effort to regain speed.”

For the record, the “habitual cyclist” has ridden 50,000km on fixie alone. The total distance done over the past 12 years (on different types of bikes) stands at 1,50,000km.

Along the journey, he has also inspired at least eight of his students — and many more through social media — to ride fixie.

Since Ganesha festival, Anil is joined by his student Prasad Sadashiva, an endurance cyclist, in his morning 45km rides. “Anil never skips his rides and sessions. In fact, he will be at the meeting points on time, every time,” says Prasad.

Ask him when he’d end the century rides, and Anil smiles: “I don’t know. But I’m conscious of the body’s needs. Accordingly, I take in all nutrition and hydration and hit the pedal.”

What's a fixie

Fixie (aka

fixed-gear bicycle

) has a drivetrain with no freewheel mechanism. The drivetrain has the drive sprocket (or cog) threaded or bolted directly to the hub of the back wheel, so that the pedals are directly coupled to the wheel. During acceleration, the pedal crank drives the wheel. But in other situations, the rear wheel can drive the pedal cranks. This direct coupling allows a cyclist to apply a braking force with the legs and bodyweight, by resisting the rotation of the cranks. It also makes it possible to cycle backwards. (Source: Wikipedia)


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