Tour of Nilgiris 2011 launch event - eNidhi India Travel Blog

Tour of Nilgiris 2011 launch event

With the invitation from organizers, I got an opportunity to join BSA Tour of Nilgiris on its first two days.

Last friday morning went to Bengaluru, to join the team. Manekshaw Parade group was the launch site for the event and when I went there before dawn, preparations had just begun. I went for a walk around Chinnaswamy stadium and Shivaji nagar area and came back with couple of kannada newspapers. Vijaya Karnataka had a detailed story on Ride a cycle foundation which has organized Tour of Nilgiris event.

Ride a  Cycle Foundation (RAC-F) has been conducting this event for the 4th year now and first 3 editions were great success. Tour of Nilgiries is an 8 day cycling event, but RAC-F folks work all through the year to make it a success. RAC-F is undertaking other initiatives like separate parking lot for cycles, cycle rentals, eco awareness and more. More about the TFN 2011 backend work in a separate post.

Riders were pouring in with their cycles, each costing anywhere between 15k to few lakhs. Many were racing cycles with razor thin tyres, made as light weight as possible.
Above: Energetic riders all set for the event.

I happened to meet Anita Bora at the event. (She was part of Club mahindra bloggers trip in 2008 and had come to see a friend off). Interacted with few other riders-few were participating in TFN for the first time, others were part of it last year. I had missed the briefing session on the previous day.

Below: Sridar P of Ride A Cycle Foundation talking to media
Invited guests for the launch included Minister Suresh Kumar, Dr H Sudarshan, few senior Army officials and RAC-F founding members and not to forget the sponsoring company-BSA's officials.
Minister Suresh Kumar spoke about an incident how he traveled 600 kms in 4 days all the way to Kanyakumari without all these sponsors, without all these launch events, without any high end cycles...

Dr H Sudharshan spoke next. While advising a safe ride to participants, he urged the minister to plan for cycle lane in Bengaluru city.
Above: MG Road metro station
Below: Sunrise with Utility Building in background
Post event, the minister explored Montra cycles on display, lifted one to find out how light it is. How much does it cost? He asked. Montra ranges from Rs 20000 to Rs 80000- replied BSA officials
Lot of Army personnel attend the event. Army jeeps escorted the riders till end of city limits.

Read more: TFN2011's youngest rider * Innovative Helmet * TFN 2010

2 comments:

  1. ಖುಷಿಯಾಯಿತು.
    ಸೈಕಲ್ (ಗೇರ್) ತಗಣುವುದು ನನ್ನೊಂದು ಕನಸು!!!

    ReplyDelete

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