Published On : Wed, Jun 17th, 2015

Audacious cycling or ‘Brevet’ comes to Nagpur and How!

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Almost 118 years ago, some enterprising and adventurous youth in Italy decided to do something different with their free time. They were fond of cycling, but they decided to do challenge their bodies by cycling long distances without stopping and cover as much distance as they could within a day. Very soon it became a common sport called by various names. One of them was Audax.

Doing it in Europe is one thing, doing it in humid and hot Nagpur with our traffic and bad roads is another… we congratulate these young, in spirit if not years, guys who have cycled hard and proved their mettle.

Tervinder Singh Jhans, Ratndeep Dwivedi , TS Rawal Jitesh Thakkar Rajesh Chansoriya, Mohit Satija, Nikhil Kulkarni and not to forget Aniruddha Rais who brought Brevet to Nagpur, congratulations!

These guys cycled from zero milestone Nagpur to Pandhurna, and some to Multai and back to achieve their goals this Sunday, 14th June.

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What is Brevet or Audax or Randonneuring?

Audax is a cycling sport in which participants attempt to cycle long distances within a pre-defined time limit. Audax is a non-competitive sport: success in an event is measured by its completion. Audax has its origins in Italian endurance sports of the late nineteenth century, and the rules were formalized in France in the early twentieth century. In the present day, there are two forms of Audax: the original group-riding style, Euraudax, governed by Unions des Audax, and the free-paced (allure libre) style usually known as Randonneuring, governed by Audax Club Parisien. The original form is mostly popular in France, but also in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Randonneuring is popular in many countries including France, Great Britain, Singapore, Australia, Canada, the USA and China.

In the late nineteenth century Italy, day-long “challenge” sports became popular. Participants aimed to cover as much distance as possible and prove themselves audax (“audacious”). The first recorded audax cycling event took place on June 12, 1897, twelve Italian cyclists attempted the challenge of cycling from Rome to Naples, a distance of 230 km, during daylight hours. Similar events became popular elsewhere, and in 1904 French journalist Henri Desgrange produced Audax regulations, which belonged to his Auto newspaper.

Under the Audax regulations, riders rode as a group. Successful riders were awarded a certificate called a Brevet d’Audax.

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Brevet Nagpur

This Brevet competitive cycling has now come to Nagpur and how! When it was first introduced in 2014, many thought Nagpur was not ready for it. But many participants finished the 200 Kms that year also.

This year they introduced 300 Kms too and 3 Nagpur riders did it. 10 took part in 200 Kms, except 1, whose cycle got a puncture, others accomplished it.

This cycling event is again going to be held in a few months. Gradually, they plan to increase the target to as much as 600 Kms!

– Sunita Mudaliar