Ladies First

The world of competitive sports may be exciting but endurance sports can be just as gruelling and exciting, especially when history is made.

And history was made this past Sunday, when two women from the city — Neelima Gudaru and Niharika Mohan — became Hyderabad’s first female Super Randonneurs when they completed a 600-km brevet ride across the two Telugu states, after completing 200-km, 300-km and 400-km rides in the same season.

Neelima and Niharika, who are both mothers of two children each as well, finished at 37 hours and 15 minutes and 38 hours and 30 minutes respectively.

The ride was no easy feat, with both riders saying that that food and sleep management were the two biggest challenges they faced.

“One night without sleep is manageable, but the 600 brevet was a challenge because I, personally, need at least seven hours of sleep. Thankfully, we had experienced riders to keep telling us to take breaks. I took about three short, 10 minute breaks to take a nap, have some tea and eat some fruit,” says Neelima.

Planning food pit stops also helped, adds Niharika, who is a 38-year-old IT consultant: “For example, at the 90-km mark I had my dinner and at midnight  — about 150 km at riding at 20 kmph — I would have a sandwich, banana or tea.

This is helpful because there are hardly any shops we can stop.” She added, “The return leg was the toughest, because we had been riding the whole night and now there were inclines, headwinds and the sun — in addition to sleep deprivation.”

Both riders admit that preparing for endurance ride takes a lot of effort, but that it’s also easy for people who are generally fit and can be taken up easily.

“That’s the beauty of the brevet: you don’t have to spend too much time preparing for it, as long as you’re generally fit,” says Neelima, 37, who began long-distance riding last February.

And while she says that the 600-km brevet was more of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her, Niharika wouldn’t mind pursuing endurance riding, even though she only picked it up eight months ago.

“I’m planning to train for a 3/4th Iron Man (swimming, cycling, running) and also the 1,000-km brevet which is supposed to happen for the first time in Hyderabad. If not, I’ll prepare for cycling races and I want to get into the Nationals,” she says.

Neelima adds that picking up the sport is a great way to make friends, while Niharika concludes with a message for women: “I want to tell women to break out of that glass ceiling. It may not even be in sport, but wherever and whatever you are, you can break all the myth you have about yourself. Once we are able to break that fear, nothing can stop us.”