First Indian woman to qualify for Paris cycling event

At 44,Divya Tate matched the energy and endurance levels of 20-year-olds to surpass three qualifying levels and become the first Indian woman to participate in the Paris Brest Paris Radonneur 2011 organised by Audax Club Parisien,which also organises Tour De France.

At 44,Divya Tate matched the energy and endurance levels of 20-year-olds to surpass three qualifying levels and become the first Indian woman to participate in the Paris Brest Paris Radonneur 2011 organised by Audax Club Parisien (ACP),which also organises Tour De France. Tate is a qualified architect who runs an art gallery,writes travelogues from her bicycle rides and even makes jewellery and mosaic.

Tate is part of a 14-member group from Pune,Mumbai and Bangaloreparticipating in Radonneur 2011. She first started cycling 20 years ago to commute,then to keep fit until it became a passion. I heard about Radonneur 2011 two years ago through an online community of bikers and India was participating for the first time, Tate said. She recollects that the Radonneur page had postings only from men. She decided to sign up just to show that cycling was not just about men.

Radonneur is a 1,200-km event,which participants should complete in 90 hours. It consists of qualification rounds or brevets of 200,300,400 and 600 km each. Every participants timings are homologated by ACP and a worldwide database of all rides is maintained. To participate in the PBP,riders have to qualify by completing the entire series of rides in the same year. On completing the series,each rider becomes a Super Randonneur, said Gagan Grover,a 28-year-old Symantec employee and one of the five participants from Pune.

The pre-qualifying and qualifying series in Pune was conducted between December 12 last year and February 26,2011. The 200-km ride began at 6 am from Pune University to Panchgani market and back to Chandni Chowk by 7.30 pm via Katraj,Khambatki and Pasarni ghats. The 300-km ride was conducted from Dadar to Nashik via Kasara ghat and back,within 20 hours. This was followed by a 400-km qualifying round from Pune university to Aurangabad and back in 27 hours. The last qualifying round of 600 km was from Pune to Kolhapur and back within 40 hours,Grover said.

The 600-km pre-qualifying and qualifying events were the difficult. A week before the pre-qualifier,I fell while riding and fractured my kneecap. I had a tough time to recover from the injuryphysically and mentally. I managed to participate in the qualifying events, Tate said.

The other team members are Hiren Patel (24),Prashant Tidke (47),Vikramsinh Jadhav (24) besides five from Mumbai and four from Bangalore.

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cycling