More than 5,000 participate in cyclothon

Ashish Bhatia, ADGP, special director of Anti-Corruption Bureau, participated in the half-century category. Bhatia attributed the motivation behind this participation to his colleague, Atul Karwal who was in the organising committee. "Though this was my first event, I remember participating in a police unity tour in the year 2009, the experience that I still cherish," he said. Along with Bhatia, three other senior police officers including A K Singh, ADGP administration, P S Bisht, joint managing director Police Housing Corporation and Samsher Singh, IG Gandhinagar participated in the event.

Manjula Pooja Shroff, founder director of Calorx participated in half-century category. Calling it pure fitness enthusiasm, it is her first cycling event though she has taken into cycling for last six months. "I completed the race within the stipulated time period which was two hours. With a competition from professional cyclists from Pune and all other places, this was more than anything else for me," she said.

Oldest participant

A 77-year-old gynaecologist from Vadodara, Dr Bhagwati Ojha, was a motivation for the participants in the event, who has shun her four wheeler and taken to cycling for the last 12 years and covered distances as long as from Kolkata till Kanyakumari on her bicycle. Participating in the half-century category, in the absence of separate categories for senior citizens, she showed no sign of uneasiness competing with participants of even half her age.

Winners

Century (man): Gurmeet Singh

Century (woman): Geetu Raj

Half-Century (man): Manpreet Singh Kalsi

Half-Century (woman): Aarti Patvardhan

Fixie General (man): Vikramsingh Fatehsingh

Fixie General (woman): Pragna Mohan

Century (man - above 45): Prashant Tikde

Half-Century (man - above 45): Samir Shah

Half-Century (man - above 45): Anjalee Bhajinge

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