2Go Masters Championships

Right turn at mamilpet

By Veloscope

September 16^th, 2018

It's all downhill from here!

Science says, some of these things happen to the human body as it reaches middle-age:

You lose muscle tissue at the rate of 5%, your metabolism isn't at its effective best
You lose about 1% of your bone density with each passing year
Vision changes - trouble seeing close up, dry eyes, increased chances of glaucoma...

Stop. That. Cranky. Creaky. Record...

... And make way for the statistics-crushers - the won't-take-slow-for-an-answer speed-demons, the lean, mean athletic machines. The ones with salt & pepper, thinning hair - windswept even under their helmets; the ones with the laugh lines showing around the corner of their Oakleys; the ones showing the young upstarts how it is done. Middle-aged? Sure. Middling? Not by any stretch of imagination!

If age is a work of art, meet the maestros

The 2Go Masters Championship was an idea proposed a few years ago by Dr. Arvind Bhateja, that young man in charge of the Spectrum team. Sunil Nanjappa and Co. made it come alive with two events: The Individual Time Trial on Saturday, 21st July and the Road Race on Sunday 22nd July. The ITT distances were 20km for all categories, with a 10k out-and-back loop. The same loop was employed for the road race, for the women's 40k race and then men's 80k race. The age categories were 35-40, 40-45, 45-50 and 50 +

The INDIVIDUAL TIME TRIAL

The ITT ended with top honours for Vivek Radhakrishnan and a course record at 30.17. He took the win for the 40-44 years cat. Following him to the finish was Hari Menon, taking the top spot in the 50+ category. Other wins for the day were Astad Palkhiwala winning the 45-49 category, Hemendra Upadhyay (better known as Hemings) winning the 35-39 category and in the women's race, Abirami Sudar won in the 35-39 category and Anuradha Chari in the 40-44 category.

That is how the cookie crumbled. What made the cookie infinitely more interesting was that there were people of varying experience battling it out on that course. There were stalwarts like Vivek and Bikey Venky, duking it out, just a week after the brutal road race where both were under the weather. They gave it their all, only to come back with more, for the road race the subsequent day. Then there was Astad, a national level track cyclist of yore, who brings a wealth of experience of playing with the pros. On the other end of the spectrum were the women riders, most of them with less racing experience than the men's group. The presence of national level sportspeople like Kartika Rajaram (of the national ultimate frisbee team, and 3rd place holder in the 35-39 category) means that this field will morph quickly in the coming year and get as competitive as the men's groups, if not more. Experience notwithstanding, all the riders in the battle primarily against oneself seemed to prove Eddy Merckx right when he said, "When its hurting you, that's when you can make a difference"

The Road Race

The women's race heated up in the 35-39 year category, with Abirami and Nisha on a breakaway to the finish line. Nisha kept the lead for well nigh 3km. Abirami, who had taken the position in the front through the race, dug deep, found the strength to bridge to, and pass Nisha, and claim primo posto. In the women's 40-44 age category race, Anuradha Chari won.

The men's race was a medley of sub-competitions across various age group categories, and with all the intrigue of a nail-biting thriller. The first round of separating the race leaders happened in the first 10k of the race, with the young upstarts in the 35-39 age category going ahead and setting a fast clip. With the top 20 in the leading bunch, the heat was on!

After another relatively gentle second lap. (Definition of gentle: potholed roads, speedbreakers, village sections, brutal uphills accompanied by indifferently whistling violent headwinds) What therefore made this lap gentle? Everyone stood by for the drama to unfold.

Third lap - roughly when everyone starts out from the wings and takes centre stage for their role in the drama. Venky, Vivek and Mahesh (all contenders for the 40-44 victory) marked each other and tried to shuck of the rest. From the 45-49 category, two more young guns, Astad Palkhiwala and Sanjay Krishnamurty joined them. This group of 5 continued in a stalemate for a while, with short attempts to break the group off getting no viable results. At this point, it was anyone's race. They must've been channelling Jens Voight's "If you don't go for it, you definitely don't win" Or maybe they were channeling "The Badger" Hinault, "As long as I breathe, I attack" Whatever was going on in their minds, nobody was giving an inch.

With a lap to go, unorthodox alliances, came into being. Much like the road race the previous week, the top two contenders worked out strategy with each other. Venky and Vivek kept tightening the screws on speed and resultant pressure, and Venky found an opening, to keep going, with about 15km to go... all the way to the finish line, and the title of National Masters Road Race Champion. Vivek and Mahesh came in second and third in the race, and made up the podium of the 40-44 category. In the 45-49 category, the leading men were Astad and Sanjay and Prashant Tidke in the 50+ category. The 35-39 category podium saw Hemendra Uphadya, Ajay Jaywant and Balakrishna on the top.

The other winner: the spirit of sportsmanship

In Bikey Venky's exciting narrative here, you read about splits information, encouragement, and bike support by Khuram and Deepak Majipatil. The first is part of the governing committee of BBCh, and the latter, one of the organisers of TfN. This, truly, is how collaborative the sport is: race organisers of other races are there, front and centre, putting riders first, and offering any support required. This attitude shared by all in the community means that people get to experience more and varied kinds of races... and we become the best kind of race-ists. In addition, circuit regulars like Naveen Raj, Nikhil Ram Mohan etc. were on hand, to provide whatever support was needed, across teams.

Ageist epilogue

Science (and experience) says these things happen to the human mind and body around the 40s:

Resilience becomes the name of the game: it's not something new to work on. It's become a way of being. You don't give up, unless you have to. If you have to, you shrug it off
Bouncing back from upsets is easy. Starting afresh, with new hope - check!
The old age of youth? The youth of old age? Those labels look nice on a shelf - the numbers to chase are low resting heart rates, and surging power numbers.