Lieutenant-Colonel Bharat Pannu has covered 4,000 km in cycle racing.
Mumbai:
For Lt. Col. Bharat Pannu, the celebration after pedaling more than 4,000 km on an indoor trainer to finish the race across America (RAAM) meant sleeping normally after 12 days.
In cycling circles, RAAM is considered one of the most difficult races. The coronavirus epidemic this year forced organizers to hold it “virtually”, where cyclists from around the world clashed on indoor trainers.
Unlike the famous Tour de France which takes place in stages, the stopwatch always runs in RAAM, and a cyclist must ration the hours of sleep to finish the race in the allotted time.
RAAM cyclists are confronted with the elements when crossing the United States: desert heat, cold mountain passes, unpredictable winds.
In the virtual race, these were missing, but there were many other challenges, and the lack of cycling experience for long hours indoors made the task more difficult, said Colonel Pannu who completed the Sunday evening race, after 12 days.
“Outdoors, you tend to swing your body more out of the seat often. No such luxury is available indoors because the frame of the bike is mounted on a stand,” he said. to PTI on returning to its army aviation wing base at Bengaluru de Pune where it ran.
The Pannu team (each RAAM cyclist has a support team) could not have had good nutrition at the start. He was supposed to consume 250 to 300 calories in liquid form per hour, but on the third day, they realized that Mr. Pannu had lost 4 kg, which meant that he was losing calories faster than he was consuming.
This forced them to double their intake to 450-500 calories per hour by including solid foods.
“Our trainer was installed in the living room, and I continued to devour omelets, daliya and khichdi prepared in the kitchen next door,” he said, thanking his team of seven who slept only five hours per day.
He took his first sleep break – of only 90 minutes – after riding a bicycle for 38 hours. During 12 days of racing, he had only 11 sleep breaks of 90 or 180 minutes.
In the hall where he ran, there were five screens, including one showing the simulated race course, fans to keep it cool and cameras to record his movements 24 hours a day.
During the 12 days of racing, he was completely disconnected from the outside world. It was only after finishing the race that he learned that some 20 Indian soldiers died in eastern Ladakh during a clash with Chinese troops.
According to Colonel Pannu, he ranked third among 22 runners at the end of the race. Before him, only three Indian runners had finished the race in more than three decades of history.
Pannu had planned to participate in RAAM last year, but suffered a fracture during training in the United States before the race and had to give up.
“This success is incredible and I owe it to my dedicated team who have been with me for four years,” said Colonel Pannu, who also raised funds for underprivileged children throughout the race.
The “holidays” over, he will join his duties from Friday. The immediate priority, he says, is to recover from exhaustion.
