Meera Velankar first Indian woman to pedal 5,846-km Golden Quadrilateral in 42 days

Bengaluru: Breaking all societal barriers, 44-year-old Meera Velankar has become the first Indian woman to complete the Golden Quadrilateral on a tandem cycle in less than 42 days.

Meera Velankar started her journey from Bengaluru on June 19 and reached back on July 31. She was accompanied by ex-serviceman Dinkar Patil, who for some unknown reason, had to quit halfway in Varanasi and was replaced by another rider Utkarsh Varma for the rest of the journey.

The Golden Quadrilateral is a national highway spanning over 5,846 km connecting the four major cities - Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. Meera is settled in Bengaluru and started the journey from there. She got to know about Dinkar Patil and Utkarsh Varma from her social circles. She also had prior experience in long-distance tandem cycling from her Kanyakumari to Kashmir journey with Robert Kingsley. She has also four Limca records to her name.

"We are used to climbing, so within 5-6 days we reached Mumbai. After that, there were a lot of bridges and the cycle is not good on bridges. But we could still reach Ahmedabad in 5-6 days." said Velankar. After Ahmedabad, they noticed that they were unable to ride from 10 am to 4 pm while passing through Rajasthan. They would cycle from 3 am to 9 am and restart their journey at 4 pm. Meera Velankar found that the hardest stretch was from Kolkata to Chennai; with the eastern ghat on one side and the sea on the other side, the weather was completely unpredictable. The duo reached Bengaluru on July 31.

But nothing prepared her for this journey. "I had to use all my ten years of experience for this ride." There were days when she had to hang out in petrol bunks and other times she had to struggle to get food due to lockdown. Sometimes due to the extreme heat in Rajasthan, the tire tubes would burst when kept on the roads. They had constantly look for cycle repair shops but was able to do so easily with the help of people.

"There were physical barriers for sure but there more of social barriers," she said.

She thinks society is not ready to accept a woman skirting through the country on a bike. People laughed at her when she told them about her sport. "I had to work out from 9 pm to 11 pm due to apartment members' ridicule," said she.

It is not an easy feat for a tandem cyclist but it's more difficult for a female. Travelling more than 41 days meant that I had to endure my monthly cycles during the journey. But, I still managed to ride 100 plus km even on that day. Finding a place to rest became an issue. Sometimes, she would stay with friends and family, sometimes in hotels, and the rest of the journey in dhabas and petrol bunks. But as a female, she was also scared that these places won't be safe enough too.

Being a mother it was difficult to do a proper training course. For this particular challenge, she only trained for 20-25 days. But she would also try to do some form of training every day. She would spare out 1.5 hours at least every day for this purpose. But, Velankar also cycled 500 km every month to build her endurance.

Having endured so much to be in the sport, she wanted to complete the race. As a mother of two, she says she can't afford to be cycling all the time. She wanted to be the 'first pair' to complete the Golden Quadrilateral but she received the title of 'First Indian woman' due to the rider quitting the journey mid-way. It would have taken her 5-6 days extra but she was confident of completing the stretch. When her first rider quit in Varanasi, she was also very concerned about the female rider being blamed for the incompletion of the journey.

The journey is also a very costly one. She says that it cost her approximately Rs 80,000 for making the trip. The cycle itself costs around Rs 40,000 with added repair amounting to Rs 15,000. She says that a good cycle cost somewhere around Rs 2.5 lakh. Even in that range, you don't get the good bikes you get abroad. She also could not afford to get a support car due to her restricted budget.

With no proper infrastructure for this sport, she had to manage her finances all on her own. But, there was help coming in from multiple people, including her husband, father, and several other smaller cycling groups.

Before her cycling career, she was a research scientist. She was a highly qualified medical professional in the US but when she relocated to India in 2011, she was unable to find any fitting jobs. It's at that point that she jumped onto tandem cycling. "I might have left the science field but my mind is always looking for innovative outlets," said Velanakar.

In future, she intends to cycle with a female rider from East to West.