Race Across India: How athletes have prepared for 12-day ultra cycling race

About a year ago, Siddharth Verma decided to ride the second edition of the Race Across India (RAIN), a 3,723km ultra cycling race that flags off on October 10. A critical care specialist who runs a multi-speciality hospital in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, Verma soon realised that he needed to plan his daily schedule meticulously to manage his work and training.

“There are so many challenges when it comes to just training for a race like this. Besides putting in consistent hours in the saddle, I had to ensure that I was eating and hydrating well. Then, I had to work with my crew to get them to understand what they can expect during long rides. And I had to find someone who would look after my patients whenever I wasn’t available. It needed systematic training and planning,” Verma, 47, says.

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The ride begins in Srinagar and runs across 12 states before ending in Kanyakumari. Riders will take on an elevation gain of 18,857 metres and a wide range of temperatures, besides negotiating traffic on the busy highways. A crew vehicle will accompany all riders, tending to their needs and ensuring safety. This is Asia’s longest ultra cycling race and has a cutoff of 12 days.

Sumer Bansal knows how demanding the RAIN can get, having finished the first edition in 2023 in 11 days and 22 hours. Four days into that effort, he experienced knee pain that slowed him down considerably. He would have to stop every few hours and stretch when it got unbearable; then once on the bike, he had to ensure he was managing time to make the cutoffs.

“Ultra cycling is all about maintaining momentum and when that gets disturbed, it’s really hard to find it again. But since I was making time in spite of the pain, it didn’t affect my morale and I managed to push on,” Bansal, 40, says.

After learning that weak glutes were the reason for his knee trouble, Bansal did specific work at the gym to strengthen it. He also picked up running 5km on alternate days and a longer 10-11km effort on the weekend that helped him shed close to 7kg. While his duration remained the same, he also started doing interval training based on speed and power to get stronger as a rider, especially for the uphill sections.

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Given his unpredictable work hours, Verma did most of his riding on an indoor trainer, pushing the weekly mileage from 350-400km during the first six months to 600km at his peak. He added two strength training sessions during the week at his makeshift gym back home. Sundays were for long rides alongside his crew, taking on anywhere between 150-350km.

“The crew should be someone you’re really comfortable with, so I reached out to my childhood friends. It was only once they started accompanying me that they realised I could actually ride hundreds of kilometres and what it was like to follow me in a car. Over time, they picked up little things like reminding me to hydrate regularly, figuring out when I wanted to rest and what frustrates me while I’m riding,” Verma says.

Mysuru-based Naveen Solanki, 36, had the advantage of training on the relatively empty highways around town. It allowed him to put in two eight-hour rides and another five-hour session to build on a weekly mileage of 550-600km.

“The rolling terrain and hill climbs around Mysuru provided very useful training. More importantly, riding outdoors gave me a good feel of the weather conditions. Since we don’t have much traffic in the city, I could also put in high intensity work on the road,” he says.

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While preparing for a race like RAIN, nutrition requires as much attention as training. Bansal increased his protein intake to aid recovery, a lot of it through natural foods, and cut out processed food and sugar from his diet. Meanwhile, Verma increased his daily nutrition from 2,400 to 4,000 calories through small portions in the day. He logged all his food intake on an app called MyFitnessPal that helped him keep track of his calories.

“This race requires you to ride over 300km and then show up the following day to do it all over again. I’m quite a foodie, but I had to figure out the right nutrition to keep my body going for extended periods of time,” says Verma.

Besides the training, Bansal spent a lot of time strategising for his race—the distance he will ride each day and when he plans on taking a break. He recalls how he lost time last year while locating hotels along the route, and has made arrangements to catch some rest in his support vehicle this year. He has also increased the number of drivers from one to three to ensure that the crew is well rested during the ride.

The race has been a constant talking point for the last few months and Bansal found support in his employer, who are sponsoring a part of the expenses, besides helping him with generous leaves. His family are gradually coming to terms with his passion for ultra cycling.

“My folks kept asking me why I wanted to do such a long race all over again. But when you have a target in mind, it really motivates you to train hard each day. It will be good to see the progress I’ve made over the last few months. And of course, it’s going to be a brand new adventure,” says Bansal.

Shail Desai is a Mumbai-based freelance writer.

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