MANANTHAVADY (WAYANAD):
Naima Madlen Diesner and Laxmi Magar had well crossed their teens when they began riding cycles at racing championships, but their sporting career has since risen by leaps and bounds. Today, the two professional bikers are in a rugged belt of Kerala to prove their mettle yet again at an international event.
The German and Nepalese cyclists find the wintry weather pleasant at the venue of the MTB (Mountain Bike) Kerala that is hosting its sixth edition in the state’s northeastern Wayanad district along the Western Ghats. Notwithstanding the sunny and breezy conditions, the racers say the track along the Priyadarshini Tea Environs is challenging.
“There is a stretch of more than one km where the climb is really steep,” notes Kathmandu-based Laxmi, 31, the first Nepalese cyclist of international repute, ahead of the MTB race on Sunday. “I biked a round yesterday. Great ride, nonetheless tough in certain stretches.”
Adds Naima, 29, a medical practitioner in Gottingen of scenic Lower Saxony district known for its hills and rivers: “The ground here in Wayanad is dry and strewn with loose stones. There are ups, downs and curves. One has to be really careful while speeding up and negotiating turns.”
MTB Kerala, where the participants take a specified number of rounds along a 4.8-km track crisscrossing rolling tea gardens, is the country’s pioneering cycling event. Listed under the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the apex organization for cycling bodies the world over, the 6th edition is being organised by the Kerala government’s Department of Tourism under the aegis of Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Society (KATPS), District Tourism Promotion Council-Wayanad and the Cycling Federation of India (CFI).
The December 22 race here will have a women’s category international race in which Naima and Laxmi will be vying for honours along with Indian bikers Poonam Rana and Geethuraj N. The UCI on Friday chose to divide the race into men’s and women’s sections. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Lee Li Chia, president of Commissaire Panel of the UCI, according to officials of the CFI that is a member of the world body.
Naima recalls that her schooling years were largely spent in dancing ballet and playing tennis. “It was by when I began studying in university I got more serious about endurance games. Even so it was athletics — mainly running,” she reveals. “I was 22 when I developed a liking for cycling. Soon, it became a passion.”
A complete vegetarian since the age of four, Naima of late spends 15 hours a week practicing cycling. “We have forests beyond a 10-minute cycle-ride from my home. I do my rounds there regularly,” she says. “Else, I go to the hospital where I am a plastic surgeon.”
In March this year, Naima had emerged the runner-up at the Tour of Arava in Israel by covering the 68-km track in 2:10.35 hours. “There the road was largely flat, though there were steep climbs occasionally,” she notes about the event in West Asia.
This is Naima’s third trip to India and the first to Kerala down the country. “This place is so pretty,” says Naima, who chose to ride to the MTB venue at Pilakavu, seven km north of her accommodation in downtown Manathavady. “I like the people here, too. I loved the earnestness with which they gave me directions to reach the spot.”
Laxmi, hailed as ‘Nepal’s Queen of the Mountain’ owing to her specialty in adventure MTB racing, had earlier this month clinched the gold at the South Asian Games in Kathmandu by finishing first at the cross-country cycling. “I debuted in a cycling event in 2008,” points out Laxmi, who originally hails from the mountainous Nuwakot district’s Betrawati, 80 km away from the Himalayan country’s capital. “Unlike, say, in Europe, we don’t have great facilities in professional cycling. We learn from our seniors as well as experts within the country and abroad. They give us tips from experience.”
A cyclist who came 10th in the elite category of cycling at last year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and 9th at the Incheon Asian Games of 2014, Laxmi has been to India eight times. “I first came to India in 2012, beginning with Shimla. I’ve been to Goa as well.” In 2015, she was crowned ‘India’s Trans-Himalayan Queen of the Mountain’ after winning the Manali-Khardungla Cycling Championship.
“In Nepal, cycling is primarily fun for us. Life there is very simple,” says Laxmi. “A major event is the high-altitude Annapurna circuit spanning four days with the tallest point at 17,700 feet above the sea level. After MTB Kerala, the biker will be looking forward to the UCI’s Tour de Taiwan cycling championship at Taiwan in early March.
The top winner of the international segment will get a purse of Rs 1.5 lakh, while those finishing second, third, fourth and fifth get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively. Kerala Minister Ramachandran Kadannappally will inaugurate the event on Sunday, which is also when the MTB will hold its national-level races.
On Saturday, MTB Kerala held its amateur ‘Fun and Thrill’ category round for men and women.
