Pune’s only cycling team savours big win

The Criterium is a unique race that is run by time and not by distance or laps. The race runs for 45 minutes and the racer ahead of the field gets the title.

31-year-old Lehnig & Joshi comfortably finished in the top two podium places after being over thirty seconds ahead of the field. Lehnig, a tri-athlete and a yoga practitioner, came to Pune for the first time in January. He dedicated the win to his teammates and said he was grateful to Lifecycle Racing in helping him adjust to life in Pune as well as cycle as a team.

“I am really happy for the team to finish in the top two positions. My goal is to keep improving and keep learning. I am enjoying my life in Pune and have made very good friends with the cyclists,” he said.

Lifecycle’s success at the race was not limited to the podium finishes. There are two special laps or primes during the course of the race, called bell laps. A siren is played and upon hearing the siren, the racer who first completes that particular lap wins the prime.

Joshi was quickest to react in both of the bell laps and took home both primes for Lifecycle.

Lifecycle had a perfectly designed strategy heading into the race. Lehnig and Siddhartha Gadekar were prepped to be team leaders. However, due to the nature of the track and rain, Gadekar was unable to keep up.

Joshi stepped up to replace his teammate and continued to utilize the tactic of not working in the wind, which is racing just behind the leader of the race. This helps the racers to face lesser wind drag as compared to the race leader. Eventually the saved energy played a crucial part as the duo broke away from the main field with 12 minutes left on the clock.

The race finished with Lehnig taking top honors and Joshi finishing behind him.

The team is coached by Ashok Captain, who represented India in the 1985 World Cycling Championships.

Lehnig and Joshi were assisted by teammates Sushil Dhende, Siddhartha Gadekar, Mahesh Iyer, Nakul Singh, Chaitanya Velhal and Apurv Verma.

A couple of riders from the youth programme, Rohit Panchanadikar and Aunsh Bandivdekar were also present to learn and help out their senior teammates. The team drove down to Bengaluru from Pune on Friday morning, giving themselves enough time to study the track and prepare for the race.

The Lifecycle team often came together four weeks prior to the race. Their preparation kicked into full swing with a fortnight left.

The training was extremely specific to the Criterium race. A major chunk of the training constituted of interval training sessions. In these sessions, the cyclists would race extremely fast for a set time and then take a quick break followed by riding fast again.

This alternative training session continued for an hour, by the end of which the racers were completely exhausted. The team also focussed on sharp corner turns as well motor pacing to help them adjust to the nature of the Criterium race.

The cycling team is the brainchild of Joshi who started out with just four other cyclists. The team has since transformed into a structured team competing on various fronts. “The team was a small group before. Today we have around 20 cyclists who take part in races across India.

Based on performances in training and cycling abilities, racers are divided into four teams. We have the A team, the youth program, the Masters team and the women’s team. We are proud to have Chaitrali Pavanaskar, who has raced for India in the Asian Games to be a part of the team,” Joshi said.

The team has had unbridled success in their endeavour right from the start. Prior to this weekend’s victory, Lifecycle notched up victories in the Pune Bicycle Championship in the men’s hybrid and the men’s 40-plus categories. They received the runners-up positions at the Enduro3 adventure race in the amateur and open categories. The team also finished second in the women’s open category at the Pune Bicycle Championship.