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When India tried to have a pro cycling team: With a compulsive national champ, CV Raman’s grandson & blacksmiths of Mysore

Tech and resource challenge stops an Indian team from taking shape, though weekend cycling amongst the startup founders, biz honchos and engineering wizards, is fairly common

4 min readJan 20, 2026 02:16 PM IST

International riders compete in Pune Grand Tour, as the city hosts India’s biggest cycling race across scenic, challenging routes. (Express File Photo)

With some new-age pro teams of road cycling from Europe, China, Malaysia and Thailand trooping down to the Pune Grand Tour, the itch to build an India-based wolf-pack has begun. In a sporting ecosystem that has seen sports franchises proliferate with alliterative names, an Indian ‘Michael ki cycle’ bunch is awaited, with the UCI 2.2 event putting the Indian routes on the racing map. But it’s not entirely untraversed territory.

India’s senior-most team member, Naveen John, 40, has been trying for years to cobble together an Indian road cycling unit, having jammed with OLA’s Bhavish Agarwal, a grandson of science genius CV Raman and a representative of KIA looking to enter Indian markets at various points. Just about when Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar – shot extensively in Coorg and Mysore – hit the screens, Naveen, a 10-time national champion, had his nose in his books preparing to secure admission to an engineering course in the US. Studying at Indiana in the American Midwest, he got addicted to the bike riding a second-hand 1960s Raleigh steel racing bike. But nearing the end of a long riding career, he has been increasingly moving towards assembling his own crack unit of cyclists.

“I’ve ridden professionally for a Gulf team since 2016 and patiently waited for the day to finally arrive where we have a UCI race in India. I started at 26-27 when most wind up and engineering took a back seat, as I applied all the knowledge in electrical engineering to problem solving in cycling. But my networking in recent years has seen me try to build an Indian pro team, for which I even connected with (OLA boss Bhavish Agarwal),” says the Indian lead who first won in 2014. There are pockets of change in India, and many business honchos are known to assemble as weekend cyclists in Ooty.

But it’s when he tried to set up two previous teams that he gained some first-hand experience. “I wanted an Indian specialised bunch for which I worked with rural blacksmiths of Mysore who understood bikes intuitively and even the grandson of CV Raman was part of the brains. We ran it for 4-5 years with matching kits and all, but western tech is next level,” he says.

With battery-operated gear systems, and carbon fabrication, racing cycles have moved to another tech realm. For years now, British Cycling has tested aerodynamics and material Sciences at Lotus’ F1 factories.

This other time, Naveen was approached by a goofy 7 footer in a cafe, after he acquired a cult following in Indian cycling. “KIA Cycles wanted to get a pan-India presence and we had talks about an Indian pro team because they had a bunch of resources,” he recalls. But he expects the Pune Grand Tour to renew interest.

Naveen himself has gone through the whole cycle of early promise, dominant plateau and age being flung at him as 40s approached. “In 20s, I was the ‘next big thing’ in Indian cycling. In 30s, it was ‘how are you still winning and beating rivals half your age?’ Then came the ‘How long will you do it?’ And the dark phase where if you beat the young crowd, you wondering, ‘Is the sport even moving forward?'” he explains.

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Through it all, the Kuwait born Kannadiga has tried to learn about every fabric thread that aids cycling, every carbon composite that lends advantage, and every morsel and drop of hydration that will help endurance.

“The repetitiveness of cycling doesn’t bother me. I wake up at the same time everyday for years, eat the same food daily. Discipline is ingrained. But cycling tech evolves and it’s almost F1 level where the machine is as important as the man. I know India can put together top teams. We are a cycling nation. But it’ll take resources,” he says. And madness, where an engineer gets building – reinventing wheels even.