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Jagruti Rathore the endurance rider becomes source of inspiration for women and girls in Vadodara

Complete four Super Randonnueur and wish to make it five in 2019 In today’s hectic and fast paced life fitness is the key to success and everyone is now getting indulged in some sports to keep themselves healthy. Cycling is one such sport which is considered to be the best exercise for every walk of […]

Jagruti Rathore the endurance rider becomes source of inspiration for women and girls in Vadodara
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Complete four Super Randonnueur and wish to make it five in 2019

In today’s hectic and fast paced life fitness is the key to success and everyone is now getting indulged in some sports to keep themselves healthy. Cycling is one such sport which is considered to be the best exercise for every walk of people and still going strong in the era of gyms and machines. In recent past more women are coming out and make a niche for themselves in the dominated world of men.

Jagruti Kumari Rathore a fitness enthusiast is one such name in Vadodara who becomes a source of inspiration for the other women and girls in the city. She started cycling to keep herself fit and slowly move towards endurance riding which is still a term not known to everyone. From 2016 she complete four SR (Super Randonnueur) rides and wish to make it five in 2019.

“I started cycling purely as fitness regime with cyclist friends in 2015 and it becomes my passion and I continue to enjoy it. In 2015-16 I did my first Double S.R (Super Randonnueur) and complete all four rides twice and since then I been doing every year at least One S.R series. SR is a person who does a ride of 200 km, 300 km, 400 km and 600 km in the same year and till date has completed 4 SR rides. I am about to finish my 5th SR series where in I have already done 600,400,and 300 km rides and will complete the remaining 200 km shortly. I am also planning to do Double S.R if all goes well,” said Rathore.

Every calendar year Jagruti plan her goals and dedicatedly followed the regime. “Last year I had completed 1000 km ride from Surat to Abu Road and back to Surat. In BRM there are no 1st, 2nd and 3rd position but to reach the CP (control points) TP (turn around points) in the given time frame set by the club and reach the finish line on or before the given time. We cannot take any external help while we are riding and only our fellow rider can help us. Marshal help can be made available only at control and turn around points.,” said Rathore.

BRM (Brevet des Randonneurs Mondiaux) are long-distance, free-paced cycling events where each rider can ride at his or her own pace. The BRMs are 200-, 300-, 400-, 600-, or 1000- kilometer long. The rules require to ride the brevets in a specific time limit (e.g., you have 40 hours to ride a 600 km brevet and 75 hours for a 1000 km). Therefore you don’t have much down time and you have to ride at night with a reflective vest and strong lights as well tail lights and helmet. Riders are self-reliant and they don’t have a support vehicle.

Being a woman Jagruti has to face lots of problems during the ride, but she fights all the odds and achieves the goals. “We have to negotiate with everything on our own be it a sleep, food or taking rest. Being woman washrooms is a big issue especially when it comes to endurance cycling. Safety is also a big issue specially when I cycled towards Rajasthan where you find the truck drivers staring at you which makes me uncomfortable from inside. However I am lucky to have my cycling groups and also my husband alongside me to help me,” said Rathore.

With beginning of the New Year Jagruti make new challenges for her and will going to complete before the year ends. “I tried 1200 this year (Vadodara Jodhpur Vadodara) but unfortunately could not finish it. The failure has taught me a lot as my first DNF (Did Not Finish) of 600 made me more stronger and determined rider. Now I will focus to complete the 1200 Ultra Endurance this year and motivate the others,” said Rathore.

So what make her to continue the endurance ride and she said visit new places and making new friends. “The best thing in such endurance events is you visit various places and make likeminded friends from whom we can learn a lot. This can only happen because we are not competing or racing with each other rather we are giving helping hands to each other while the ride is on,” said Rathore.

Jagruti Rathore gives all the credit to the TCCB (The Cycling Club of Baroda) for making efforts to produce best cyclists from vadodara. “TCCB was founded by Cycling enthusiastic people Nimish Makadia, Raghvendra Jhala and few others. Nimish trains me for my goals have worked very hard selflessly and has produced many cyclists who have reached national level. He is one of the few UK certified coaches in India and we are blessed to have one in our city. We normally record all our rides on an app called Strava be it 10 km or 1000 km and to my surprise I have crossed 10,000 km which to me is a good surprise and a gift to myself of 2018, I had not set any goals for completing or crossing 10,000 km as things kept falling in place and by end of the year I crossed 10,000+ km”.

Jagruti also runs long marathons and last year also participated in Vadodara International Marathon and finish the podium. This year also she will be taking part in the 8th edition of marathon scheduled on 6th January Sunday. Apart from that she is also eyeing many prestigious tournaments all throughout the year.

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