Hyderabad's First TTT(Team Time Trial)

If the title makes little to no sense, here is some compulsory reading before you proceed.

By Hyderabad’s first, I mean the first Team Time Trial conducted by and for the members of the local cycling hobby club. There has certainly been at least one Team TT in Hyderabad before – the one at the 49^th edition of The Men’s All India Railway Cycling Championship last month– but never one for the regular cyclists, the general public, urban enthusiasts, who are not full-time cyclists. The Civilians, if you like.

As of this day, Hyderabad Cycling Club (HCC) organizes a race every month in Hyderabad. It is conventionally the 1^st Sunday of every month. Similarly, the 3^rd Sunday of the month is Bengaluru’s raceday.

Hyderabad's First TTT

The History

The races in Hyderabad started in November 2010, back when there was just one club – the Hyderabad Bicycling Club. In June 2011, after nearly three months of something brewing, members of the cycling community in Hyderabad split and Hyderabad Cycling Club was born. Versions of why a mutinous breakaway formed are many, but it did bring to light the fact that something as fun as cycling could be a victim of small-time politics. There were moments of horror, shock and uncontrollable laughter fits for a while but eventually all became calm and now the folk and their bikes peacefully co-exist.

Anyway, by the time HCC formed, 8 races had taken place in Hyderabad on the 2^nd Sunday of every month under the name of Hyderabad Bicycling Club Championship or “HBCC” whose inspiration is not hard to trace (Bangalore Bikers Club call their year-long cycling championship Bangalore Bicycle Championship or “The BBCh”). The 8^th race was the last race that HBC had ownership of, and the 9^th race was the last race listed by HBC on their website. For all the roar of a new identity and being unique, HCC made a faux pas in their first race. They called the races HCCC (again, not so imaginative) and called their first race HCCC – 9, inheriting the numbering sequence from HBCC. The following month the serial number was changed and the race was called HCCC – 2. Two months after that they changed raceday to the 1^st Sunday of the month.

The Truth Is that nobody cares.

The guys who enjoy racing used to, continue to and will turn up no matter what. The name doesn’t matter to them. For them it is about racing. They see people – fellow enthusiasts – on their bikes. They see aficionados who are doing a great job with the races and have stunned the scene with never-seen-before professionalism and continuous improvement. Not the banner.

The Truth Is that this is first ever post on the internet and public domain about the clubs’ split. I hope to show this to the proverbial grandchildren years from now.

Pro eye candy

HCCC Race 2012-04: Team Time Trial

The course chosen for the day was the all too familiar “New ORR” or the 18.5 km stretch of the Jawaharlal Nehru Outer Ring Road (ORR) that runs from Kokapet to Patancheru. It is a fast course – a sweet piece of tarmac that softly rolls, but is mostly downhill and with a tailwind on 6 out of 7 days.

Team size had to be a minimum of 3 (to finish) and a maximum of 5 (to start). Clock would stop when the third rider crossed the finish line. Teams were going to start one after the other with a gap of 1-minute between each team.

Mr. Dattatreya Katakam, who is a Commissaire with the Cycling Federation of India and whose other job is a mundane post at South Central Railway, volunteered to help by officiating proceedings. No, this didn’t mean getting recognition from the CFI. It only meant that we had a real stopwatch and that a few of the riders got race numbers – which are both quite thrilling, really.

Even more thrilling was to know that 3 teams from Bengaluru were going to be there. HCC took Hyderabad’s Races from strength to strength and deserve the credit for making it the country’s second best racing city. The teams that flew down were Team Naesar Racing and two teams representing Specialized Kynkyny Cycling Team (SKCT), the team that just a few weeks ago famously proclaimed to be India’s first pro team. This meant that the Hyderabadis would rub shoulders with some of the best riders in the country. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that some of these elite category riders are role models for the budding Hyderabadi cyclists.

"Dattu Sir" announces results

Final standings

Position	Team Name	Time	Avg Speed
1	Origin Abhibus Racing 1	22:27	49.44321
2	Specialized Kynkyny Cycling 1	22:39	49.00662
3	Team Naesar Racing	22:40	48.97059
4	Specialized Kynkyny Cycling 2	23:35	47.06714
5	Team Velocity	26:27	41.96597
6	Origin Abhibus Racing 2	28:16	39.26887
7	Team 110 RPM	30:12	36.75497
8	Team Google	32:10	34.50777
9	Team Rockers	35:11	31.54903

Victorious Origin Abhibus

The race was also the stage for the unveiling and unofficial launch of the latest team to join the teams’ bandwagon – Origin Abhibus Racing. Calling them “Pro” is controversial right now. Let’s just call them what they are – the Big Boys. In international cycling, pro teams are named after the sponsors. Primary sponsor first, lesser sponsor next. Same is the case here. Here is a guide to the Big Boys’ Teams:

Specialized is a bike manufacturer. Kynkyny is an art gallery and a boutique for interior design.

Origin is a medical distribution company. Abhibus is in the online bus ticket reservation business.

Naesar means “sunrise” in Kannada. It is the legendary Samim Rizvi’s outfit. Main sponsors are not clearly known.