Shimla: Nepalese duo, Ajay Pandit Chhetri in the men category and Nirjala Tamrakar Wright in the women category won the 7th Hercules MTB Himachal, 2011 as the cross country cycle race ended on The Ridge, today.
It has been a grueling 8 days on the road for the mountain bikers who covered over 500 kilometers, with only 42 of the 104 that started out on 1st October, finishing the race.
In the men section Nayan Narange finished second and Vijay Kumar Singh was third.
Whereas Nirjala has won the event for the third time in a row, it was the second consecutive win for Chhetri.
Declaring the results, organizer Mohit Sood said, Nirjala came out winner with an lead of over 5 hour, 10 minutes lead over Monica who finished second.
Only five women bikers participated in the event and only two finished the race. Nirjala (32), a professional cyclist of 11 years is married to a Briton. Only on 25 September, she won the 6th Forest of Dean Enduro race at Gloucestershire, UK.
In the masters category Amitabh Pandey won the category beating his nearest rival Datta Patil by 3 hours, 50 minutes at finish line.
Besides a strong contingent from Indian armed forces and a cycling club from Delhi, there were 12 international participants for the grueling race which included nationals from France, Belgium, South Africa, US, Britain and Nepal.
Photo credit: Lalit Kumar
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
