Creating records, breaking stereotypes and making history seem to come effortlessly to Dr Amit Samarth, who appears in top searches as one of India’s best endurance cyclists. The Pune-based doctor has once again created history by being the first Asian to complete the 9100 km Trans-Siberian Extreme bicycle race held in Russia. The race kick-started on July 24 from Moscow and concluded on August 17, at Vladivostok.
Elaborating on his love for cycling and his participation in the toughest and longest bicycle race, one of the founding members of the Hyderabad Runners Group says, “I was always into fitness and running. In fact, I was part of the core team of the Hyderabad Runners Group. Eventually, I took up cycling as I wanted to take part in Ironmans. My tryst with the saddle started in 2011, completing 150-200 km. But it was in 2015 that I did my first Ultra cycling ride (more than 400 km) from Pune to Goa.”
He adds, “One of my most memorable rides was in 2017, when I successfully completed the Race Across America (RAAM) in just 11 days, 21 hours and 11 minutes on a bicycle, becoming the first Indian to achieve the feat. The race was 5000 km long from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland.”
Dr Samarth took 379 hours, 51 minutes and 44 seconds to complete the Trans-Siberian Extreme race that needs to be completed in 15 stages within 25 days. The race took place for the fourth time, with six cyclists participating: Vladimir Gusev from Russia, Dr Amit Samarth from India, Marcelo Florentino Soares from Brazil, Michael Knudsen from Denmark, Patricio Doucet from Spain and Pierre Bischoff from Germany.
Reminiscing about the journey, Dr Samarth says, “Even though I came fourth amongst the six, the sheer happiness at being able to finish the monster race is overwhelming. One has to be both physically and mentally strong as the challenges of the race are often mind-numbing — quite literally! We used to cycle during the day and at night with an extreme range of temperatures. If the daytime temperature was around 32 degrees, at night, it would drop to 0 degrees. Add to that the mountains, rolling terrain, strong headwinds and heavy downpours — all of which tested our stamina.”
The cyclists crossed seven time zones, five climate zones, and rode along the shore of Lake Baikal and along the border with Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. The first stage of the race was 314 km long, connecting Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. The competitors then passed through Kazan, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Svobodny and Khabarovsk, with Vladivostok being the final stop.
Dr Samarth, a post-graduate in public health from Johns Hopkins University, US, runs an NGO — Pro health foundation — which promotes endurance sports events and supports athletes and marathoners. The ace cyclist plans on relaxing for sometime before taking on any other challenge.
HT01
