Celebration Race held in the forests of Shimla

The Himalayan Adventure Sports and Tourism Promotion Association (HASTPA) organised a 52-kilometre cycling (mountain biking) race near Shimla on Sunday to celebrate the World Tourism Day.

“The Hero MTB Himalaya mountaing biking stage race, which is usually held at this time of the year, has been indefinitely postponed this time due to the Covid pandemic. So we organised a one-day celebration race to mark the annual event, which has entered its 16th year since inception,” said a statement by the Shimla-based organisation.

The route for the race on Sunday went through Mashobra, Seepur, Bekhalti, Sarog and back to Bekhalti, ending at a camp at Dak Bangla. The route had an elevation gain of around 850 metres and the terrain had a mix of jeep tracks, forest trails and loose gravel tracks in the forests around Kufri and Mashobra.

In the Open category, Ashish Sherpa finished first with a timing of 2 hours and 53 minutes, followed by Gandharv (3 hours 1 minute) and Manav Sehgal (3 hours 27 minutes).

In the Under-19 Boys category, Sandeep Thapa finished first with a timing of 3 hours and 6 minutes. He was followed by Rajveer Singh (3 hours 14 minutes) and Ojjas (3 hours 33 minutes).

The length of the race for the categories of Masters, Girls and Under-14 Boys was 34.6 kilometres. Manish Grover finished first in the Masters category with a timing of 1 hour and 58 minutes, followed by Sundorche Sherpa (2 hours 1 minute) and Mohinder Thakur (2 hours 5 minutes).

In the Girls category, Divija Sood finished first with a timing of 2 hours and 33 minutes. She was followed by Kyna Sood (2 hours 34 minutes) and Asmita Singh Thakur (4 hours and 13 minutes).

In the U-14 Boys category, Kunal Kumar won the race, finishing in 1 hour and 55 minutes. He was followed by Veer Sarwagya (2 hours 40 minutes) and Anurag (2 hours 52 minutes).

“We're happy to see the cycling culture grow in our town and the state which has a tremendous potential for the sport,” said HASTPA. It added that MTB Himalaya is one of the oldest MTB stage races in the world and has pioneered the development of mountaing biking in the country.