ECO CHALLENGE 2010

A wet and very very muddy Eco Challenge this year. The cycling route in places was like a river, not to mention the actual river which had to be waded across! Two sections of the trail required carry, one a very tricky navigation of a recent landslide, which was somewhat like a muddy waterfall after the previous nights rain.
All of Biking Firsts riders took part in various teams for the cycling leg of the event.

Eventual winners where Rajkumar and his partner Aja Pandit. They left the biking start in third position, but managed to overtake the two other teams in front of them along the route. Second position team was Biking First’s Pratik Thapa who partnered Mandil, they completed the biking leg in a very fast 58 min, though both riders fell at one point in the course.
Third place team comprised of two Biking First Riders, Alin and Sunil Lama.....both first timers in this kind of event. They had fast runners and rode very well to finish in Third Place.

Congratulation all boys, and the two Saroj’s who came in fourth place, despite Saroj Rai having a bit of a fall and damaging his bike, better luck next time boys. Right now its back to training, and all boys where out at the Mountain Bike Madness race course this morning.....no rest just yet, still two races to go....

Pokhara Mountain Bike Race Results

Raj Kumar sadly was very flat going into the race having undertrained due to illness and bike problems. He fought it out for fourth position in what turned out to be a very tough, fast and furious race. The Elite Men’s was won by Aja Pandit, Narayan Gopal in second and Padam in third place.

Our other Elite Men’s riders, Pratik came in a well ridden sixth, fighting off some very experienced riders and Saroj, who was participating in only his second ever race rode hard and finished 9^th, as a reward for finishing in the top ten, we will now buy Saroj a new bike frame to replace his Merider which is old and too small for him.

Biking First Team had much better success in the beginner/junior race with Aayman blitzing it for first place, Sunil Lama came in Second and Alin Majharat in third making it a one, two three for the Biking First Jersey. New comers Padam and Bikash hung on as best they could in a fast paced ride to finish in the top twenty and Saroj Rai who led the race at the start, had a little fall near the lake and ended up in 7^th place.

We are so proud of all our boys and hope they are not too tired for this weekend’s eco challenge. Sadly as all of us where riding in the race we do not as yet have any photos, but we hope to get some soon.

A huge thanks must go to Country Villa Hotel for helping with some sponsorship to send all boys to Pokhara. Thank you too to the Race Organizers and all volunteers for making the day a great success.

The Last Few Weeks at Biking First

Saturdays are fun relaxing, so what does the biking team do on Saturdays? They ride of course. Last week the boys did a time trail and training ride to Kakani to help assess how training is going for the upcoming races. A few weeks ago, the team rode the 100km round trip to Namobuddha via Lakhuiri Bhanjyang which was a great day out, you can see photo's on our face book profile. The next three weeks looks very busy, the team is off on Saturday to Pokhara to prepare for Tuesdays race, then it’s back to Kathmandu for Eco Challenge on the 21st followed by Mountain Bike Madness on the 28th. Mountain Bike Madness is a tough and muddy course and both Aaymaan and Padam spent the weekend up at Tolkha lending a hand to fix some gaps in the trail.

Training is going well despite the rain, though most boys are enjoying two days rest. We had a scare this week also, Rajkuma broke the drop out on his Laiperre frame and we have been unable to find a replacement, after three days without a bike, we managed to build him a new one using a V-Ket frame donated by Biking First.......hes a happy boy again now he can train.

Bananas
Food is fuel and to be a good rider the boys need to eat a good balanced diet and fruit plays a role in that. Two dozen bananas does not go far among five hungry boys...

Disc Brakes
Raj Kumar was lucky enough to be sponsored for disc brakes for his bike. It was like Christmas for the team when the latest shipment of parts arrived from Bangkok. Aside from disc brakes we received a Shimano XTR gear set for Rajkumar to use in the Asian Games and Fox Shocks are on the way soon coming from UK.

Aayman has also been able to upgrade his bike with a new wheel set and SLX Disc Brakes thanks to sponsorship form Biking First’s good friend Suman. And this week we have also put new drive chain on Sunil’s Bike in preparation for Pokhara race.

Asian Games Registration
Very excited when Nepal Cycling Association announced registration for the Asian Games in November. Now it’s time to prepare Rajkumar for perhaps the biggest event of his young cycling life. We are working hard to secure funding and sponsorship to send Raj and also to develop a training and diet for him that will help him compete. We are very very excited for all of Nepal’s riders who will be lucky enough to compete at the games