Nishanth Iyengar, soon after finishing the 2018 edition of the Trans Am Bike Race. This photo was downloaded from the Facebook page of the event and is being used here for representation purpose. No copyright infringement intended.

Fifty six days after he started out from Astoria on the US west coast, Nishanth Iyengar has reached Yorktown.

Bengaluru-based cyclist, Nishanth Iyengar has completed the 2018 Trans Am Bike Race.

Checked at close to 8.30 AM in India on Sunday, July 29, the race’s website informed that it was roughly six hours 40 minutes since Nishanth reached Yorktown, the finish line of the race. Trans Am is a self-supported race across the United States. Riders don’t get support vehicles and support crew. You are on your own. The route spans from Astoria in Oregon on the Atlantic coast to Yorktown in Virginia. It is approximately 4300 miles (6920 kilometers) long. The 2018 edition of the Trans Am Bike Race began on June 2nd.

Nishanth is someone who loves self-supported bicycle touring. Although Trans Am is a race, Nishanth is understood to have approached it as an opportunity to tour and know the US over a two month-break from work, he had. On a video of him reaching the finish line at Yorktown, available on Facebook, he parks his bicycle (a Surly Long Haul Trucker) and settles down for a photo saying, “ no flats, no nothing…..and it worked!’’

Nishanth was the 64th finisher of the 2018 race. He took 56 days, seven hours and seven minutes to ride across the US.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)