Finishes third in his age category

Indian ultra-distance cyclist, Kabir Rachure, finished third in his age category of below 50 years at the 2022 edition of Race Across America (RAAM).

He took 11 days, 11 hours and 25 minutes (source: RAAM leader board) to cover the 3037.80 miles, the best time yet by an Indian cyclist in RAAM’s solo male segment.

When contacted, Sapna Rachure, Kabir’s sister and his crew-chief, confirmed the third place finish in the age category. “ Huge Congratulations to Kabir Rachure and all his crew team for amazing RAAM Solo Finish. Excellent 3rd position in under 50 Mens,” Spiegel Bikes said on their Facebook page.

RAAM is a single stage race with a cut-off period of 12 days. The course runs from the US west coast to the east.

This is Navi Mumbai-based Kabir’s second successful completion of RAAM. In 2019, he had completed the roughly 3000-mile span of RAAM in 11 days, 22 hours and 43 minutes to become the third Indian cyclist to complete RAAM in the solo category after Srinivas Gokulnath and Amit Samarth in 2017. Srinivas took 11 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes, Amit – 11 days, 21 hours.

The 2022 edition of RAAM witnessed a spate of DNFs. As per the race leader board, the under-50 age category in which Kabir featured had 13 cyclists at start, of which seven (as of 8PM [IST] on June 26) could not complete (DNF) and withdrew from the race at various points en route. The list of DNF included Bharat Pannu and Vivek Shah from India; Bharat covered 2396.80 miles (9 days, 21 hours, 58 minutes) while Vivek covered 602.90 miles (2 days, 9 hours, 44 minutes). In June 2020, Bharat had placed third in virtual RAAM (VRAAM); the format was adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai.)