![]() At that year’s Nandi Epic, he fell all the way to 21st. He had more meetings, too, that he didn’t want to attend in sweat-pitted work shirts. Suddenly, he was managing multiple projects and construction sites, and he couldn’t visit all of them by bike in any practical manner. ![]() ![]() KKR received a promotion at work, which was an ostensibly positive life event that had the unfortunate consequence of ruining his commute. Then in 2014, his life was thrown out of balance again. Through his time spent racing Bangalore’s streets, he picked up the technical skills that other mountain bikers typically hone on singletrack trails. “They got excited because, ‘Oh, we have an Indian on the podium thanks to you,'” KKR says. At the time, India’s cycling culture wasn’t as robust as it is today, so he largely raced against American and European expats in the area - especially in mountain biking, which hadn’t gained the same level of popularity as the road racing. In 2011, ’12 and ’13, KKR finished fifth, third and fourth, respectively. His favorite race was the BBCH Nandi Epic, a 100-kilometer road race with a steep hilltop finish that’s part of the annual 10-event Bangalore Bicycle Championship series. He didn’t own a bike he felt he could be competitive on, so he tapped into the cycling network around Bangalore to borrow equipment. In 2011, he started entering local road and mountain bike races, too, after volunteering at a few events. KKR kept this routine for four years, from 2011 to 2014. Then he’d go to work until 6 p.m., and get home in the late evening “completely knackered,” but also content. He’d leave his home at 5:30 a.m., ride to a space where he played Ultimate until 7:30. He also picked up ultimate Frisbee, creating a routine that successfully wore him out. He did 20 miles a day, “full gas, all the way,” and began to feel like himself again. His office used a biometric system to log whether employees arrived by 9 a.m., which motivated KKR to beat beat the clock. His commute to work was about 10 miles each way, so he started riding his bike from door to door. He didn’t have time for physical activity his day roughly consisted of waking up, going to work, doing his job and coming home. He felt frustrated in his daily life with no outlet for his excess energy. KKR got a decent job as a civil engineer after he finished a master’s, but his schedule was hard: long hours, six or seven days a week. Until then, I never had hope for where I would go in life.” More than that, it gave me a lot of confidence that I can actually go on to do something. “Sports played a major role in my studies and professional life. “Trust me on this when I say, when it comes to studies, I was not a bright student,” KKR says. ![]() Sports staved off restlessness, and helped him focus on other aspects of life. His successes came less from natural-born talent and more from an almost psychological need to compete, however. Raju was always a good athlete, especially in cross country, table tennis and field hockey. In college he would time trial to class, leaving his home later than he should for a little extra motivation to beat his previous times. But Raju, who prefers to go by “KKR” for short, always enjoyed the adrenaline rush of weaving between cars. Kiran Kumar Raju was a bike racer long before he ever lined up behind starting tape.īangalore, India, consistently ranks as one of the most congested cities in the world, making it a difficult place to live for dedicated cyclists. ![]()
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