Lt Col Bharat Pannu breaks two Guinness World Records for fastest solo cycling

Lieutenant Colonel Pannu, a serving Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) officer in the Indian Army, has created two consecutive World Records for the fastest solo cycling last year in October.

Lieutenant Colonel Pannu, a serving Electronics and Mechcal Engineers (EME) officer in the Indian Army, has created two consecutive World Records for the fastest solo cycling last year in October.

The official Guinness World Record was received in April 2021.

The first record was attempted from Leh to Manali on the arduous route of 472 km and the second record was of the 5,942 km Golden Quadrilateral route connecting the four metropolitan cities of India, according to an official statement.

It took him an effort of 21 days to move across the entire nation during the pandemic situation to achieve this herculean feat.

The first event started on October 10, 2020, from Leh, after acclimatisation and training of 20 days in Ladakh. This record was never attempted earlier and the officer got a cut-off time of 40 hours to get into the Guinness record book.

The lowest temperature which he encountered was 12 degree Celsius at Sarchu.

The route has five high altitude passes (Taglang La, Nakee La, Lachulung La, Baralacha La and Rohtang La) highest being at the height of 17,480 feet.

"The cumulative elevation gain for the ride was 29,200 feet. The officer had to take the longer route via Rohtang Pass as the Guinness authorities had not permitted to take the newly constructed shorter route via Atal Tunnel. The officer took 35 hours and 25 minutes to traverse the route and set up a new record," it added.

The second event started on October 16, 2020, from India Gate, New Delhi and approached the 5942 km Golden Quadrilateral route via Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai.

The officer finished the expedition on October 30, 2020, at India Gate in 14 days, 23 hours, 52 minutes. The earlier record was 19 days 23 hours accomplished on 05 Mar 2017 by Devanshu Shivn of New Delhi which was improved by almost five days.

He encountered bad traffic, rains for multiple days in south India, equipment breakdown, etc during the expedition. The officer slept for three-four hours on average and covered over 400 km per day for the said duration.

The officer had stood third globally in the Virtual Race across America 2020 and became the first Indian to get a podium finish in any international ultra-cycling event.

He also stood first in the 1750 km Ultra Spice Race 2019 from Goa to Ooty and back.

His next plan is to lift up the tricolour on the podium of Race across America 2022.

( With inputs from ANI )