while he has been physically active even as a child c sylendra babu director general of police of tamil nadu admits that he picked up endurance sports only after he turned 50 now at 59 he has done several marathons longdistance cycling rides and challenging swims he developed an interest in cycling in 2011 a passion that has led him to achieve the super randonneur title on world bicycle day today the super cop talks to us about his cycling journey how did you pick up cyclingi was the commissioner of police in coimbatore in 2011 and was invited to inaugurate a cycle rally it was called the tour of tamil nadu and the cyclists were planning to cover an average distance of 100km a day for seven days that fascinated me so i went ahead and bought my first cycle for 3000 and started riding a few kilometres every day which slowly progressed to 10km 20km 50km and one day i ended up covering 600km in one go today i am a super randonneur i had to cycle 600km in less than 40 hours to achieve the title i did it at the age of 58 how do you fit cycling into your busy schedule i used to cycle three days a week until i took charge as the chief of the police force of tamil nadu now there isnt much time so i cycle only on sundays i start at 4am and cover 100km ride within 3 hours and 20minutes i feel my speed is also increasing with age its a realisation that our body has tremendous potential today i can cycle from chennai to tiruvannamalai just like that or from chennai to trichy in 15 hours do you have a fave cycling memorycycling from kashmir to kanyakumari via rajasthan gujarat maharashtra karnataka tamil nadu and pondicherry a few years ago is a special experience it was a 4500kmride and there were 22 cyclists belonging to different age groups there were people who were even older than meof late many have taken up cycling for fitness reasons but the idea of cycling for commuting is still very nascent your thoughts on that and the safety of cyclistscycling to commute for instance from home to ones workplace is a great idea but lets start in a simpler way cycle from your home to a mall and back or to a nearby grocery shop cycling to office in chennais hot weather can become messy if theres no facility at the workplace to change designated parking places for cycles are also a must at offices because cycles are quite expensive these days they need to be parked safely also its only now that the idea of cycling as a hobby and a fitness routine is picking up among many gradually youll see more people commuting to their workplaces on cycles on sundays after finishing my ride i cycle to my office as well thankfully ive the facility to freshen up