noida almost 1200km in 90 hours is what 41yearold deepender sehajpal is out to achieve next week at the paris brest paris 2015 pbp a onceinfouryears cycling event conducted by audax club parisien acp in france to be held on august 16 this year the pbp will play host to about 65 nationalities and 6000 participants india that has seen a rapid rise in this format of cycling and will have close to 50 participating sehajpal who lives in greater noida is one of the three riders from the ncr for the uninitiated pbp is a cycling tradition that started in 1891 and is now one of the oldest amateur bicycling events in the world cyclists course their way through the quiet roads in the lush countryside of normandy into the french cycling hotbed of britanny they pass through villages clustered around medieval churches and past historic castles and chateaus at the 13 control points along the route inexpensive meals sleeping accommodation and mechanical assistance are provided to the riders to qualify for the race cyclists have to do a series of rides called brevets under the aegis of acp brevets are selfsupported rides where a rider is not allowed any support in india brevets are conducted by the audax india randonneurs which has its base in pune it has been one eventful ride for sehajpal who has come a long way on his cycle from being the top honcho for a media house to having earned the title of super randonneur three times since he started cycling i started cycling about two years ago and fulltime since june 2014 it started as an exercise to keep myself fit along with a small group in greater noida sehajpal told toi this hobby soon turned into a passion where i wanted to push my endurance limits to the maximum and i did he said to date after having come out of my airconditioned office i have clocked in nearly 20000km on my two wheels sehajpal said sehajpal has participated in various longdistance events and tours from 100 to 1000km i have gone up to ladakh having undertaken an event which included a 500km highaltitude riding across five passes in ladakh the highest being tang lang la at 17600 feet he said another gruelling ride was 900km in the nilgiri hills across the southern states of karnataka tamil nadu and kerala he said currently on a sabbatical sehajpal said cycling to him is a form of freedom it helps me connect with the environment it liberates me breaks the shackles and i can be myself when on the saddle he said he rides a hiquality trek for participating in events and a firefox for recreation i ride three intensive hours four days a week i also train for 15 hours a week to stretch my endurance he said in december 2014 i cycled for 61 hours completing a 1000km circuit from delhi to attari border and back in january 2015 i undertook