Media Release
Mangaluru, Nov 20: Annual ride of Mangalore Bicycle Club (MBC) was held on Sunday, November 19, paying tribute to Indian Armed Forces along with the annual award ceremony was at War Memorial, Kadri.
Around 40 riders from the club assembled at Mangala Stadium and commenced the ride at 7 am to the War Memorial riding a distance of around 12 kms in the city.
Lt Col Gracien Sequeira was the chief guest for the event. He has to his credit 29 years of service in the Indian Army and many medals for his contribution to the country. Along with him, Col Bhandary and Brig Rai shared their experience of serving in the Army with the gathering.
Tribute to Indian Armed Forces is an annual initiative MBC started from 2016 to pay respect to the soldiers of the country who are relentlessly working to safeguard the nation sacrificing all the luxuries in their life. The club members felt the need of showing solidarity to them for the biggest contribution they are doing to ensure lives are safe and secured. Through this annual event, the members want to ensure that common people understand and give due respect to soldiers that they deserve.
Flowers were laid at the War Memorial and martyrs were revered.
At the end of the tribute to the armed forces, they also had the annual award ceremony where the winners of various initiatives of the club in 2017 were recognized and felicitated.
The most awaited award for all was the rolling trophy of MBC Gang War 2017 which went to the team Mad Dogs captained by Madhukar and his team members Achinthya, Drushya, Joel Fernandes, Mithil, Ravish, Shawn, Subodh, Vishnuprasad and Vivek. Gang War 2017 was a team based challenge which saw five teams of cyclists fighting it out on various parameters to gain access to the most coveted trophy in the club.
Certificates of appreciation for longest kilometers ridden were awarded to Dhanraj Karkera (1200 kms), Shivavand Rao (400 kms), Shubhanand Rao (400 kms), Srikantharaja (400 kms) and Vinod Prabhu (400 kms).
Special appreciation award was presented to Kishan Bangera for riding 255 days and 18,000 km without a break in the year 2017.
Overall, the event was a grand success with many members of MBC taking the time out on a Sunday to pay respect to Indian Army and for appreciating the achievements of their fellow members.