MTB Rayate 2022: Come Race XC and Enduro!

Kalyan Cyclist Foundation are organising the 3rd edition of this mountain biking race. We at CyclingMonks are stoked to partner with the cool team at KCF for MTB Rayate 2022 to be held on 25th and 26th June!

Mountain bike lovers, MTB Rayate is back. This 2 day event has been held since 2018 on the outskirts of Mumbai. It is becoming bigger and better.

A brainchild of KCF’s mountain biking lead, Satish Dwivedi, this race came to fruition as most things MTB. A regular bloke’s desire to go explore the countryside on two wheels.

Soon those two wheels became 4, 10, 20 and more, as a number of riders joined him for rides on the trails surrounding the hills of Kalyan. After organising and hosting multiple road races and road events, the core team decided to give MTBs a go.

And from the beginning, the event was a roaring success. The first iteration seeing participants coming from in and around Mumbai. The second edition grew with participants from around Maharashtra. The net has been cast wider this time. Riders are coming from South India as well.

MTB Rayate 2022: Mud & Rock Fest!

The 2022 edition will be held in the midst of the monsoons. 25th and 26th June will see a hundred riders descend on the race course to enjoy this rocky and muddy track.

These two days will see XC and Enduro racing happening in the hills surrounding the village of Rayate. From the village the hills and the race borrow their name.

The XC race will be held over a 8 km long track, with 3 loops. While the Enduro has a 2 km and a 1 km stretch, which will be held over 2 stages. There are race categories for men and women.

The best bit about this race is seeing the number of children who participate. They are the future. Being introduced to the sport early is a boon for the community.

We expectantly wait for this cool MTB fest to unfold this June!

Register for the race here.

Kalyan Cyclist Foundation

KCF, the organisers of this race are a registered group, founded in 2015 by Adwait Jadhav. The aim was to promote cycling in the city of Kalyan. As the years progressed, the group got bigger and there are currently more than 1200 members from Kalyan, Mumbai and neighbouring satellite towns.

The group gradually gained recognition with local government bodies as well. And whenever they would organise a ride, KCF would be at the forefront to participate. This has helped tremendously. Even now, the support of these government organisations, make it significantly easier to get permissions for organising races.

By 2017, a bunch of riders from the club had started riding the trails around Kalyan. There was a 1 km stretch of continuous climbing on one of these hills. That became a perfect breeding ground for friendly competition amongst the riders. Since, most riders struggled on climbs.

From that competitive spirit was born MTB Rayate in 2018. The race was held in July, in the thick of the monsoon season. Summer months were too hot to race and it was a conscious decision to hold the race once the monsoon clouds had drenched the Western Ghats.

Previous Races…

2018 saw the race with two categories, one each for men and women. 34 people showed up at the start line, a healthy number for MTB racing in India. 4 of these racers were ladies.

In 2019, the race expanded to include children as well as an Enduro category. It also saw the race evolve into more of a festival atmosphere, rather than just a race with 50 racers and a whole lot more to spectate.

With 2 years of racing lost to the pandemic, 2022 is seeing the racing junta growing to triple digits this year. Which will include women, children, XC racers and Enduro racers.

Race Logistics

Folks coming from Mumbai can either take the local train to Kalyan and carry their bikes in the luggage compartment or drive down. Peeps from other cities will need to travel to Mumbai before making the same journey.

The event will be held over two days. With the first day for the Enduro category people to do their dry runs on the race lines. While the second day will see the actual race taking place.

There’s a villa been arranged near the start line of the race for outstation riders. You can book in advance to stay there.

The race trail passes through 4 different villages. The team took permissions from the Sarpanch of these villages. KCF’s riders have built a strong relationship with the villagers over the years of riding there.

There are already National Level racers who have registered for this race. Pranita Soman, who is the women’s Road and MTB National Champion and Vitthal Bhosale, Maharashtra State Champion will be racing. The Pashan DH boys from Pune are also heading for this race. Former DH Champion, Slade Gomes, had helped build the features on the Enduro section. Those features still exist and will be used for the upcoming race. There are also going to be around 30 kids racing!

Photos: Kalyan Cycling Foundation

Check out the this video from 2020, where Kalyan C