With just 6 hours of sleep Assam's Ripunjoy Gogoi completes Paris-Brest-Paris 1,200 km cycling event

A young computer engineer hailing from Guwahati, Ripunjoy Gogoi, achieved a milestone by successfully completing one of the most difficult cycle events, Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP), recently held from August 20-24 in France.

The Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP), which is held every four years is the world’s oldest cycling event whose route stretches from the French capital to the port city of Brest and back.

Not only this, but Ripunjoy Gogoi also became the only one from the Northeast to achieve this feat at the gruelling Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) after four others from Assam and one from Mizoram backed out due to technical issues and time-bound limitations.

To earn a finishers’ medal, a participant must complete the route in 90 hours.

With several record-breaking cycling events up his sleeves and determination Gogoi participated in the event with 280 riders from India and overall 8300 cyclists which all started from Rambouillet 30 km away from Central Paris.

Also Read: Best cycling routes in India to make your journey memorable

In a candid conversation with Ripunjoy Gogoi, the cyclist said, "The event started from Rambouillet to the East Paris and then to the West and again come back to the initial point."

Gogoi stated that the total travelling distance was 1220 km and had to be covered in a 90-hour time frame with a total elevation of 12,000 meters.

It is to be mentioned here that with this daunting task, Ripunjoy Gogoi's determination not to sleep more than 6 hours enabled him to complete the challenge in an 88:30-hour time frame.

Gogoi also stated that this feat was only possible because of this good riding practice in Assam as well as Meghalaya and other parts of India to achieve this in record time.

The 29-year-old network engineer also achieved a milestone by successfully completing one of the most difficult cycle rides in the world in 2022.

Earlier in August 2022, Gogoi also took part in the London-Edinburgh-London cycling event which is deemed to be one of the most challenging cycling events in the world.

The participants are required to ascend an elevation of 14,000 meters which is more than the elevation of Mount Everest, thereby testing the endurance and grit of participants.

The 1500-km self-supported London-Edinburgh-London cycle ride across the UK came to the tracks after a two-year Covid-19 hiatus to witness overwhelming participation from 1,900 cyclists from across the world.

As many as 172 Indians took part in the competition, second only to British participants. Ripunjoy and Dhiraj Dutta represented the northeast at the event.

The 29-year-old happens to be an avid cyclist who has successfully completed many long-distance events in the past as well.