PHOTOS: Meera Velankar/Santosh Kumar
When Dr Meera Velankar cycled out of Sentosa on Sept 26, there was no support vehicle following her, no organiser managing the route and no medal waiting at the finish.
Just the 50-year-old Indian endurance cyclist, her five-year-old road bike, bikepacking bags and a journey of around 7,000km through seven countries.
Starting from the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia, the Bengaluru-based cyclist headed towards Malaysia on a route that will take her through Thailand, Laos, China, Vietnam and Cambodia.
For the woman known as “Pedalmummy”, however, the more remarkable journey began more than a decade ago — when cycling helped her rediscover herself.
Dr Meera, who has a PhD in Life Sciences, returned to Bengaluru from the United States in 2011 after working as a research scientist.
Unable to find suitable work, the mother of two found herself in her late 30s feeling unfit, overweight and unhappy.
It was more than a fitness problem. After years spent building an academic and professional career, she was struggling with an identity crisis and depression.
She began walking and running before turning to cycling, initially on a bicycle gifted by her husband.
Gradually, the kilometres began changing more than her body.
“I am an individualistic person,” she said, recalling how uncomfortable she felt when she was increasingly identified simply as somebody’s wife despite her education and professional background.
“There is nothing wrong with marriage. I believe marriage is a good thing, but it can be only 40 to 50 per cent of your life.”
Cycling gave her something that belonged entirely to her — and eventually transformed her into an endurance athlete capable of undertaking extraordinary journeys.
Fitness is now woven into her everyday routine.
“Every day, for an hour or an hour and a half, I train,” she said. “It can be walks, weight training, elliptical or cycling.”
At 1.49m tall, Dr Meera is equally disciplined about nutrition and recovery. She prefers smaller, regular meals and pays attention to what her body needs during endurance rides, using carbohydrates for fuel and protein for recovery.
But her approach to fitness is not simply about numbers or appearance. She sees it as a lifestyle — and believes challenges should progressively become harder as the body and mind adapt.
Her own cycling record illustrates that philosophy.
In 2022, Dr Meera and Mr Utkarsh Verma completed a 1,835km unsupported tandem ride from Agra to Umling La, one of the world’s highest motorable roads at 19,024ft.
They crossed five mountain passes and accumulated around 19,000m of elevation gain, earning a Guinness World Record.
Then came an even more brutal test.
During a 4,000km tandem expedition across India with Dr Manisha Waghmare in 2025, Dr Meera fractured her elbow in a crash.
For many cyclists, that would have ended the expedition.
She continued for another 1,500km.
Yet some of the barriers she has encountered have had little to do with mountains, injuries or endurance.
People have questioned why a happily married woman and mother of two would want to leave home and disappear on a bicycle for weeks.
Her husband, she said, has remained one of her strongest supporters.
Before the latest expedition, his message was simple: “Be safe and come back if you feel it’s difficult. Don’t overstretch because you want to prove yourself.”
“He believes in me, and he knows that Meera can execute it,” she said.
Her experience with her daughters has also shaped her thinking.
Both competed as national-level sprinters, and Dr Meera once hoped one of them would join her on a tandem cycling expedition.
Neither was interested.
Initially, she was disappointed. Then she realised that encouraging her children to find their own identities also meant not imposing her ambitions on them.
“I thought, it’s not fair to see my dreams through them,” she said.
One daughter has moved towards engineering while continuing to train, while the other pursued design.
That experience reinforces the message Dr Meera wants to share particularly with Indian women: Marriage and motherhood can be important parts of life without becoming the entirety of a woman’s identity.
Women, she believes, should retain their interests, ambitions and space for themselves — whether that means cycling thousands of kilometres or simply finding time for regular exercise.
Her latest expedition embodies that philosophy in a different way.
Unlike her previous endurance challenges, she is not chasing a Guinness record or trying to cover the maximum distance in the shortest possible time.
“This is not a record anymore. This is travel,” she said. “I want to meet people. I want to talk to them.”
Dr Meera can cycle 200km in about 16 hours and repeat such distances over consecutive days. But this time, she plans to average around 100km a day, allowing herself to experience the countries, communities and people along her route.
It is adventure at a deliberately slower pace.
And at 50, she is also challenging the idea that ambitious physical adventures belong mainly to the young.
There will be no medal waiting when Pedalmummy finally gets off her bicycle at the end of this journey.
Perhaps she does not need one.
After years of discovering just how far her body and mind can take her, Dr Meera’s message is more enduring than any record: stay fit, preserve an identity of your own and never allow age, marriage or motherhood to decide where the road should end.
