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 bigger 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.
She began walking and running before turning to cycling, initially using a bicycle gifted by her husband. What started as a route towards physical fitness eventually became a way out of an identity crisis and depression.
For someone who had invested heavily in her education and career, losing that independent identity was difficult.
“I am an individualistic person,” she said, recalling how uncomfortable she felt when she was increasingly identified simply as somebody’s wife.
“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 was entirely hers.
Today, exercise is built into her everyday life. She trains for an hour to 90 minutes, mixing cycling with walking, weights and elliptical workouts.
“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 1.49 metres tall, she pays close attention to nutrition and recovery, preferring small, regular meals. During endurance rides, carbohydrates provide fuel while protein helps recovery.
Her achievements show how far that fitness journey has taken her.
In 2022, Dr Meera and Mr Utkarsh Verma completed a 1,835km unsupported tandem ride from Agra in Uttar Pradesh to Umling La, a 19,024ft mountain pass in Ladakh. Crossing five mountain passes and accumulating around 19,000 metres of elevation gain, they earned a Guinness World Record.
In 2025, during a 4,000km tandem expedition across India with Dr Manisha Waghmare, Dr Meera fractured her elbow in a crash – and still rode the remaining 1,500km.
But the barriers have not always been physical.
People have questioned why a happily married mother of two would want to disappear on a bicycle for weeks.
Dr Meera said her husband’s support has been crucial. Before this expedition, his advice was straightforward: “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 two daughters competed as national-level sprinters, but neither wanted to follow their mother into long-distance cycling. Dr Meera once dreamed of undertaking a tandem expedition with one of them.
When they declined, she was initially disappointed. Then came another important lesson.
“I thought, it’s not fair to see my dreams through them,” she said.
Instead, she allowed them to choose their own paths – one towards engineering while continuing to train, the other towards design.
That philosophy underpins the message she wants other Indian women to take from her story: Marriage, motherhood and family responsibilities need not erase personal identity.
Her latest expedition is deliberately different from her record attempts.
“This is not a record anymore. This is travel,” she said. “I want to meet people. I want to talk to them.”
She can ride 200km in about 16 hours and repeat such distances over consecutive days, but on this journey she expects to average around 100km daily, giving herself time to experience the places and people along the way.
There will be no medal at the end and no record to chase.
After years of testing how far her body and mind can go, Pedalmummy’s message at 50 is perhaps simpler: Stay fit, keep an identity of your own and never assume that age, marriage or motherhood should determine where your journey ends.
