From Manipur to Global Glory: John Gwite rides 3,600 km to set new Indian record at World Ultra-Cycling Championships

In a landmark for Indian endurance sport, ultra-cyclist John Gwite has become the first Indian to complete the gruelling Race Around Poland in under ten days. Riding solo and unsupported, Gwite traversed 3,600 kilometres and more than 31,000 metres of elevation in 237 hours, marking India’s arrival at one of Europe’s most unforgiving finish lines.

The 2025 edition of the Race Around Poland doubled as the World Ultra Cycling Championships, drawing over 60 elite riders. The race format is solo and unsupported: no mechanical crew, no massage tables, no backup nutrition. You sleep where you collapse—on grass, on asphalt. You eat what you can find. It is a sport of solitude and slow attrition, where competitors wrestle not just terrain, but time, weather, and the unravelling self. Fewer than two-thirds of riders typically finish the Race Around Poland, with many forced to drop out due to exhaustion, injury, or mechanical failure.

And yet, in the silence between checkpoints, Gwite rode with a kind of devotional discipline. A randonneur forged not in alpine camps or European cycling academies, but on the fringes of Indian sport, across highways and hairpins. Gwite, 37, grew up in Manipur and belongs to Paite ethnic group. In India, where cricket saturates the sporting imagination, ultra-cycling remains a parallel universe: untelevised, unsponsored, and almost monastic in its demands. Riders like Gwite are outliers, training not for attention, but for resilience. “Cycling isn’t the first sport that comes to mind when you think of India,” said Gwite, in a statement. “But we’re changing that, one ride at a time. The Race Across Poland tested every limit — physical, mental, and emotional — but it was also an opportunity to prove that Indian cyclists can stand shoulder to shoulder on the global stage.”

Over the past decade, he has built one of the most formidable endurance résumés in Indian cycling. He has finished Paris–Brest–Paris (1,229 km in 59 hours), London–Edinburgh–London (1,535 km in 110 hours), and won the Coast to Crest ride in 35 hours. He completed the oxygen-starved cruelty of the Trans-Himalaya 1200 in just 62 hours. He has earned 19 Super Randonneur titles and notched up rides across the subcontinent—from Wagah to Kanyakumari, Jog Falls to Devprayag. Each ride its own pilgrimage and a rehearsal for the next.

The Race Around Poland may well become his defining act because it was a competition staged at the highest level, against the world’s best. It is also a qualifying race for one of the most prestigious ultra-cycling events in the world, Race Across America (RAAM), during which competitors traverse the US from the west to the east coast, covering a total of 4,800 km within a time limit of 12 days.

With this feat, Gwite has made a new entry in India’s sporting imagination. It doesn’t come with endorsements or stadium applause. It comes with fatigue and motion, the only two things an ultra-cyclist ever really owns.

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