Cycling Brevet Punalur

About this event

Cycling Brevet Punalur is a 200 kilometre randonneur ride starting in Punalur, Kollam. A brevet is a long unsupported ride against the clock. Riders pass control points that prove they covered the course, and they finish inside a time limit. It is not a road race. In a road race a peloton sprints for a win. A brevet is a test of completion. Finishing inside the limit is the result. Being first is not the point, and drafting customs, if the organiser has any, are theirs to explain.

Unsupported means you carry what you need and look after your own bicycle. Food, water, a spare tube, lights, and a way to deal with a puncture stay on the bike or in your pockets. The time limit for this start is not fixed here. Limits used by clubs elsewhere should not be copied onto Punalur. Ask the organiser what the clock says. Two hundred kilometres is the standard shortest brevet. It is a full day for most people, and it can finish after dark. The start hour is not set. A dawn start and a mid-morning start are different days on the body. Do not guess.

The course might loop back to Punalur or run to another town and back. Without a route sheet, 200 kilometres is the distance, not a map. The road may use the ghat toward Thenmala, the road toward Kollam, or a loop the organiser has measured. Until the sheet exists, do not ride a favourite road and call it the brevet. Controls are places where your passage is recorded. If you miss one, you have not completed the ride, even if your own GPS says you did the kilometres.

October is the month for the ride. The roads stay open to ordinary traffic unless an authority closes them. You are a cyclist in traffic, at night if the ride runs long, with lorries and buses. No club is named, and no course is described as formally homologated. Homologation is a club's official acceptance of a route. Do not claim it for Punalur. Riders need their own bicycles and lights. There is no support vehicle to assume. A friend in a car is not part of the event unless the organiser has said support is allowed, and many brevets do not allow it.

Punalur railway station is in town, under a kilometre from the centre. The start is not the platform, the 1877 bridge, or a college gate unless the organiser marks it there. Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is about 83 kilometres away. Buses use the Punalur bus stand. Rooms named for the town are A One Hotel, Hotel Panacea Ventures, and Shaji Hotel. Sleep there if you need to. The hotel is not the control point.

Two hundred kilometres will take the daylight and may take the evening. Lights are part of the kit, not an optional extra, because the finish can be after dark and the road is not closed. Ask the time limit before you compare yourself with a brevet you rode somewhere else. Ask where the controls are. A GPS track that skips one of them is not a finish. No club name is attached, so ""the Punalur brevet"" is not a phone number you already have. Find the organiser first. The station gets you into town. The start is wherever that organiser marks it. A One Hotel, Hotel Panacea Ventures, and Shaji Hotel are reasonable beds the night before a long ride. They are not control points.

Ask who is running the brevet, what the controls and the time limit are, and what the entry rule is. If those three answers are missing, you do not have a brevet yet. You have a long road and a bicycle.

🚆 Railway: Punalur Railway Station is under 1 km from Punalur.

✈️ Airport: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is approximately 83 km from Punalur.

🚌 Bus: Punalur bus stand.

🏨 Stay: Kochu Mariya Residency Punalur, Hotel Panacea Ventures and Shaji Hotel are nearby stay options.

✅ Notes: Punalur town, measured from the railway station area. A separate bus-stand pin was not used. Dates in this sheet are the listing window (10/1/2026 to 10/31/2026), not a confirmed daily show.