Crazy that it may seem, but three youngsters from Ahmedabad did just that. Looking for some adventure in their lives, these cycling freaks from the neighbouring state of Gujarat decided to go on a cycling expedition, in the month of May, to this city and if possible, complete it in three days.

So, early on the morning of May 17, Sheriyar Unwalla (16), Lionel Lobo (16) and Sylvano D'Souza (17) began their jaunt, spread over more than 700 kms.

``Actually we wanted to do a bigger expedition,'' said Unwalla who leads the team, ``but better sense prevailed and we decided to start-off with a smaller one.''

Unwalla has just completed with his standard eleven exams while Lobo and D'Souza finished with their HSC and SSC, respectively, this year. ``It is quite hot now but this is the only time they could have done this,'' said Aspy Unwalla, father of Sheriyar, who accompanied the boys in a car alongwith his elder sonBurzin.

However, it was not a bed of roses all the way as they had to put up with a lot of problems. ``On the first day, D'Souza had a small mishap when a tractor from a field suddenly came up in front of him,'' said Sheriyar Unwalla. But apart from the minor mishap, fortunately, they had no other accidents.

Leaving Ahmedabad at 4.30 a.m., the first stop for the cyclists was going to be Baroda, a distance of 120 kms. But it was like traversing on familiar terrain. In fact, the three of them had carried out trips between the two Gujarat cities as a practice tour for the bigger show.

Three hours later, the team reached Baroda where they stopped over for lunch. Later in the evening, as they left Baroda, they had company in form of Gujarat's senior cyclist champion, Asif Pandor, who accompanied the team till the national highway to give the youngsters a boost.

From Baroda, the squad reached Ankleshwar where they stayed overnight. The next day they made a stopover at Chitli, around 102 kms from Ankleshwar.They started from Chitli at 3.30 p.m..

While going from Chitli to Vapi, their schedule was upset when D'Souza had a puncture. Unfortunately for him, their car had gone ahead to look for some accommodation in Vapi. Sheriyar and Lobo failed to notice that D'Souza was not behind them. And after some time, when he did not catch-up, Sheriyar rode back another three kilometres only to find D'Souza trudging along..

Vapi was the beginning of some more problems. After a good night's sleep at a hotel, the cyclists, to their dismay, found next morning that their bikes had been tampered with. ``Someone had pierced a nail in one of the tyres of my bike while Lionel's gears were also messed with,'' revealed Sheriyar.

This proved a major hazard for Lobo who, from thereon, had trouble climbing the slopes. Specially so because the stretch after Vapi was full of ups and downs. So the friends exchanged the bikes at intervals to save Lobo from riding the damaged bike continuously.

But even with all the difficulties, thecyclists enjoyed this part of the journey most which also happened to see them register their best time. ``These kids had `GUJARAT' written over their shirts. And after entering Maharashtra, any Gujrati who happened to see them would come across to talk. In fact, we spent quite sometime answering their questions,'' said Unwalla sr.

While the boys paddled towards their destination, they found support in some of their fellow travellers on road. People raising their thumbs as they passed by and truckers yelling `zor laga ke' only added to their enthusiasm. Some even had funny doubts. On learning that a car was accompanying the cyclists, one fellow-traveller came up and said, `Agar car hai to cycle kyon laye' (If you got a car why bring the cycle).''

After cutting through Mumbai's evening traffic the cyclists finally reached Gateway of India on May 19 at 10.30 p.m.. And while, the boys stopped to congratulate each other, the policemen around the monument were left looking quizzically at each other.

"Ournext stop is the forthcoming cycling Nationals in Bijapur. But as of now, our next destination is back to Ahmedabad...on our cycles of course,'' revealed a beaming Sheriyar while Lobo and D'Souza nodded in affirmation.