Uttam Nale of the Railways won the 18th Vashi-Khopoli cycle race conducted by the Amateur Cycling Association of Mumbai Suburban District. A Navi Mumbai resident, Nale won the title 2:43:28 hours. The 110 km race was sponsored by the Navi Mumbai Sports Association.

Nale who finished third in 2008 race has also been the winner of the Bombay-Pune Championship last year. Amandeep Singh of Railways stood second and lost the title to Nale just by a few seconds but managed to bag the prime prize and by reaching half way much before Nale with a timing of 1:18:30 hours. Amandeep, in a recent national level championship, won gold medal in 1000m Mass Start and silver medal in Devil Teak.

He has also participated in team pursuit with a fellow cyclist from the Railways and won a gold medal in that too. Shishpal Jat of Railways finished at third place with a timing of 2:51:53 hours.

The race was flagged off at NMSA, Vashi and preceded via the Old Mumbai-Pune Road, Konkan Bhavan and Panvel before taking a u-turn at the Khopoli Junction and returning by the same route to finish at the HDFC Building on the main highway at Vashi.

Rajendra Soni, the defending champion and coach for Railways team said, "We have the inter-railways cycle championship coming up in the first week of March, so we had started the preparations for the same from last month.

This is one of the most important championships of the year and hence with the preparations of the inter-railway championship the preparation of the Vashi-Khopoli race was covered. I was confident of my cyclists as they had also been to the national championship recently." Soni has won the title five times.(Aarti Kini / DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication )