Cycling in Pune: The Sinhagad Climb, Khadakwasla Rides, Cycle Tracks and Events

Where to cycle in Pune: the short list

Pune has an unusual mix for an Indian city: a flat, busy core with a few cycle tracks, and real mountain climbs within an hour’s ride to the south-west. Most Pune cyclists split their week the same way: short rides or trainer sessions on weekdays, and a long Sunday ride out along Sinhagad Road before the traffic builds. The table pulls together the main options, with distances from the sources listed at the end (checked October 2026).

The Sinhagad climb: Pune’s benchmark ride

Every serious cyclist in Pune eventually rides up Sinhagad. Maharashtra Tourism puts the fort about 35 km south-west of the city, about an hour and a half by road, and gives its height as 1,312 m. Pune itself sits at about 560–570 m, so the ride from the city gains roughly 750 m, and almost all of it comes in the ghat section at the end. Many riders use their time up the ghat as a fitness test, the way runners use a 10 km time.

Three practical points. First, the ghat road is shared with cars, two-wheelers and buses heading to the top, so ride it early on a weekday or at first light on a weekend, and descend slowly: oncoming vehicles cut corners. Second, Sinhagad is now managed more tightly than it used to be. The Pune Forest Division said in August 2026 that it would temporarily stop entry to the fort once it reached safe capacity, with registration planned, and it closes the ghat during heavy-rain alerts (see our guide to treks near Pune for details). Third, carry water and a layer for the descent; at over 1,300 m the top is cooler than the city, and the descent is fast.

Khadakwasla and the Sinhagad Road loop

If Sinhagad is the hard ride, Khadakwasla is the everyday one. Khadakwasla Dam on the Mutha river is about 21 km from the centre of Pune, and Sinhagad Road runs right along it. The dam is nearly 1.9 km long, and its reservoir’s backwaters stretch nearly 22 km upstream, which gives riders a long run of road past water before the climbs start. From Deccan or Swargate, the dam and back is a ride of roughly 40–45 km, a sensible first long ride for new road cyclists in Pune.

Know the limits. The National Defence Academy sits near the dam, and its Peacock Bay area is closed to the public. The dam road becomes a picnic spot on weekends and through the monsoon, with a roadside chowpatty selling snacks, so by late morning it fills with parked cars and pedestrians. Ride out early and be back before it gets crowded.

Cycle tracks in Pune and PMC’s bicycle plan

Pune was once known as a cycle city, and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has tried to bring that back. In December 2017 the PMC’s general body approved a Comprehensive Bicycle Plan, prepared after a survey of over 11,000 people, with a 300 km network of cycle tracks as one of its main goals. The plan recorded how far cycling had fallen: cycling was 3% of trips in a 2016 household survey, against 9% in a 2012 study, and it set a target of 25% by 2031 (ITDP India, December 2017).

Progress has been partial. By June 2020, about 100 km of the planned 300 km had been built, according to Citizen Matters, and riders complained that cement bollards on some footpath-level tracks were spaced so closely that handlebars and pedals caught on them, and that tracks on FC Road were broken up and occupied by vendors. The segregated track on JM Road is the one most often held up as a good example. In practice, Pune’s cycle tracks are useful for short city trips, not for training rides.

Cycle in Pune metro, bike share and renting a cycle in Pune

Bikes on the metro. On 26 August 2021, Maha Metro’s managing director and officials rode the Pune Metro from Phugewadi to Sant Tukaram Nagar with bicycles on board, used the station lifts to take them down, and announced that passengers could carry bicycles on Pune Metro trains to solve first- and last-mile trips (Maha Metro press release). Rules on peak hours, coaches and fees can change, so check with station staff before your first trip with a bike.

Bike share. The 2017 plan also proposed public bicycle sharing, with a first phase of 388 stations and 4,700 bicycles, and a dockless pilot of 275 bicycles in three areas. Operators including Mobike, Ofo, Pedl and Yulu signed up, but by 2019 shared bicycles had mostly been withdrawn, with vandalism and pricing among the reasons, and Citizen Matters reported Yulu as the only operator left, in pockets of the city, in 2020. If you want a cycle in Pune on rent for a weekend, local cycle shops are a more reliable bet than a sharing app.

Cycling events in Pune: the Pune Grand Tour and brevets

Pune now hosts India’s first international stage race. The Pune Grand Tour, held from 19 to 23 January 2026, was the first UCI-sanctioned stage race in India: a UCI 2.2 race on the Asia Tour, organised by the Cycling Federation of India with the Pune district administration. It opened with a 7.5 km prologue time trial from Goodluck Chowk on FC Road to the Deccan Gymkhana bus station, then covered 437 km over four stages through Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maval, Mulshi, Bhor, Baramati and Velhe. It is described as an annual race, so watch for the next edition’s dates.

For riders, the main organised events are brevets run by Pune Randonneurs under Audax India Randonneurs. These are timed, non-competitive rides of 200 km and up. A 200 km brevet on 9 November 2024, for example, started at 5:35 AM on Sinhagad Road, rode south to the Krishna river confluence near Satara and back, and cost ₹800. Audax India’s rules give 13 hours 30 minutes for 200 km and 20 hours for 300 km, require a helmet for the whole ride, front and rear lights and a reflective vest, and set a minimum age of 18. Event dates are posted on the Audax India site; if you searched for cycling events in Pune today, that calendar and your local club’s group are the places to check.

How safe is cycling in Pune? What the crash data shows

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ report for 2023 records 351 road deaths in Pune city. Two of them were cyclists. That low number reflects how few people in Pune ride a bicycle today more than how safe the roads are: two-wheeler riders and pedestrians make up most of the deaths.

Across India, 4,560 cyclists were killed in 2023, 2.6% of all road deaths. Pune’s danger points for a cyclist are the same as for a pedestrian: fast two-wheelers, turning traffic and the ghat descents. Ride with a helmet and front and rear lights even in daylight, keep left and predictable, and save hard efforts for the Khadakwasla road early in the morning.

Best months for cycling in Pune

Pune’s cycling year is set by the monsoon and the April heat. The 1991–2020 normals show almost no rain from November to April, a hot spell in April and May with average highs of 37–38 °C, and about 670 mm of rain between June and September, when ghat roads get slippery and can close.

Strength and mobility work for Pune cyclists

Climbs like Sinhagad reward strong legs relative to body weight, and long hours on the bike tighten hips and the upper back. Twice a week, these four exercises cover what cycling leaves out. Our national guide to cycling for weight loss explains how to fit riding and strength work into a fat-loss plan.

1. 1

   Bulgarian split squats, 3 × 8 each leg

   Single-leg strength for seated climbing on the Sinhagad ghat.

2. 2

   Romanian deadlifts, 3 × 10

   Strong hamstrings and glutes balance the quad-heavy pedal stroke and protect your back on long rides.

3. 3

   Dead bugs, 3 × 10 each side

   Core control keeps your hips steady when you climb out of the saddle.

4. 4

   Hip flexor stretch and thoracic rotations, 5 minutes

   Opens up the hips and upper back after hours bent over the bars.

If you train in a society gym in Wakad or an office gym in Kharadi, Personal Gym Training in Pune puts the same coach on your phone there. Recovering from a crash or a sore knee and cleared by your physio? Rehab & Recovery in Pune rebuilds strength carefully. For other ways to stay fit in the city, see our guides to running tracks in Pune and treks near Pune, and work out your daily energy needs on long-ride days with the TDEE calculator. For everything else, see online personal training in Pune.