The Chenab Ride: sunrise, the riverbank, and the club's signature morning

The ride everyone remembers

Every club has one ride that does the real work of holding it together. For Multan Cycling Club it's the Chenab: leaving the city in the dark, watching the sky go orange somewhere past the last of the streetlights, and arriving at the river while the water is still flat and grey.

It is the longest of the regular rides and the flattest — southern Punjab gives you almost no climbing, so the difficulty is distance, wind and heat rather than gradient. The riverbank, the barrage and the roads around Head Muhammad Wala are the club's regular turning points.

Wind, heat and the honest bit

Flat does not mean easy. An open headwind on the way out to the river will do more damage than any hill in the district, which is exactly why the club rides it as a group: rotating through the front so nobody sits in the wind for long, and keeping a steady tempo instead of surging.

From late spring the temperature decides the schedule. Roll-out moves earlier as the year heats up, riders carry two bottles minimum, and in the worst months the ride is shortened rather than cancelled. Riding at midday in a Multan summer is not toughness, it's a hospital visit.

Breakfast at the river

The stop is not optional and it is, for a lot of members, the actual reason they came. Paratha, eggs, chai, twenty bikes leaned against whatever will hold them, and an hour of conversation before the run home.

The way back is deliberately relaxed — often with the wind, always slower, regrouping at every junction so the whole bunch arrives together.

Riding it for the first time

Be honest with yourself about distance and tell a marshal it's your first one; they'll put you in the group and keep an eye on you. Bring two full bottles, a spare tube and a pump, sunscreen, and lights for the dark start. Eat before you leave.

If you can ride an hour comfortably, you can do this with a group around you. The pace is set so that you can.