DAY 13: BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND

Riding To Sochi – Sigi Grabner Roadbook Day 13:  10 May 2013

Distance: 215k on Krim peninsula: Dzhankoy – Feodosija – Kerch  Total:  2.685k

It was a very nice ride today through the very beautiful landscape of Krym peninsula. And it was again very tough in the end with this East facing f*** wind. We were heading out from Zhankoy across the countryside to the East. It is a beautiful countryside with vineyards (Krim wines! Mhh!), wide lands, huge fields, cattle and sheep farming, guardians on horseback. Really beautiful and really windy.

In the evening we arrived at the East part of the peninsula. The little town of Kerch is the ferry port for transfers to Russia. Russia is not far away from here, a 20 minutes transfer by boat. (It could possibly take us more than 20 minutes to pass the border control into Russia). We heard that there is a lot of travelling and queueing between the two ports. Let’s see tomorrow. Now let’s find a nice place for dinner in this little town, some typical local cuisine, lamb stew, Ukrainian borschts soup, some pampushki or galushki.

This would be our last evening in the Ukraine. It was along ride across this huge and beautiful country,  it was most challenging. The roads were a challenge and the wind too. It was an extremely hard ride for us today, but with the goal in sight, we were ready to try even harder. We get nearer to Russia – Sochi we are coming! We are fully motivated. We want to take the ferry boat for Russia tomorrow morning.

My voice is gone evey evening, it sounds like I had a hard night of partying – actually it is the wind that makes you dry out, of course 🙂 So we keep drinking a lot, drinking a lot and drinking a lot. Maybe drinking some Vodka too tonight?

DAY 12: TOUGH AND TOUGHER (WILD WILD EAST)

Riding To Sochi – Sigi Grabner Roadbook Day 12 – 09 May 2013

Distance: 201k in UKRAINE: Kherson – Velyki – Kalanchak – Voinka – Dzhankoy/Krim Peninsula – Total distance:  2.470k

It’s a hard stage today, we fight constantly against a hot wind, 50k/h in your face, we hardly gain speed to advance. We struggle in Southeast direction, pedalling in an endless landscape of agricultural industry, huge fields, rare settlements, the wind blows in our faces – I hate him.  It is really tough today.  The hot wind like a desert wind dries you completely out, you are not able to compensate this loss of humidity, even if you drink a lot! Finally put up our tent in the middle of nowhere where Erich cooked a wonderful pasta –  grazie Maestro, benissimo!

Everything is basic here, the roads, the settlements, off the touristic track, purely Russian signs everywhere and meanwhile we start to understand them. What a challenge! Finally we stop at Dzhankoy in the Northeastern part of Krim peninsula over night. People have made big parades throughout our way, today is the national holiday in Ukraine. They celebrate the End of 1945 war, the victory over NS regime. Also here in our town, people are dressed up, ready for going out, parties are on. No thanks. We go to sleep, we are done.

The good thing is – we are already near! Total distance: 2740k

DAY 11: UKRAINE MARATHON DISTANCE

Riding To Sochi – Sigi Grabner Roadbook Day 11 – 08 May 2013

Distance: 246k in UKRAINE: Zatoka – Odessa – Mikolajew –  Kherov/Dnjepr River – Total distance:  2.269k

DAY 11:  OUR MARATHON DISTANCE

Morning breakfast was not really the big hammer, very basic. I made my famous porridge – home made Sigi style. This was followed by a Dolomite lunch with speck, cheese and home made bread from South Tyrol. It gave us power for the day to come 😉

We  started early and took the road to Odessa along the seaside and continued to Mikolajew. This time there was a very nice favorable wind from behind, which made us fast and feel good. Weather was perfect, sunshine yet not too hot, so we continued rolling on to the East until Kherov, the next big city, located at the Dnjepr delta. It is a region with huge harbours, docks, factory buidings and railroad trails, huge bridges and farming industries. A lot of traffic, very wild vehicles and intense movement on the roads. The main roads are fine, no bumps. Only one flat tyre today (Erich). People moving on the roads are very friendly and relaxed. We enjoy this country a lot.. By the way, there are many nice girls around ; and surprisingly not all of them are blondes.

One of the heavy trucks hit our bus when he overtook, the leftside mirror  was in thousand pieces – it was quite close to an accident, but only close, everything ok, nothing but a shock for our two drivers! Thanks a lot. I am thankful that we came so far today, we made our longest distance in one day – due to the perfect conditions, weather, road and wind! We found a special place for staying overnight. No more noisy city today, but a scenic place in the delta of river Dnjepr. It is a fishermen’s cottage, and now we are going to have some fresh fish for dinner and finally some Vodka. It’s Metchi’s birthday today.

DAY 10: HAPPY TO BE AT THE BLACK SEA

Riding To Sochi

Sigi Grabner Roadbook Day 10 – 07 May 2013

Distance today: 198k in UKRAINE – Izmail  – Tatarbunary – Zatoka Odes’ka Oblest

Day 10:  HAPPY TO BE AT THE BLACK SEA!

Ten days on the road, some flat tyres and in front of us the Black Sea. Wonderful scenery, yellow fields, smooth wind, glittering water and a brilliant blue sky. We are riding in high spirits, nothing can bother us today, not even 3 flat tyres within the first 10k . It’s good to have good material on a tour like this – special thanks to my friend Norbert Kostel (who represented Austria in Cycling Men’s 100k Team Time Trial at the Olympic Games Seoul 1988) and who provided me with this FOCUS cross-cycle and all the necessary material. Now I know and appreciate even more 😉 These Ukrainian roads are bad, but today  nothing is really bad. We are at the Black Sea, more than 2/3 of our distance are behind us.

After  198k we stop today in a nice touristic site at Zatoka and stay in a little hotel facing the Black Sea. 20m to the beach.Yeah!

Total distance from start: 2023k

DAY 09: ADVENTURE GOES ON – BOARDER CROSSING

Riding To Sochi – Sigi Grabner Roadbook  – 06 May 2013

Distance today: 157km – Ianca – Galati  (ROM) – Republic Moldavia – Reni (UKR) – Izmail (UKR)

09: ADVENTURE GOES ON –  BORDER CROSSING

Today we spent almost a half day crossing borders. First border from Romania into the Republic of Moldavia was easy. A few friendly greetings, a little respectful waving and there we went! We took the „green corridor“ a kind of transit road which leads from the town of Galati/ROM to Reni in the Ukraine. The road passes some km over Moldavian territory. You must not look around or stop, just continue to the other side. No problem for us.

The Ukraine border station, no problem again for the four bikes. We were already on Ukraine territory and waited for the bus to join us. This last 200m to reach Ukraine territory were challenging. No passing for the bus. One paper was missing? No way. Discussing and argueing began. Not good. Should we wait until this paper would be sent from Italy, should we return? Should we leave the bus and hire a rental car? Nervous atmosphere around. Our photographer Daniel saved us, he negotiated and explained, and after three hours of intense negotiations and bureaucratic challenges the bus passed. Ouff!

We came late into the city of Izmail for our night stop. The60k of Ukraine roads were challenging for our bikes – mainroads quite ok, but he passage through villages chaotic, vand  bumpy, several times we stepped down and walked through, pushing the bike.

Now we have arrived in a very beautiful natural reserve, we are in the Delta of  the Danube, we are at the Black Sea!

Total distance 1.830k

WELCOME TO UKRAINE

Today arrived in Ukraine after crossing Republic of Moldavia in Quick transit. Now have a break 🙂

DAY 08: IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE

Riding To Sochi Project Day 08- 05 May 2013 – 234k in ROM: Sacele – Predeal –Sinaia – Campina – Ploiesti – Buzau – Ianca

Sigi Grabner’s roadbook, Day 08 – “In the middle of f… nowhere”

They are celebrating Easter in Romania today, so we see a lot of people gathering in the cemeteries – it’s resurrection, of course! We started early from Brazov and went up the pass to cross the South Carpathian range. There is a ski resort on top, which was quite nice. The road was fine to climb, we were riding fast, in good spirits, everything cool – we were wrong…

Facing The Enemy

When we crossed the pass to the South side, were nearly killed by the steady facing wind, f*ck! I hate wind. Not only that he slows you down even going downhill, but he dries you and wears you out. During the next 160k we were standing AGAINST this damned wind! So we arrived very late in Ianca, tired and dry, found the only hotel of the town and now are looking for something to eat. Luckily the Italians have brought lots of pasta and a little camping stove in their bus – this would be our emergency plan B…

Road Kill Everywhere

The country gets more difficult, there is more and more poverty, more and more littering, there are more and more dogs, who are barking and following us and are quite dangerous for a crash. We see a lot of road kill, cadavers of dogs, poor people – the road is in perfect condition though. No bumps, just classy.

Tomorrow we are leaving the EU, this is going to be the start of our real adventure.

DAY 07: TRANSSILVANIEN EXPRESS

Riding To Sochi Project Day 07

04 May 2013, 210k,  Sebes – Sibiu – Fagoras – Brasov – Sacele (ROMANIA)

Sigi Grabner’s roadbook:  Transsylvania Express

Yesterday we spent a nice evening with Martin Freinademetz, my former companion and team mate in racing days. He is legend. He came over for dinner from his place by motorbike and we had some nice talks about old times and new future of Alpine snowboarding. He lives with his Romanian wife and his 2 children nearby, they own a ski resort, organise the Romaniacs event there and he told me that he organised a Snowboard Parallell Race last winter „because so many people were asking for it“ (please note – Alpine Racing!!!). He still wears his hair long (even without hair), it’s a kind of philosophy for people like us 🙂

200k  further to  the East

Today we continued our road to the East, rolled along the Carpathian mountains through a beautiful smooth hill landscape with small sleeping villages. It seems like we are travelling back in time. We passed Sibiu, an old German settlement with beautiful historic buildings which are being restored now. The traffic gets less, we encounter more bicycles and more horse driven wagons on the road, more pedestrians and homeless dogs. Yet there are also quite a few Porsche Panameras or other 200.000€ cars  passing!

In the evening we stopped near the town of Brasov in Dracula Country. We made 210km  and 1600 meters in altitude in this smooth hilly landscape without noticing that ist was steep. From here I can see the mountain tops of the Carpathian Range  covered with snow, next time I would like to stay longer and explore the Mountainbike trails around here…

DAY 06: A LOT OF CHANGES

Riding To Sochi: Sigi’s Roadbook: Day 06 – May  03, 2013

216k into Romania: Arad – Lipova – Orastie – Sibot – Seves

 CHANGES

We are in Romania now on our way to Transylvanian mountains. Martin Freinademetz, former Snowboard team mate is living near Iulia Alba with his family. Last time I was in this place it was by motorbike together with him, 16 years ago. Long long time ago!  A lot of things have changed since then, yet we both have still long hair 😉

This countryside has changed –  we see a lot of restructuring works and infrastructure bulding. Yet, still vast meadows and fields without fences, but shepherds with their flocks instead. We took the mainroad from Arad heading east, made a speedrun just to leave the flatlands and their steady winds behind. We got dust and noise instead :), saw a lot of construction work, trucks passing, people outside on the streets – top temperature was 36° C – and we were quite exhausted when we arrived. The truck drivers extremely friendly and taking care, cheering us up and waving to us. We made their day, so it seems.

We can already see the Carpathian mountains rising in the east, they are snow-covered. I like this.

Now, arrived in Sebes after 216k of dusty and noisy road, I’m going to have a nice shower, a load to eat and look forward to meeting up with Martin Freinademetz for dinner!

DAY 05 – NOW I KNOW WHAT STRAIGHT IS

Riding To Sochi – Sigi’s Roadbook:

Day  05 – May  02, 2013: 

217k – Füllöpszallas – Szentes – Oroshaza – Kaszaper – Battonya – border to Romania – Arad

 Now I know what straight is

After arriving in this nice „Applehouse“ guesthouse in Romania, my bottom hurts. I will need a load of cream tomorrow. They say that finally you will get used to it, hopefully this getting used starts after 5 days 😉  I feel quite tired and worn out today. I got up early, wanted to check the animals of the breeding farm. They had long horn cattle, white Lippizzaner horses and a lot of others. There were three funny dogs who liked me a lot. Also the mosquitos liked me a lot..

Then we continued riding to the East on long straight roads. It was hard. Riding against the wind on a completely flat landscape and completely straight roads is hard. It takes a lot of willpower to hold on. Some roads were very bumpy, some were nice, but the bumpy ones are fatal to tyres. Aaron’s tyres. He had a flat tyre twice today, now he leads the score by 2:1 ahead of Fisch.

I already was in Romania 16 years ago together with snowboard mates martin Freinademetz, Dieter Happ and  my motorbike. Now the country has changed a lot. It ist he same road, but today there are trucks, there are cities, there is urban life. In the past times it was a lot more like  „Into The Wild“.

After 217km of eastbound road (and the total distance of 1005k) we arrived in our hotel when it was already dark night –  there is a time lap of 1 hour compared tot he CET zone, which we did not think of. This means one hour less sleep for me tomorrow morning. Not nice.