Curiously, the topic generated some interest, so through fatigue and a sore throat, I'll continue.
The Unity Ride is organized every year. Actually, there are three rides — highway, mountain, and the people's ride (also on the highway), which are 102, 42, and 37 km long, respectively.
You can find out all the details about the event at the links https://velo.lv/?nwID=146 and https://velo.lv/?bsID=2&sacID=43&isGR=0. The official website, as usual in Latvia, is mediocre, and half the info is missing in Russian, available only in Latvian.
Participation doesn't cost much — 6 Ls in advance or 8, 10, 12 later on. On the day of the competition itself, it costs 20. But this year, when registering, they gave out a 10 Ls discount coupon for purchases at Trek (Veloserviss) stores. So, I paid 12, but saved 10 lats, since I was replacing the hub at the Daugavpils "Trek" anyway.
Punk decided not to register, citing the fact that he is a cheapskate, a skinflint, and a pig against unity it's too expensive. Just so you can get an accurate idea of his character:
I paid 12, got a discount of 10, i.e., I practically paid 2 Ls.
The organizers, however, provide
1. A number with an electronic chip (readings are taken automatically). The number is single-use, you can keep it as a souvenir.
2. An envelope with a map and other papers.
3. A beautiful medal and a diploma with the time and place for the finishers.
4. Porridge with jam after the finish, a small chocolate bar before the start, bananas along the route, and as much water as you can drink at any time.
5. A crappy, but functional website with info, as well as the option to find out everything by phone and on-site (for example, in Trek stores).
6. Refereeing, toilets, route cordons and fences, police, doctors, and a lot of other stuff in that vein. LDz ran extra trains, by the way (but they were the main sponsor).
Based on all the above, you can get an idea of the scale. To help you picture it better, I'll say that this year 4,454 participants took part in the ride. It's hard to imagine such a gigantic crowd of cyclists if you've never been to a bicycle city like Berlin or Copenhagen (I haven't).
It makes a great impression — the atmosphere is festive, everyone's super happy, cars in the city yield the right of way, since the people behind the wheel are part of the same cycling cult, heh. No one argues, everyone helps and advises each other, which totally makes sense — bicycles are used by people who are by definition less egocentric than those who drive cars.
The number is supposed to be attached in the center of the back. A problem arose here, because it turned out I forgot my cycling jersey, and I had to attach the number to an expensive membrane jacket, using SAFETY PINS no less. A minus here both for me (forgot the jersey) and the organizers — is there really no better way?
After chatting a bit with a girl and a guy sitting nearby on the lawn, who were also there for the first time but were already making plans to overtake everyone and everything, we went to watch the MTB riders start. A whopping thousand of them gathered, which surprised even the organizers. Mind you, there were only about 60 highway athletes in total.
The remaining thousands took part in the people's ride. Among them were also company representatives — the Laima folks with their balloons stood out in particular. But overall, I think the real heroes are those who rode the Latvijas Pasts (Latvian Post) bikes. Our forever-unprofitable post office was recently reorganized here, resulting in many branches simply being abolished, while the postmen were issued bicycles.
Such a bike looks and weighs roughly like a tank — the horrific thickness of its yellow steel frame contributes to that. How anyone can ride 37 km on a bike like that, even if it takes two hours, is beyond my comprehension.
Since I'm running out of time before heading to sleep, I'll wrap up for today. I'll just write about the starting corridors.
The corridor is the place where you start the ride. It looks like sections of the highway fenced off with ribbons at the front and back, and fences on the sides, with number ranges hanging at the entrances.
Your corridor is determined by how you performed the previous year, and nothing else. So even if you're a world champion, but it's your first time — you'll be in the corridor with numbers from 4000 and up, and another 2,000 people will line up in front of you. Overtaking them, considering they are barely crawling and getting in each other's way, will take you dozens of minutes no matter how hard you try. That's the situation I found myself in, but more on that next time.
A few photos:
Those very Latvijas Pasts bikes
Couldn't do without advertising.
I probably looked like a fisherman, but I forgot my cycling jersey, and I was too lazy to take my pants off since they didn't get in the way much.
The chip with an antenna
Registration
A megabike tandem.
The MTB riders are starting. Some tricksters rode on the sidewalk to overtake the masses.