Curiously, the topic sparked some interest, so, through fatigue and a sore throat, I'll continue.
The Unity Ride is organized every year. There are actually three rides - highway, mountain, and people's (also on the highway), with distances of 102, 42, and 37 km, respectively.
You can find out more 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 isn't available in Russian, only in Latvian.
Participation is cheap - 6 Ls in advance or 8, 10, 12 later. On the day of the competition itself, it costs 20. But this year upon registration 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 a hub at the Daugavpils "Trek" anyway.
Punk didn't register, reasoning that he is a broke-ass, a cheapskate, and a pig against unity it's too expensive. Just so you can get a true idea of his character:
I paid 12, got a discount for 10, i.e., I effectively paid 2 Ls.
The organizers, on the other hand, 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 your time and place for finishers.
4. Porridge with jam after the finish, a small chocolate bar before the start, bananas along the distance, and as much water as you can hold at any time.
5. A crappy, but functional info website, plus the ability to find out everything by phone and on-site (for example, in Trek stores).
6. Judging, toilets, track cordons and fences, police, doctors, and much more in that vein. LDz ran extra trains, by the way (but they were the main sponsor).
Based on the above, you can get an idea of the scale. To help you picture it better, I'll mention that this year 4454 participants took part in the ride. It's hard to imagine such a giant 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 is very happy, cars in the city yield the right of way, because behind the wheel are the same bicycle cultists, hehe. No one argues, everyone helps and advises each other, which makes total sense - bicycles are used by people who are by definition not as egocentric as those using cars.
The number is supposed to be pinned exactly in the center of your back. There was a problem here, because it turned out I had forgotten my cycling jersey, and the number had to be pinned to an expensive membrane jacket, and with SAFETY PINS at that. This is a minus 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 here for the first time but were already making plans to overtake absolutely everyone, we went to watch the MTB riders start. A whopping thousand of them gathered, which surprised even the organizers. Bear in mind that there were only about 60 highway athletes altogether.
The remaining thousands took part in the people's ride. Among them were also company representatives - the Laima folks with balloons stood out especially. But in general, I think the main heroes were those riding the Latvijas Pasts (Latvian Post) bikes. Our perpetually loss-making postal service was recently reorganized here, as a result of which many branches were simply abolished, and postmen were given bikes.
Such a bicycle looks and weighs about as much as a tank - the incredibly thick yellow steel frame contributes to this. How one can ride 37 km on such a bike, even in two hours, is beyond my comprehension.
Since I am running out of time before heading to bed, I will wrap it up for today. I'll just write about the starting corridors.
A corridor is the place where you begin the ride. It looks like parts of the highway fenced off with ribbons in the front and back, and fences on the sides, at the entrance to which hang ranges of numbers.
Your corridor is determined by how you performed the previous year, and nothing else. That is, even if you are a world champion, but it's your first time - you will be in the corridor with numbers from 4000 and up, and another 2000 people will stand in front of you. Overtaking them, given that they are barely crawling and getting in each other's way, will take you tens 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 same Latvijas Pasts bikes
Couldn't do without advertising.
I probably looked like a fisherman, but I'd forgotten my cycling jersey, and I was too lazy to take off the pants, they didn't get in the way much.
Chip with an antenna
Registration
A megabike tandem.
The MTBers are starting. Some sly ones rode on the sidewalk to overtake the masses.
