Przyjezierze - Bike Marathon 2012

This year we are biking considerably more often than in the previous years and the biking marathon is a sign of this fact. I came across an advertisement of the venue on the local bike trip and decided to give it a try almost immediately. We encouraged our close friends to join us and so, the fun began.

Przyjezierze is a small town 80 km from Szczecin. We set off early, with four bikes on our indefatigable Fiat Punto (this car has gone through so much with us). It was our first time in a race so everyone was a bit nervous. Especially guys, who like to compete.

We were one of the firsts at the registration desk so we had quite some time for us to prepare to the race.  We were lucky, because the weather that day was perfect for a bike ride. Not too hot, no sign of rain. At first we made a short tour around the venue place. There was surprisngly a lot to see! The organizers made a good job.

At first we had a look at home made food by the farmer's wives association. In the end... a biker needs some calories before the start (but not too much, so we all agreed that we will come back to the stalls after the race for a proper treat).

Then we had a look at the exhibition of cars - with Ferrari being the most popular. Wow, that really is a super looking car!

Then we moved on to see the show given by the bike jumpers (I don't even know how they are profesionally called, but the animator said they were one of the best in Poland). This looked really cool and a bit dangerous. Respect!

When we finished the tour we still had some time before the start (which was planned at 15.00), so we decided to have a warm-up ride around the area. We followed the official trail of the contest for a while and then took an opposite turn to visit the Moryń lake. Poland is really beautiful.

We didn't want to be too tired before the start so we came back quite fast, full of excitement while waiting at the "zero hour". There were really a lot of pro bikers around us, so we felt a bit overwhelmed, yet full of hope and desire to have fun.

Some photos from the start...

From the route...

And from the finish...

That's correct - my "finish" happened to occur in the middle of nowhere when my bike broke after an ominously looking (but fortunately victimless) accident. I was a bit disappointed not to finish the race but that's OK, I had some lovely time walking my bike to the finishing line. Poland is really beautiful and I wouldn't have taken these pictures if it hadn't been for the accident. So in the end, there is always the good side of the coin. I'll beat them the next year!

Radek came at a very good 35th place. He was the best from us and I think he was very proud of the result. All in all the race was very exhausting but real fun! We stayed for the award ceremony and got the medals ourselves. Nice souvenir. We will definitely come next year.

To give you a better understanding of how the event looked like here's the video summary done by the organizers.