120 kilometres for independence
120 KILOMETRES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
THE FIRST CYCLE MARATHON TOOK PLACE IN GORKI.
Gorki is a special city. Many amateurs and enthusiasts of cycling live here. There is a Sports Club "Velo-Gorki" in this district center. Together with Gorki district organization "Belaya Rus," the department of ideological work, culture and youth affairs of Gorki regional executive committee, and BSAA the club initiated the first Gorki bicycle marathon, which took place on the Independence Day.
The organizers noted that such events are organized by the cycling club in order to promote a healthy way of life, introduce regular physical activities and sports, represent cycling as a means of active pastime and leisure, joining people of various age, and popularize Gorki as a convenient and affordable place for amateur cycling events and active recreation.
- Gorki is a town of healthy lifestyle that should become the capital of the cycling marathon movement, says the club member Andrey Gornovsky. - We have already held 50 and 100 km races here, as well as brevettes at the distances of 200 and 300 km. This time we had a marathon with a distance of 120 km.
Before the start, the Head of the Gorki district executive committee Mikhail Guly handed over a handful of Gorki land to the participants of the cycle marathon with a request to take it to "Katyusha" memorial complex in Orsha.
Marathon participants covered a distance of 120 kilometres. The route ran along the Mogilev and Vitebsk regions. 27 brave cycling enthusiasts from Gorki, Orsha, Kostyukovichy, Vitebsk, Gorodok and Grodno took part in it.
Among the participants there were five teachers of the academy (Ruslan Dargel, Andrey Gornovsky, Mikhail Akulich, Nikolai Kudryavets, Konstantin Sednev), as well as a deputy head of the Gorki Central Regional Hospital Natalya Kovaleva, head of the polyclinic Alesya Gornovskaya, head of the land management service Yevgeny Kuzmitsky with his wife Irina, a teacher of Shishevo school Tatyana Kazakevich and other people who are not indifferent to cycling - Yuri Ermakov, Igor Astapenko with his wife Irina, Larisa Pesotskaya, Oksana Kudryavtseva, Dmitry Nechetko, Andrey Fesin.
The peleton included five married couples, one of whom was from Kostyukovichy - Nikolai and Natalya Starodub. They whole distance was covered by Valery Saifudinov, Alexander Belyaev and Dmitry Antipov from Orsha, Pavel Isakov from Vitebsk, Kirill Rudov from Gorodok, and Nikolai Trusov from Grodno.
Despite the heat, all the participants got lots of positive emotions. They not only drove these 120 kilometres, but also visited memorial complexes and mass graves, paying their tribute to the liberators of our country from the Nazi invaders.
Long trips are always a test not only for an athlete, but for his bike as well, - said Andrei Gornovsky. - So, this marathon was no exception - two participants punctured the wheels. However, the friendly and cheerful company did not leave colleagues in trouble, and all the breakdowns were quickly eliminated.
Having invested in the allotted time (7 hours), everybody finished without problems. At the end of the marathon, honored sportsman of the USSR Nikolai Trusov presented all participants with memorable magnets and corporate medals of the "Velo-Gorki" club.
By the way, together with the participants of the bike marathon, a teddy bear named Igor covered the distance.
- This fabulous inspector of the traffic police was a symbol of our marathon and urged all road traffic participants to strictly follow traffic rules, and he also received his award for that, - said the participant and organizer of the marathon Ruslan Dargel.
Daria EVERS.
Photo: Ruslan DARGEL.
