A 351 km ride across Lithuania — from Klaipėda to Vilnius in just 12 hours. Six riders, one goal: stay in the saddle the whole day, no stops except quick refills from our support car. We rode non-stop, pushing through wind, fatigue, and endless asphalt.
This is not just cycling — it’s a full-day endurance experiment powered by homemade nutrition: 6 liters of beetroot-broccoli electrolyte mix and turkey-quinoa-lentil protein fuel, plus feta-tofu recovery snacks providing protein.
Clear skies, teamwork, and discipline carried us from sunrise to sunset, through empty roads and quiet towns, until we rolled into Vilnius still strong. A joy of long-distance cycling — from the first light of dawn to the final meters into Vilnius.
It’s a beautiful morning and it is just 5:24 and I’m about to ride to Vilnius. I’ll do a trip of 350 plus kilometers with a bunch of my friends in about 12 hours. The sunrise is coming. It’s that way. The sun is about to come up because it’s mid-August. It’s getting brighter. But it’s still dark enough. I’m about half an hour away from the meeting spot. So I’m warming up little by little. Once we meet, we’ll go at a higher speed and we’ll continue non-stop for 350 kilometers. The only stop will be to refill water. I’ll have my wife carrying some water in the car so she’ll follow our route. With the three meeting spots, where she’ll be waiting for us and will provide some water refill and of course a box of bananas. 🙂 That is our energy bar! But basically we’ll spend 11 to 12 hours in a saddle without touching the ground with our feet. It’s just a different type of endurance. Just a few minutes into a ride and I see the sun already. I’m getting closer to the meeting point where I’ll meet the Destiny guys. . . . No wind. Easy day. Sunrise. It’s a very clear sky. Nice day. Beautiful, beautiful sight. It’s seven o’clock. We are an hour into cycling. One Comrade, battery juice is over. We’re just one and a half hours into a ride, 60 kilometers. Possibly the tempo was a bit too high for him, especially on hills. So he got detached. Got left about half a mile behind us. Now one of us, Pavel, just went back to help him out to pull him back into group and hopefully he’ll be able to continue. So our speed has decreased because of that. We’ll see. If he cannot continue at our pace then we’ll have to put him on a rest mode into a car. For about an hour, then he rejoins us back. It’s beautiful out there on an empty road. The whole group has recollected, so we’re continuing in full set. No pedalling down the hill, just roll down… Up the hill – the same, no pedalling. Just roll up to it. Roll down the hill, roll up the hill. Easy… No pedalling, at all. Give some water, please… We have lost one of us. At first at 50 km, then at 70km again. Audrius may catch up with us here, or later we’ll wait for him in Raseiniai in a few kilometers After 250 kilometers, there were just two of us. He was filming us from behind, when we just left him behind :(. He was left unnoticed. Pavel and me. One guy had to return home, so he basically did 170 kilometers with us and back home 170 kilometers. So he did his 300, almost 50 on his own. The one guy who got problems earlier detached, Then the second guy had problems as well. So we agreed that after 250 kilometers, there is no need for them to suffer anymore. And to slow us down, we’re leaving them with Laima. They jump into the car, their bicycles go on the car, and they continue the remaining 100 kilometers in comfort. And we just continue enjoying the sun, enjoying the ride, and admiring the road we’re just hitting all the time. The time went by very, very quickly. As you saw on the sign, the blue sign, Vilnius is just 29 kilometers. It’s just one hour ride at our speed. We started pushing sometimes a bit harder, like going into 32, 37. At one moment, I noticed that there is a huge tractor coming just behind us, and he was going at a high speed. When I shouted to Pavel, he misheard it. I said: Let’s cling to it. And he heard it, “Let’s stop”. So he hit the brakes and I hit the gas pedal. I caught the tractor. It was going about 55 kilometers an hour. I was expecting Pavel to be just behind me and next to me. When I turned around, I saw that he’s just one kilometer behind me. So I dropped the tractor, rejoined Pavel, and we just continued normally at our pace, 32, 37, without cheating and using the help from tractors. The last 10, 15 kilometers, Pavel was having some issues with his foot. He was getting cramps or strange pain. So we sometimes were slowing down just for 10, 20 seconds so he can get relaxed his foot and we can continue further on. Just entered Vilnius and having the last few kilometers to ride in the Vilnius suburbs. More cars, more traffic, more intersections, loads of roundabouts because Vilnius has a lot of traffic. So our pace has dropped. It has become more a commuter pace with the tiny gaps where we jump into a normal speed, but still even after 12 hours, we were able to continue at the same pace we started the 12 hours ago. I have not driven this route myself ever by car or cycling, so this was a fairly new route. I haven’t seen this side of Vilnius ever because it’s more remote from the central part where usually I visit. It has surprised me by lots of greenery, lots of trees, tranquil environment, lots of villas, nice new-built houses, even some space for fields where farmers grow their stuff. But otherwise, it’s a nice, quiet suburban area of Vilnius. And basically, I just entered the city of Vilnius area. It’s not a suburb anymore. It is a city of itself. So it is within the boundary of Vilnius. And as you can see, it’s beautiful. It’s not like most of the European cities or towns where you enter and you see just blocks, buildings, concrete, roads, aqueducts, bridges, and everything else which is not natural and not trees. So I was really, really nicely surprised to see the people having houses here, living so close from the city center, and yet there in the outdoors environment. So that’s a list of food I was taking, which I was drinking. It was actually boiled and put into my bottles as drinks, as like a soup, some sort of a soup. It was providing me with proteins, minerals and was protecting my muscles and my body itself from damage I was getting throughout this 12-hour ride. It was a prolonged ride, so it was essential to keep myself well protected with nutrient-rich food, mineral-rich food, which not only helps me keep the endurance, the speed, but also the next day allows me to feel well. I actually woke up next day really, really fresh. I was completely fresh. I didn’t feel any fatigue. I could probably run another 150 kilometers, no problem next day. I didn’t feel like I’m done. I don’t want anything anymore. So that’s the hotel we have arrived and Laima with the other two guys is here. They are waving us on the left side and they are waiting for us. So 351 kilometer done in 12 hours and basically 17 minutes. It was 66% of my intensity, so I didn’t kill myself. So average speed, good.