Zážitky z bikepackingového závodu v Řecku. Hellenic Mountain Race má skoro 900 kilometrů a 27 tisíc metrů převýšení. Na start se sjíždějí cyklisté z celého světa a já s nimi poměřoval svoje síly. Největší překážkou na trase byli pastevečtí psi a nevyzpytatelné počasí – buď pršelo nebo bylo horko.
Pro podporovatele kanálu existuje prodloužená a obsahuje 20 minut záběrů navíc https://youtu.be/QFg3SrkkVK4 Detaily o průběhu závodu doplňuji na https://ozogan.eu/cs/hellenic-mountain-race-2025-den-1-a-2-jak-se-ze-me-stal-zly-clovek/
Natočeno na Insta360 3S Go https://www.alza.cz/insta360-go-3s-standard-edition-arctic-white-128gb-d12380642.htm?idp=23515&banner_id=77834
Výbava na závod https://ozogan.eu/cs/vybava-na-hellenic-mountain-race/
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Welcome to HMR 2025. Ride carefully. I fell so terribly bad. The terrain is challenging. It can be slippy. It will rain. It rains. Wild animals in Greece. Dogs are the most problematic. There can be packs of them. Hey! Go away! Go away! If you’re just driving by, they’ll be fine. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Let them know you are human and not dangerous. I am human. There will be storms. You will get wet. Wet, but happy. Thunderstorms with lightning. So far, the lightning bolts are relatively far away. You don’t want to be riding your bike down a hillside in the middle of a storm. I have a very busy schedule this year. I want to participate in all races from the Mountain Races series with a total length of over 4 thousand kilometers. In February I rode through Moroccan deserts and now in May the Hellenic Mountain Race awaited me. A 900 km race in the Greek mountains with 27,000 meters of elevation gain. I tried to train diligently. However, I didn’t really follow my self- prepared training plan and instead made up crap like riding 300 km on gummy bears. So instead I relied on my muscle memory. The forecast for the route was clear. Rain and bloodthirsty dogs. Over 200 cyclists from all over the world gathered under the monasteries in Meteora. Our goal was to reach the port city of Nafpaktos unsupported and using only our own power. With a target time of around five days, I packed clothes, sleeping bag, tools and electronics with me. And this is what it looked like. And it’s already coming for us. It is 30°C. I’m sweating like a pig, but we’ve already entered the first thousand. Yay, only 27k left, maybe 26 or 40 depending on who you believe. Anyway, the pre-start nervousness is gone. The cold too. I still take the sucky healing candies just to be safe, I’ll finish them and then it’ll be fine. So far it’s nice, beautiful forests, a little warmer, but so far it’s still possible. If I do this for four days, I think I’ll sound a little different tomorrow. I see snow in the distance. Well, I almost fell a few times there, but hurray down and on I go. Now I understand why Garmin shows so much extra elevation gain. Here are the poorly done contour lines. I guess the data is wrong here, because it shows me that according to the contours I should now be going up a huge hill, but I’m following the contour here. We are now about 1700. I already managed to perform a stunt when I spilled my sugar water, so I spilled half of my bag on my leg. It’ll be about 40, 30, something like that to the first town. So far so good. Now it’s so pleasant, even if it’s sometimes warm, but right now there’s a nice breeze, so I’m happy. Another 13 kilometers to the first town. It’s not like it’s completely straight, it’s quite uphill. Sometimes something clicks so strangely in the bike, but I think it’s just the bag, I hope. Things are flying here like two marmots on a mission. There are some strange clouds flying there, as if it should rain, but it doesn’t. I am human. Hey, hey, I don’t want to hurt you. I’m nice, I’m nice I’m nice, I’m nice I’m nice, I just want to pass. Let me pass. I’m tired of dealing with those sons of bitches. You scared the horse. So here it is. It’s starting to rain. The stupid thing is that it’s already so dark as the air humidity is high, so my glasses are fogged up, so I can see pretty much nothing, but otherwise it pleasantly supported my thermoregulation, so it’s not so bad. Recap of the night. As I was bragging about it, then it started to get a little complicated. As soon as the night came, it started to rain, so the section was full of mud, it was quite bad. I don’t really like this mud riding. And since it was so wet, the bike slid around on some wet gravel. My cleats were terribly slippery. I fell really awfully there. I fell on my ass, but I saved the bike. CP1 in a moment. I still have to climb the last hill here. I think it is about 2000 meters. I’m at 1200 now, so it’s going to be tricky. I’ve had enough. I’m already hungry. Huge hunger. I need to eat this spaghetti. I’m on the first CP. It’s pretty cold. I’ll keep going, but the weather is awful. So we’ll see. Spaghetti bolognese is inside of my stomach and I have to keep it there. It must get digested well. But I stuffed myself like a lot. I don’t even know where I’m going to sleep. It will be raining, 3 degrees, but who knows. It was quite warm last night. Hopefully it will be again. If I survive today, I’ll somehow finish. This is how I rest on the hill. I’ve had enough. Most of the climbs are still doable, but then the pushing that happened before the CP was absolutely terrible. Wow, what a climb. I could push for like two hours. That takes some serious biceps. Well, this is a walking section. Now I have covered about 23 km and 800 m elevation gain from the CP. That’s insane. Cool. He’s starting to hallucinate. I mean, just a bit. I thought the stone was a sign. Somewhere at the level of Sněžka, it’s raining, it’s cold, but I keep going. And I’m ready for three hours of sleep. I have to dry everything, so I sleep in what I wear. So I slept well for about an hour and a half and I can go on. Sunshine, finally here. I’ve been waiting. It rained for two days, it was foggy. Okay, it was nice at the start, but then it sucked. Hopefully it will be nice again today. I’ll see how it goes with the top ten. It’s not quite easy. Yesterday at CP1, I arrived in the top ten, but then somehow I dropped about seven places because I couldn’t do it. So I wanted to sleep for 3 hours and I slept for an hour and a half. I had a good night’s sleep and then it was already freezing in those mountains at 2000. So the forecast was correct. CP, how else, but on a hill. Do you want spaghetti? We are on CP2. We have a dog here. I washed my bike, although it doesn’t look like it, but I have to leave soon. Let’s see, views. Well, that was a decent passo. Now back down. All badly washed out, washed out road. Just such points. Do you have a dog here? Cute. Where are you running? Hey, I’m going, I’m going. Come on, why are you looking at me? But somehow it doesn’t work. Well, I don’t know if the top ten will come out. They always just zoom past me at such a speed, and I have to catch up after who knows when. Which of course is a question of if I would have gone faster if I had rested, but that is what no one will tell you. So here it is. Just let it rain. It’s terribly hot and I really can’t ride in that heat anymore. Yeah, it makes me sick, but I have to. It really burns. That’s terrible. I just woke up. I slept for 5 minutes. I have such a problem that my headset vibrates. That could make it such a nasty problem. I’m just afraid that the bearings will spill out. I’ll try to tighten it. Now the pitchfork won’t budge. I’m quite happy. So this is the only place they had anything to eat. I ordered again one spaghetti and one sandwich and it has to last me 170 km. Maybe they still have some chips. I also got ketchup. Another evening is coming up, so let’s recap my situation. The bike is not at its best. I solved the head composition to 95%. It was enough to tighten it and the wobble is no longer on the fork, but I have the feeling that it is still banging there. But ok, I’ve already experienced worse banging. But it’s not banging when I turn, but when there’s some kind of impact. But maybe it’s the saddle, because the saddle bangs a lot, but I don’t really want to deal with it, I think by disassembling it, I can make even worse. The important thing is that it’s working now and I think it’s going to get me to finish. I should have had two spaghetti. Such an amateur mistake. So quick, another passo behind me. I can’t speak Greek, so I don’t know what kind of passo it is, but it was paso de huge cow. 4th day, 4th morning, 3rd night. I’ve had enough, like mornings are nice, yes but pretty cold, but like I don’t know. Yeah, it’s not working. I’ll go as far as I can. If he can’t do it, he can’t do it. That’s a feast. Every time I start eating a 7days croissant, I know I’ve hit a gastronomic rock bottom. Doesn’t that sign look like it was shot at? I see empty shells here in the woods. I wonder what the Greeks are doing here. So now I have to fix the bag somehow. Apidura. Here it got ripped, or rather, it came unglued. I don’t know if it’s stapled. Well, so it’s not completely waterproof now. I have some doubts that the tape will hold it well here, so I think, it’s from the inside and the outside, but I’m counting on the fact that it won’t last very long, and then maybe if it rains, I’ll put the things in some plastic, just find some. I feel already totally baked and it’s not even 10, yeah, so it’s going to be even worse. So I chatted with a German tourist because I really wanted to sleep. I needed a boost. Here we drive along some tourist routes. I haven’t seen any tourists here yet, he was the first and said, if I understood him correctly, that he had been here for a few weeks and hadn’t seen any yet either. So let’s go to the bridge. We are going to conquer the Greek bridges. That will be beautiful for sure. I have a HAB note there, or hike a bike, or it’s going to be fucked. Or we will push for a long time and over some rubble. So I didn’t ride through this pass much. Jeez, that’s slow. That’s interesting. Yes, here the hills are completely covered with trees. Why am I riding in the sun here? What’s the problem here? I need to go exactly where they are going. And the dogs watch over the herd. A stone if they were aggressive. Goats, go somewhere. I don’t want to get between those dogs and goats. The last climb. I’m going for it. I had another can of Coke. I have two with me and I think that should be enough. I’m at the top, but not sure, I mean the route matches. So you see. That was a decent riser. Passo de tunnel. I think the sea is still far away. I’m hungry. Going to CP. I bought an awful, awful amount of food. Because there is nothing between CP3 and the goal and maybe I bought too much, but better to have more than not enough. I don’t know how to pack it, what to put where. So I don’t know if I’m hallucinating or if there really is a straw bale lying here on the road. The last night has passed. Wow, what day is it? And now I’m crushing candy bars. I’m a little afraid that it won’t be enough for me. I reached Jesus’ cozy home relatively dry. In the end, I decided to sleep for 3 hours, which is basically half of my allotment for the entire race. I quite like these roads, those switchbacks. Those are fine. You know you’re going somewhere, then when you get to the top, you have some nice views. That’s lovely. You see, beauty, beauty. Jesus, good morning. I was about to fall asleep again, but some guy is riding a little behind me. Somehow he’s doing too well, he must be taking drugs. My legs are dead. Jeez, I can’t really get on that bike. I have to say that the 5 minutes of lying down really helped. Here is civilization. I see smoke. Do you think they give out food? I doubt it. Those passes are really divine. I drive such mega switchbacks down over the bridge and then go up again. Yeah, otherwise, the shoe here is also totally messed up. Yeah, there’s also a hole here. Now… some raisins… and… don’t take X-PEDA! Some clouds. It was supposed to drizzle. So we’ll see like a little drizzle. I would like to order two pieces please. Wet but happy. I hope the pass is here. OK. I want to ride down a little. So far, the lightning bolts are relatively far away. OK. Well, it’s already somewhere in the distance. It’s slowly dying down. I’m just wet, but otherwise fine. Well, that has its advantages. A storm like this before the finish will give you the guts and you’ll get there well. So, satisfaction. Thank you, Mr. Storm. Thank you very much. I only have about three Snickers left. 60 to go, but I’m going for it. I will make it. I now know what happened to me there. It has moved backwards, so I have to loosen it, I have to loosen it back. I have to pull. I tightened the saddle. I had to take off the bag. Whatever. I was just trying to tighten another position. It is a lesson that it is good to check the tightening moments. Hey, hey, hey, go away, go away. Hey hey hey Hey So 33 km to the finish line. The last climb. I’m going for it. The wheel is already creaking. It doesn’t want to either. It also needs cleaning. Me too, I stink like a rat. I’m trying to chase one little person in front of me. And according to the tracker, he’s two minutes ahead, but I still can’t see him. Does he even exist? I made visual contact. Well, I decided not to deal with the 11th or 12th place and I prefer to enjoy the views here. Really nice. It’s a big show here. This is amazing. That’s how it goes. The last downhill. Simply divine views from all sides. This is incredible. This is perfect timing. I am actually catching up with him. I am the devil. Did you drive when it rained? Sure, there you are, congratulations. Thanks. And I, if I’m counting correctly, I arrived in shared 11th place and I’m really looking forward to getting some sleep. But one more funny thing that is coming up, I will be going home by bike.
1 Comment
Borec každý, kdo něco takového dojede. A je jedno jestli je první, padesátý nebo poslední.