Zwift - Halvfems on Tempus Fugit in Watopia

Zwift - Mishmash on Tempus Fugit in Watopia

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Zwift - Orange Unicorn on Tempus Fugit in Watopia

Zwift - Devedeset on Tempus Fugit in Watopia

Okay, why not take a GranFondo ride on the very first day of June. Initially, I planned to make a circle Pskov-Palkino-Izborsk-Pskov with possible ride to Novaya Struga lake in order to find out if there was a placе to camp (we're going to make a trip to those places with bro). 

Asphalt to Palkino was sometimes pretty good, but some other times (as I remembered from the last year) - almost the same awful acne road like I had yesterday. Also, I faced another type of asphalt that I call "a railroad". It has a bunch of lateral cracks - some 2-3 ones for each 5 meters. So riding over it you hear almost the same sound the train or tram wheels do on the rail clinches. 

After all those "rails" and "acne" roads had to inflate tyres as the pressure seemed low. Then I turned to Belaya Struga (White Struga, where Struga is a traditional Russian flat-bottomed galley boat) lake. And suddenly I realized I have no power at all. Either it was due to the head wind (although just medium), or not really good asphalt, or both - no idea, but anyway, hardly could I ride at 30kmph.

Then I remembered of Global Running Day! I stopped at the turn to Lake Black (near Belaya Struga), put my shoes off, left the bike at some granny's house (not sure if it was clever, but we talked for some minutes and I decided I could trust her), and ran barefoot on the ground road with a lot of stones - hardly could I ride there on my 23mm tyres. Very easy, with some stops to find the right way. I found the lake, looked around and ran back to the village (here's my epic run, lol: https://www.strava.com/activities/595147014)

Taken my bike back and thanked a granny I was sure I wasn't going to turn back and ride to Izborsk, instead I proceeded to Ostrov after that some 50 km of very nice high-road awaited me.

I was running out of water, but a well near the road solved this, so I just ate all the gels left and went back home. In Ostrov I also found that somewhere between Palkino and Ostrov my phone was in roaming! It found a Latvian net - but it was some 30km to the border!!! Goddamit, and we wonder why the connection is so bad in our region...

All the road from Ostrov seemed to be a cooldown ride, nice and easy, except for the pain in my back - still I need to correct my riding position. When I got off the bike in Pskov, called everyone to say I was alive, and started an "official cooldown", I felt with every fibre how great was riding a bike, it was a total catharsis if it's only possible to use that word here.

The wind was gone when I got back to Pskov, and traffic was not so dense, so I could've taken all KOMs on my way, but didn't want to, I was just getting my kicks from the ride. Still, I couldn't but attempt the main bridge segment and must've had a nice result, but the segment didn't match by some curious reason. I'll upload a ticket to Strava Support to find this out cause it was the first (and maybe the only) real attempt on that bridge, usually I try to avoid it.

Enjoy the views and ride on!

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Evgeny Vasiliev

Mr Trololo ride. June Gran Fondo. Riding before my nose

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