Jarleif Lødøen har skrevet følgende om sin nært forestående randonnée i Ukraina. For mer informasjon, kontakt Jarle på epost eller mobil 90619494.

Håkon Wattum og undertegnende reiser til Ukraina for å sykle 1000 km fra den 12.07 – 15.07.
Starten er fra byen Lugansk. Lugansk er en nattog reise på ca 900 km fra Kiev.Vi reiser med www.Airbaltic.com den 09.07 med retur den 18.07.Det er enkelt å få med seg en 1000 km i Ukrainia.
Vi har fått kontakt med en meget hyggelig og hjelpsom mann – Alexander.
Han vil bestille togbilletter for oss, samt å følge oss fra hotellet i Lugansk frem til start.Heng med

Nedenfor er den mest sentrale kommunikasjonen gjengitt:

Thank you very much Alexandr

And I really apreciate your offer to help us with Train tickets, and helping us out :).
Very positive!

We are two persons that have decided to take the trip, if we could get information from Ukraine. The other person is Haakon Wattum. So now there will be two persons from Norway.

We are planning to arrive in Kiev the 9th and Return the 18th.

I Guess we want to follow you advice about buying one compartment at the Train.

We experienced Russian road quality last year (http://vol1200.ru/), and from your description I Guess it will be about the same in this brevet.

We will now book Our flight, and see if we could get more Norwegians to follow us.

Thank you for a very postive answer!
You will hear from us.

Jarleif

Lugansk Regional Public Association of Consumers “People’s Control” (narodnij.kontrol@gmail.com)
Hello Jarleif! I’m really glad that you’ve got interested visiting Ukraine and participating in a brevet held by “Randonneurs Go!”

Email address you’ve sent previous mail to is not valid anymore, it belongs to the previous Audax Ukraine president, he might not be very frequent on the web.

Usually I update information regarding upcoming event on our web site in a month before the start, that’s why there’s nothing there yet.

So this year’s “Randonneurs Go!” 1000 km brevet will be held over the following route:
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?amp;fileId=psexqfeiamukkpbt
(you can also view it here http://www.openrunner.com/index.php?id=2304626 )

We will be starting and finishing in Lugansk, start is scheduled on 12th of July at 19:00, finish point will be closed on 15th of July at 22:00. Participants are expected to arrive at start point under own power, escort car is not provided.

The distance from Kiev to Lugansk is 900 km. You can get to Lugansk either by train, bus or by air. I’d like to mention that air tickets are quite expensive (~150$), departure at 19:25, arrival at 21:25.

I think it’s a good idea to use train, as you can buy one whole compartment (4 tickets) and use one place specially for your bikes. Ticket price is 25$. There’re several trains, the fastest (and most neat inside I guess) is departing at 17:10, arriving at 08:05.

Alternatively you can use bus, ticket price is also around 25$, it will depart at 17:00 and arrive at 6:45.

In either case I can help reserving tickets for you from Kiev and back, as well as meeting you here and getting to hotel. Later on we can ride together to the start location.

I’d like to note that the specified route runs through places described by famous Russian writer Nikolay Gogol, as well as ex-USSR industrial region – Donbas (which is now in decay, so we’ll cycle through it mostly during night time :)). At least 50% of the route uses secondary minor roads. Asphalt quality will range from fantastic to awful (like after WW2 bombing :)). So if you’re not afraid of possible harsh road conditions, you’re very welcome! This trip should be quite educational, you’ll know a lot about different people inhabiting Ukraine.

If you definitely decide to participate in the brevet, I’ll send you an Approval_application_form_BRM_route, registration form, and generally more detailed information about the route and tell you some tips about things to have with you to be able to finish it successfully in our Ukrainian “environment”.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

Sincerely yours, Alexandr.