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Snowboarders riding to Sochi
On 28th April, Roland Fischnaller and Aaron March of the Italian race board team, along with Austrian veteran Siegfried Grabner and Italy's parallel coach Erich Pramsohler set off on the bike ride from Fischnaller's home town of Villnoes (ITA) to Sochi (RUS).
The idea was initiated by Grabner, the parallel World Cup champion from 2009, and Fischnaller, who took silver and bronze at the 2013 FIS Snowboard World Champs in Stoneham (CAN), in addition to the 2013 PSL World Cup title. Grabner had already pedalled 700 km to Toscana (ITA) for a training camp two years ago.
Inspired by his experience and eager to make it to Sochi, the quartet started pushing the pedals at the end of April. The journey included different stages from Villnoes via Lienz, through Carinthia (both AUT), Slovenia, the South of Hungary to Romania across the Carpathian Mountains to Moldavia, before riding via Odessa and through the Ukraine along the coast of the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula to Sochi.
After a total of 3’110 km and 16 days on the saddle, they entered the 2014 Olympic host city on 13th May.
“We did it! Finally we arrived in Sochi after 3’110 km of riding and eight different countries. We have met very nice and interesting people, have seen many different landscapes and had a lot of wind as well as much fun. We are now in the place where we are going to compete for Olympic medals in February 2014”, said Fischnaller after arriving in Sochi. He added: “What we see here is a 30km construction site! Road works are going on, everything is full of trucks and construction workers, much is unfinished, but you can feel the action. They will of course finish everything on time and it will be glamorous! I am looking forward to being part of it.”
Source: FIS
The idea was initiated by Grabner, the parallel World Cup champion from 2009, and Fischnaller, who took silver and bronze at the 2013 FIS Snowboard World Champs in Stoneham (CAN), in addition to the 2013 PSL World Cup title. Grabner had already pedalled 700 km to Toscana (ITA) for a training camp two years ago.
Inspired by his experience and eager to make it to Sochi, the quartet started pushing the pedals at the end of April. The journey included different stages from Villnoes via Lienz, through Carinthia (both AUT), Slovenia, the South of Hungary to Romania across the Carpathian Mountains to Moldavia, before riding via Odessa and through the Ukraine along the coast of the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula to Sochi.
After a total of 3’110 km and 16 days on the saddle, they entered the 2014 Olympic host city on 13th May.
“We did it! Finally we arrived in Sochi after 3’110 km of riding and eight different countries. We have met very nice and interesting people, have seen many different landscapes and had a lot of wind as well as much fun. We are now in the place where we are going to compete for Olympic medals in February 2014”, said Fischnaller after arriving in Sochi. He added: “What we see here is a 30km construction site! Road works are going on, everything is full of trucks and construction workers, much is unfinished, but you can feel the action. They will of course finish everything on time and it will be glamorous! I am looking forward to being part of it.”
Source: FIS
