Putin, of course, is not bored. Among his hobbies – according to the CIA, the British MI6 and other intelligence services – are cutting submarine cables, interfering in elections, launching drones and cyber attacks, making critical journalists they fall through windows, sending dissidents to Siberia, invading countries, doing everything possible to undermine the European Union (the latter is a two-handed game in which his friend Trump accompanies him)… And as for sports, he loves ice hockey and judo.
He talks about the future organization of a Tour of Russia (perhaps to spite France), but there is no evidence that he particularly likes cycling, or even that he has a bicycle (Moscow’s climate is not the most appropriate in any case). The Ural – the Russian version of the Harley Davidson – is something else, because they are associated with the “wolves of the night”, an ultranationalist group whose members have been photographed. Without a doubt that march suits him. In order to destabilize Finland (a NATO member), Putin has taken immigrants from the Middle East and Africa to the border with the Nordic country and provided them with bicycles to cross it, thus circumventing the prohibition on doing so on foot, a practice that has been described as “hybrid warfare.” But something very different is for someone to enter Russia pedaling, even if it is a recognized athlete seeking to establish a world record.
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The athlete was about to break the Trans Eurasia record when he was detained on the Chinese-Russian border
This is the case of the Frenchman Sofiane Sehili, an ultracycling ace who traveled 17,000 kilometers by bicycle to beat the mark of the German Jonas Deichman in the Trans Eurasia, a route that goes from Lisbon to Vladivostok, carrying his own equipment, crossing war zones, crossing seventeen borders and enduring extreme temperatures. An epic.
At first everything was smooth sailing, with an average of 300 kilometers and fourteen hours a day that would make it easier for him to break the record with ease. Sehili was counting on the change of route due to the war in Ukraine, but he did not imagine that the number of trucks that circulate day and night on the roads of Kazakhstan would be a nightmare. He chose to detour via Uzbekistan, where mechanical problems on his bicycle and unpaved roads between the mountains conspired to cause him to lose almost all of the margin he enjoyed to achieve his goal.
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He only had the last two hundred kilometers left, for which he counted on crossing from northern China (near North Korea) to Russia with an electronic visa with which he had had no problem passing through Chechnya and Dagestan weeks ago. But at that specific border crossing you could only cross as a pedestrian, not as a cyclist, not even holding your bicycle.
The guards suggested that he take a train to the next post, but this would have invalidated his record because using any form of public transportation is prohibited. Sehili was not ready to give up after all the hardships he had suffered. He saw that if he immersed himself in a stream he could pass under the metal fence and reach a forest that was already Russian territory. He did so, but police officers were waiting for him on the other side who did not believe his story that he had been lost, nor were they interested in his aspiring to beat the Trans Eurasia record.
After two nights in a cell at a military facility, he was transferred to a prison where he spent another fifty. After pleading guilty at trial, he was released due to the absence of aggravating circumstances. Putin, in a gesture of magnanimity, forgave him the 550 euro fine that accompanied the sentence. And he’s not interested in cycling…
Sofiane Sehili
Fifty countries from five continents on a bicycle
The ultracycling star, 44, lives in the southwest of France, and since 2010 he has traveled more than 200,000 kilometers on his bicycle. His record includes eleven top-level victories, including the Atlas Mountain Race, the Silk Route Mountain Race on three occasions and the Tour Divide, which goes from Banff in Canada to Antelope Wells in New Mexico. Before trying to break the Trans Eurasia record, the longest distance he had covered was 16,000 kilometers between Paris and the South China Sea. He says that ultracycling is not just a sport for him, but above all an adventure.
