Lake Ladoga 2004
by Ivo Miesen
Table of Contents
New: Ivo's 2005 tour
through Ukraine
> Hi Adrian, in case you're not on the Audax list,
here's the Lake Ladoga report. > Feel free to forward it to any randonneur list you haven't seen this appearing. > > Ivo 
Day One - St. Petersburg to Vidnitsa (Karelia)
"15 Minutes," a few Saturday-evening drinkers
shout to us from a small pub as we pass the village of
Tuloksa. It's amazing to see and hear how the locals
already know about the Lake Ladoga 800. OK, 16 cyclists
passing these remote villages is already a traffic
jam…
Russia is one of the European countries with an
active Audax/Randonneuring scene. One of the main clubs
is the Baltic Star
Randonneurs of St. Petersburg. Their classic ride
is Around
Lake Ladoga, an 800k with an option to quit at
600k. (Not that that would be an option for me!) Lake
Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe and one of the
northernmost of the world's large lakes.
So, on Saturday morning I cycled to the Lenin
Monument in front of the Finland railway station, the
place where Lenin held his first speech after arriving
back from exile. A small group is assembled here, some
club members will ride with us to the city limits. Only
16 wanted to do the entire ride. In a good group, we
left town. Everyone took a turn at front, a nice
tailwind and a well maintained main road. Conversation
was a bit limited for me, my Russian is rather basic,
and most riders didn't speak anything but Russian. It
was a bit strange to see some of the roadsigns,
"Murmansk 1300km" is
not a strange sign here! That opens completely other
perspectives for long Audax rides.
Aided by the tailwind, we arrived at the first
control not so long after it opened. We managed to be
in just before the real rain started. Luckily, the rain
was nearly over when we left the pub. During the first
kilometers after the control the bunch took it easy,
the slow starters had time to catch up. Again the ride
was easy and well organised. The only girl in the group
did some good work in organising the bunch. Lana proved
to be a former national level racer. I managed to talk
with her in a mixture of English and Russian. After a
while it started to rain again. I stopped to don my
waterproofs, most others went on. Luckily I stopped
since the rain rapidly changed into a downpour. Alone I
continued for a while. In a village I stopped to buy
some supplies. No Muesli bars available at village
shops here, but a whole array of very tasty rolls. Most
of them are open on Sundays too, some even for
24-hours! Now that's a service for the one randonneur.
While leaving the village I caught up with a rider
who had been resupplying at a fuel station. He quickly
dashed away, only to be overtaken by me again some 20k
further on. He understood that a steady rhythm is
better for the long distances, so he stuck with me
until we reached the second control in Lodejnoje Polje.
I was surprised to see only part of the group here.
Most of the others arrived when I was sitting in the
pub. The group was completely split up by the rain. We
decided to reformat the group. With 10 riders, we set
out to the control, which was located just outside of
Lodejnoje Polje. A lone Lada was waiting by the
roadside with two controllers in it. Our cards were
marked and off we went again, the speed being a bit
slower as during the first part of the ride.
It was a long haul to the next village. As soon as
you leave the towns in Russia the area is really
sparsely inhabited. We're about 250km from St.
Petersburg and hardly a soul is around. In the small
village of Megrega, I stop to buy an ice cream. The
others continue, I'll surely catch them later on. When
I eat my ice cream in front of the shop, Michaïl,
the organiser of the ride arrives. He stops for a
moment. When I'm about to leave it starts to rain
again. On goes the rain jacket again and I continue my
way to the next control. But before I reach it I see
the whole group assembled, sheltered in the bus station
of Olonets. I rejoin the group, but leaving Olonets I
puncture. Lana and Andrej, both from the town of
Vladimir, stop and help me. Together we continue for
the last bit to the control near Vidnitsa.
This is a typical Russian Audax control. A tent at
the lakeside, several controllers, including some kids,
and a nice campfire. Hardly have I parked my bike, a
mug of tea is offered and a plate of kasha. I try to
warm up by the campfire but a fierce wind from the lake
is not of a great help. Some riders leave this control
and go for a night ride. I decide to take it easy and
have a sleep. After all, I've 350k done and the control
is still open until the early morning, so time for a
real nice long sleep. I manage to convince Lana that an
8-hour sleep is a bit too much for an Audax ride and we
decide to leave at 5:00am, an hour before the control
closes.
It's a cold night on the shores of the Ladoga Lake.
Either I'm constantly bitten by all sorts of insects
when I'm sheltered from the wind, or I'm freezing but
the insects are blown away. So, I hardly sleep despite
being wrapped in two space-blankets. Luckily a space in
the tent is liberated when one of the other riders
decides to continue. Now I can finally sleep.
Day Two - Karelia
After a few hours I'm woken up. It's Lana. She asks
me if I want to continue the ride. No problems, I leave
the tent and scramble for the fire. Tea is still
available, and some food. We leave at 4:30am, a bit
earlier than planned. Dima joins us. Slowly we restart
our ride. It still is a lonely road. The few villages
we pass are still completely deserted, everyone sleeps
after a Saturday night of drinking. Lana and Dima are
not riding that well, Andrej, in contrast, is still
riding strongly. Whenever he pulls, we run the risk of
loosing someone from the back.
After 75km we reach the village of Pjatkjaranta.
Here's a 24-hour shop. We stop to buy our breakfast.
The sun is already out, the weather is a complete
contrast from yesterday. We take it easy and enjoy our
breakfast. After an hour of so, I ask them if we should
continue. But Lana tells me that she and Dima are going
to quit. She is ill. Dima never has been riding well
during this ride. Andrej is still undecided. I stay a
bit longer. Andrej finally decides to quit also, so I
wish them good luck with the train ride back to St.
Petersburg and set out, on to the next control.
That control should only be 22k away. But after 22k
I see no village of Ljaskelja. I slow down - I don't
want to miss the control. After half an hour I see a
sign for Impilachti. I stop and check my map.
Impilachti is on the map, some 10k south of Ljaskelja.
Michaïl must have made an calculation error. I
continue on normal speed again, and indeed, not some
10k further on I see the sign for Ljaskelja. I cross
the bridge and see a nice scenery.
So, I stop for a picture. When I restart I see two
policemen further on the road. They stop me for the
Karelian border control. I passed the Karelian border
yesterday evening. I hand them my passport which the
control very thoroughly. Each and every stamp of any
border control is checked. After a while they discover
that I'm not yet registered. I pull out my control card
and show them that I left St. Petersburg on Saturday,
less than 3 days after arriving in town. Now they are
more interested in my route. That's a way to steer away
the theme of conversation, so I show them the
route-sheet in Russian. After they've read it I show
them the list of participants. just then two other
riders appear - Vitali and Andrej from St. Petersburg.
They confirm my story. The policemen ask for a copy of
the starters list. No problem with that. After that
they show us the control place. It's closed, but they
tell us that there's a fuel station right around the
corner.
No hot food there, but a control-stamp.Vitali
proposes to continue to Sortavala and eat there. That's
a good idea and we continue together. Conversation is
very limited. Vitali speaks only a few words of German,
so we have to do with my limited Russian. Still, we
reach Sortavala with no problems, except that I sense
that I'm climbing a lot slower than they do. The road
on the northern edge of Lake Ladoga is stunning, I take
lots of photos here. In Sortavala, we easily find a
café.
We're deep into Karelia now, at least 10% of the
signs are in Karelian, a parental language to Finnish.
Vitali orders the food before I can tell him that I'm a
vegetarian. So, they both get my meat. After the meal
we continue to Lazdenpokhja. Again they are climbing
lots faster so after a few kilometers I tell them that
they have to continue and stop waiting for me. They are
a bit surprised to hear that I'll continue for the full
ride, and won't stop after 600k.
Again I'm riding alone. I take it easy for a while.
The route-sheet tells me that there will be 38km of
unpaved road ahead. This ordeal starts just before
Kurkijoki. This is really unpaved road: washboard, soft
sand and various other sorts of nasty bits. In full
descent, I have to slam the brakes when the unpaved
road begins. It takes me 5km to get used to it. Uphill
I ride on the edge, not too soft sand here, but an
occasional wheel-eating pothole. Downhill I ride on the
washboard. As long as I ride faster as 40kph that's not
too bumpy. The hard bits are the speeds in between. In
both villages on this stretch, I stop to take a rest.
Somewhere near halfway I hear a speeding car ahead. It
appears over the top of a hill, rounding the corner in
full rally still, fully sideways and with maximum
counter-steer, but this guy knows what he's doing so
it's a welcome distraction.
Finally the unpaved road ends near the Karelian
border. I immediately see Vitali and Andrej. Vitali
broke his rear mech, but a bit of metal and some rope
did the trick for him. We try to continue but now they
are very slow on a potholed road. According to the
route-sheet the control-time is not yet over, but the
controllers will have left the control at Molodezjnoje
Lake. When I see the lake, I see Michaïl and some
other riders. All of them stopped at this control to
wait for the last riders. Before I put my bike down
Vitali and Andrej appear, now everyone has passed this
control. Tea is ready, food will be within a few
minutes. Only two riders have continued so far from
this control. So, including me that will be only 3
finishers for the 800k! All others took the train from
here. To my further surprise I see Lana and Andrej from
Vladimir. They got a train from Pjatkjaranta to
Sortavala, and then to Kuznetsznoje. That's near the
control, so they decided to see what's happening here.
While I'm eating my dinner they leave to catch the
night-train to St. Petersburg.
After a good meal, I don my night gear, switch on my
LED-lights and continue for the last 200k. My main
light is not needed, even although it's nearing
midnight. We're in the area of white nights
here, it never gets really dark. After a few kilometers
I reach the small town of Priozersk. Time to resupply,
no more services until I reach the shores of the Baltic
Sea. But again, some 24-hour shops here so I have a
good choice of food and drinks. From Priozersk to the
Losevo control is quite a lonely ride. Lots of forests,
straight roads and no villages - and of course a stiff
headwind. My pace drops, but the generous time
allowance permits me to take it easy.
Just before three in the morning I reach the village
of Losevo. The route-sheet also has a small map about
how to reach the Losevo control. Again a tent by the
side of a lake. I have to go left on an unpaved path
just after crossing the railway bridge, lift my bike
over the railway tracks and continue. Indeed, a green
tent is there outfitted with LED lights. A controller
emerges from the tent. To my surprise there is another
tent with two known bikes - the bikes from Lana and
Andrej. They are asleep. I immediately go to sleep, the
controller has to leave as soon as the control-time
ends, he still has to work today, in St. Petersburg.
So, it will be a rather short night.
Day Three - Losevo to St. Petersburg
In the early morning it starts to rain again. I need
my space-blanket to warm up, sharing it with some
other. We eat our breakfast, drink some tea and set out
again. Again it's a lonely road. The shortest road is
very bad, so the route takes us via a detour to the old
Vyborg-St. Petersburg highway. On our way to the
highway I puncture. When I'm about to change my tube I
see that Andrej is very cold. He has hardly any clothes
with him, and all of them are soaked. So, I take a torn
space-blanket, cut a hole for his head in it and give
it to him. Lana immediately understands the trick and
helps him dressing in his new gear. In the meantime I
change my tube.
The highway we reach without other delays. But it
really is the old highway. Hardly any traffic, all
shops are closed and a very bad surface. Only in
Peervomajskoje we manage to buy some food. The only
café is closed so we have to sit under the
café's awning and eat our own food. Again the
space-blanket is needed. But from now on it's easy.
Soon we reach the new highway and turn right to
Zelenogrosk. This is a completely different area. Loads
of summerhouses, lots of tourist and lots of
restaurants, bars and cafés - quite a lot of
posh ones.
Zelenogrosk is easily passed and we continue on the
sea-side road to St. Petersburg. Somewhere halfway, in
Repino we stop for tea and some food. There are
occasional rain showers now. After Repino the traffic
gets quite dense. I suffer from a sleep attack. No
place here to take a short kip. Lana keeps riding close
beside me to wake me up every time I nod off. Only when
we're well into St. Petersburg the sleep attack is
over. All the time Andrej was hammering at front. He is
a tremendously strong rider. Somewhere in the outskirts
of St. Petersburg I ask him if he knows how we have to
go to the finish. 'No' is the simple answer. So, I tell
him that we have to stop at a nearby fuel-station and
check the route-sheet. That's the right time to do it.
When we're stopped, we see the statue nearby where
we have to turn right. It's very near now. At the end
of the side road is a stadium. Within a few minutes, we
located the right room of the stadium and are greeted
by the finish controllers. Our bikes are stored inside,
and the sauna is immediately heated. Within ten minutes
we're sitting in the sauna and drinking tea. That's a
way to finish a cold and wet ride!
After thoroughly warming up, we raced to the other
building to eat and drink tea for at least two hours. I
take a short nap before we all set out to our places.
But that's not the end of the day yet - in the evening
Michaïl invites for a small party at his
apartment. I'm even fit enough to cycle there. A nice
end of a very good brevet.
-Ivo Miesen Related Links:
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