Andrej Zalokar

Vampi Team – Their hart is huge

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Oct 142014
 
Rekreatur 2014-Vampi Team

Rekreatur 2014-Vampi Team

The 9th REKREATUR has now finished and I can honestly say that “We shall never forget it!“. There were so many challenges before the start and such bad weather almost every day of cycling  that we have just not experienced before. But I am happy to say that both the competitors and organisers beat these challenges together. Despite the fact that the organizers team were a little rejuvenated (well, except for motorcyclists and the two of us with Boris) practically everything went like the rain on the roads on which we cycled. Despite the fact that some details on the ground were not exactly the same as in previous events, we made sure the cyclists didn’t notice.

Never before were the teams so closely matched and careful. They pretty much followed our warnings and in the end everyone came happily through the FINISH line in Kranj. And this is our greatest reward!
I am very pleased that the route across the border passed without any problems and that we saw all three sides of the national borders: “something similar, something good and something surprising.”

  • “Something similar” is that some secondary roads in all three countries are almost as poor as each other;
  • “Something good” is that the road signs in Slovenia are better than in Austria;
  • “Something surprising” is in Italy, where a modest supply of checkpoints, earns significantly more than our Tourism?

But now it’s time to briefly go through my impressions of the prologue and three stages!

We shall never forget the Ninth!

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Sep 162014
 
Rekreatur 2014 / Team Naklo and their Pushmeup bike

Rekreatur 2014 / Team Naklo and their Pushmeup bike

The 9th REKREATUR has now finished and I can honestly say that “We shall never forget it!“. There were so many challenges before the start and such bad weather almost every day of cycling  that we have just not experienced before. But I am happy to say that both the competitors and organisers beat these challenges together. Despite the fact that the organizers team were a little rejuvenated (well, except for motorcyclists and the two of us with Boris) practically everything went like the rain on the roads on which we cycled. Despite the fact that some details on the ground were not exactly the same as in previous events, we made sure the cyclists didn’t notice.

Never before were the teams so closely matched and careful. They pretty much followed our warnings and in the end everyone came happily through the FINISH line in Kranj. And this is our greatest reward!
I am very pleased that the route across the border passed without any problems and that we saw all three sides of the national borders: “something similar, something good and something surprising.”

  • “Something similar” is that some secondary roads in all three countries are almost as poor as each other;
  • “Something good” is that the road signs in Slovenia are better than in Austria;
  • “Something surprising” is in Italy, where a modest supply of checkpoints, earns significantly more than our Tourism?

But now it’s time to briefly go through my impressions of the prologue and three stages!

We shall never forget the Ninth!

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Aug 282014
 
Rekreatur 2014 / Team Naklo and their Pushmeup bike

Rekreatur 2014 / Team Naklo and their Pushmeup bike

The 9th REKREATUR has now finished and I can honestly say that “We shall never forget it!“. There were so many challenges before the start and such bad weather almost every day of cycling  that we have just not experienced before. But I am happy to say that both the competitors and organisers beat these challenges together. Despite the fact that the organizers team were a little rejuvenated (well, except for motorcyclists and the two of us with Boris) practically everything went like the rain on the roads on which we cycled. Despite the fact that some details on the ground were not exactly the same as in previous events, we made sure the cyclists didn’t notice.

Never before were the teams so closely matched and careful. They pretty much followed our warnings and in the end everyone came happily through the FINISH line in Kranj. And this is our greatest reward!
I am very pleased that the route across the border passed without any problems and that we saw all three sides of the national borders: “something similar, something good and something surprising.”

  • “Something similar” is that some secondary roads in all three countries are almost as poor as each other;
  • “Something good” is that the road signs in Slovenia are better than in Austria;
  • “Something surprising” is in Italy, where a modest supply of checkpoints, earns significantly more than our Tourism?

But now it’s time to briefly go through my impressions of the prologue and three stages!

Sky is prepared for Rekreatur

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Aug 172014
 

The haunted bridge and seven black cats

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Jul 272014
 
RR 2014, 3.etapa / Zakleti most in 7 črnih mačkov

The 3rd stage of Rekreatur 2014 is finally marked out. Apologies, we are late due to the enthusiasm of Slovenian road contractors who were happily working on the routes we wanted to ride! Part of the route has just been dug up and we are worried that this could also happen just before the start of the Rekreatur!

About 2 weeks ago, we cycled the 3rd stage and measured the logitudinal profile. There are some new track details for you. The biggest effect of the construction works is that the route is now extended from the original 85.0 km to 103.5 km. But do not fear, Kranjska Gora is about 500 m higher than Kranj, so you will mostly go downhill… well, almost :)

We are reliably informed that there is a real chance that we will be the first ones to ride the new bike path sections “Ratece – Obrežje (from Italy to the Croatian border) / Mojstrana – Jesenice.” Construction works are so fresh that you can smell the asphalt!

Now to the main title of this update: When you leave the first part of the bike path before Mojstrana and connect to the local road, you soon  cross the bridge over the river Sava Dolinka. And this bridge has a most interesting legend that goes something like this:

“Jake Lakota, was a little bit tipsy while crossing the bridge and in the middle he saw a black cat almost as big as a bull, with eyes like balls of fire, his tail flashing through the air like a Turkish sabre! Jake was not afraid and fought the cat as best he could. But the cat did not run away … Even worse – 100 more black cats all as big as bulls suddenly appeared… Jake grabbed his shoes and ran as fast as he could! ..*. “(* DELO newspaper,19.08.2011, page 17). And the evidence that the legend is true are the 7 black cats, which still stand on the side of the bridge!

Along the the 3rd Stage route you will find “Kopivood”, the taste of an ironworkers meal, you will feel the temperature of the water at Lake Bled and taste the sweetest thing in Radovljica. There will be many more stories as we follow the Gorenjska roads most of us barely know. Believe me, we have some wonderful roads in front of our noses! And as tradition commands, at the end of 3rd stage stage there is 300m long uphill at Jelenov klanec, finishing in the picturescue Maistrov trg market square in the ancient city centre of Kranj.

The haunted bridge and seven black catsThe haunted bridge and seven black catsThe haunted bridge and seven black catsThe haunted bridge and seven black catsThe haunted bridge and seven black catsThe haunted bridge and seven black cats
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2nd Stage – orienteering challenge

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Jul 022014
 
2nd Stage / orientation challenge

2nd Stage / orientation challenge

In the middle of June we test cycled the Rekreatur 2nd stage route with the technical team. Srečo, Jost, Tomaž, Milena and me jumped on our bikes on probably the hotest day of the month. Intentionally!

Apart from checking the route we want to experience the heat that you can expect at the end of August. This heat was typical for the last couple of Rekreaturs. But fortunately this time the heat wasn’t too bad. We also had forest shadows on the slopes and in the open spaces there was a descent.

The route is a bit different from the original plan. The estimated distance is the same. Our main discovery from our first trip to Austria is that this stage is the biggest orienteering challenge that Rekreatur ever did! If you imagine how poor the Slovenian local signs are, then you really have to see the Austrian side!

Luckily, we had our infallible guide Srečo with us. In the Finkenstein Tomaž “found” the right direction with his Iphone and claimed that it is perfectly correct, Srečo however imposed his famous “don’t make fun of me!” look and ignored Tomaž’s modern device taking us in the right direction! This adventure made us laugh and joke the whole day.

At the end of this news my general impression is – even across the border there are nice routes and beautiful views :)

New details about 2nad stage

2nd Stage / border crossing

2nd Stage / border crossing

2nd Stage / 19% slope

2nd Stage / 19% slope

2nd Stage / orientation 1

2nd Stage / orientation 1

2nd Stage / wonderfull wiews

2nd Stage / wonderfull wiews

2nd Stage / Check point 4

2nd Stage / Check point 4

2.etapa / srečanje Harley Davidsona in Rekreatura

Rekreatur meets Harley Davidson

2nd Stage / orientation challenge

2nd Stage / orientation challenge

2nd Stage/orientation 4

2nd Stage/orientation 4

Cycling Day holds great promise!

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Jun 092014
 
Cycling day undre Storžič masif

Cycling day undre Storžič masif

On Saturday, June 7th, the hottest Saturday of the year, Rekreatur took another step forward. Albeit modest, but still important. You often hear complaints at the pub about what a »poor choice of bike paths we have«, from people who have never actually cycled on them!” So we decided to do something about that and we jumped on our bikes. Our Cycling day under Storžič wasn’t just an extreme cycling trip, but also the beginning of our »Cycling, Safe Cycling« campaign The mission is to prove that with small steps you can reach the moon! We will continue working with current and new partners to get better and safer cycling routes in the Kranj region.

Well, above I wrote that we had an “exceptional cycling journey”. We had a good number of participants and the perfect size of cycling group, with people who came out to enjoy themselves and to learn more about the surroundings and the people who live here. It was wonderful to hear the optimism and sense the enjoyment of the young farm families on the way who know exactly what they want to achieve. And believe me, these are people not motivated by being millionaires. They want to enjoy life, working with their hands and to have very happy customers who will come back again and again.

For example, in Preddvor  we tasted a delicious local dish, well known to the local population years before Pizza was even invented :)) “Posmodula” is made up of dough mixed with sour cream and lard or crackling and baked in an oven.The sun set on our beautiful day at a family farm called Odems in Predoslje. They had so many fantastic goodies on offer, I cannot even begin to describe all the flavours for you! On Glavni trg in Kranj we left for home with the question we hear every time we part… “When are you going to do next trip? I have to book it immediately!”

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