All the way from Baja to Rio, on bike!
Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu shares an interesting story: an enthusiastic coach promised to travel to Rio from Baja by bike, provided a sportsman of his sports club makes it to the Olympic Games. Now guess what, the sportsman did make it, so the coach had to kick off his journey.
Miklós Borbély, manager of the Mogyi SE Baja sports club made a promise of riding a bike on the way to Rio from Baja, in case Gábor Faldum manages to get qualified to the 2016 Olympic Games. Faldum is a member of the Hungarian national team, regarded to be its best triathlete, and luckily achieved the results necessary for the Olympic qualification.
Now, as he succeeded in doing so, Borbély and his two partners had to travel to the hosting city of the Olympics on bicycles. On his journey, which kicked off on the 20th of June, the 46-year old Borbély was accompanied by Zoltán Németh and Balázs Barta. Notably, Borbély had previously done Olympic rides, in 1992, to the Olympic Games in Barcelona, and to the 1996 Olympics held in Atlanta.
Németh, aged 54, is a PE teacher and ultramarathon runner, who has done the Spartatlon race in Greece twice; while the third adventurer, the 16-year old Barta is also a triathlete of the Baja team. The trio’s European biking destination was Lisbon, where they planned to change the two-wheeled vehicle to a plane.
But before that, the road started, of course, in Hungary, from were they rode to Croatia, then to Slovenia and Austria, after which they arrived in Italy. After passing the Lago di Braies, they crossed the Dolomites, included Lake Garda, and went across Northern Italy. Then, at Geneva, the bikers reached the shores of the Ligurian Sea.
They even had the energy to do a small competition, in honour of the Milan-San Remo bike race, which ended with the victory of Barta, winning the polka dot jersey. However, after all the fun, following the French Riviera, the Cote d’Azur, Monaco, Nice and Marseilles, they got into trouble.
Németh had his bike, passport, mobile, bank card, and all of his cash stolen from him in Martigues. Therefore, he was thinking about giving up the adventure, but people came to his rescue and sent him some money, so he could buy all the equipment he needed to carry on with the journey.
Also, the Hungarian consulate in Marseilles helped him with getting a new passport, thus, after two days they could resume their travels. Then, after Barcelona, Aragon, and Castile, the trio finally arrived in Lisbon.
Furthermore, at the end of the adventurous journey to Rio de Janeiro from Baja, Németh shared a post on Facebook, expressing his gratefulness toward all those who helped him in making it to Lisbon. Also, he mentions what a great experience it was, and that they fulfilled the journey’s sporting part.
But then comes an unfortunate turn of events, as he writes that the vacation and the rooting will not happen in Rio, because Barta got into the hospital of Lisbon, from where he was released on July 25. After that, the team took the night flight back to Hungary, and Barta got under therapy. He was getting better, felt fine, but his CBC made the doctors decide to carry out further medical examinations.
Photos: bacskaisport.hu
Copy editor: bm
Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, bacskaisport.hu
