Katerina Janatova crosses Czech Republic on bike

From the North to the South, Czech Cross-Country skier Katerina Janatova rode across the Czech Republic on a bike

In the morning she started the journey in Jakuszyce, Poland. In the evening, after more than 280 km she finished on the border with Austria. On Saturday 6th June Katerina Janatova rode a bike across the Czech Republic, from the North to the South. “I have never rode a bike longer than 7 hours, this trip took me over 11 hours,” says the 23 year-old skier.

It was biathlete Ondrej Sandora’s idea, “We were having a coffee and Ondrej said he would like to connect Polish and Austrian boarders on a bike. That was on Tuesday and on Saturday we went for a ride,” says Janatova.

They got up at 6 am, one hour later they started the journey from Jakuszyce, Poland, headed south. It took them 281.8 km, climbed 2751 m, burned 4138 kcal and crossed boarders of three countries.

“We wanted to take the train back to Prauge, but after 11 hours and 23 minutes long bike ride we missed the train by 5 min. Luckily we could sleep over at Ondrej’s coach,” explains Janatova.

They missed the train because of hails storm. “Before we found a shelter hails hit Ondrej’s head so badly he was bleeding. And I have some bruises,” Janatova says and continues “that was probably the biggest problem we had on the way. The most challenging part was from the 200th km, we started climbing, I started to get cramps.”

During the ride it became more and more difficult to recharge the energy. “At the beginning we had some bananas, bars, kids fruit. But later on I could not eat anything. When we finished it was a great reward to have a deep fried cheese and hot shower,” Janatova reveals.

The whole journey can be found on Strava.