Anton Franchuk: race "Tract", packraft and fixes in Tomsk

Guest

Useful from the issue

1. Do not walk alone on rough water

   After heavy rainfall, even a forest river becomes dangerous. Anton and Ilya agree: it is impossible to raft on high water alone, and it is better not to take newcomers to difficult rivers.

2. City rivers rise quickly

   In the city, storm drains discharge water into rivers, and after the rain the level rises almost as in the mountains. Before rafting on the Urban river, it is worth considering the weather of recent days.

3. One organizer stays in the camp

   When all three organizers left in a hurricane to look for riders, chaos began in the camp. Someone from the team should stay at the base, even if there is an emergency on the route.

4. A volunteer at the turn is a key role

   The tapes on the route are torn off by tractor drivers, so people keep controversial turns. The volunteer must be responsible and get to his point by himself.

5. The organizer is not a racer and not an operator

   To go the race, shoot it and manage it at the same time does not work. It is better to give the shooting to an individual, for example, on a motorcycle.

6. Toilet Paper Torch

   A roll of toilet paper soaked in melted paraffin from candles burns for a long time and is mounted on a stick — an easy way to illuminate the trail in the camp.

7. The race needs a spectator

   Criteria and cross-country races in the city center gather passers-by, and no one sees group races far outside the city. If you want a show, think about the place and time of the start.

8. Change the details every year

   Anton keeps the "Tract" style, but each issue adds something new — a concert, lectures, a quest. So the race does not bother either the participants or the organizers.

From the hills above the river to the fix and gold sprints

Anton started riding hills and trails over the river, then abandoned his bike, and around 2015 he accidentally saw a fix from a friend and six months later bought the same one for himself. At about the same time, he was hit by a car: collarbone, surgery the next morning — and three days later he participated in the race with one hand.

In Tomsk, Anton and his friends conducted gold sprints: the first machines were made from improvised materials with a sensor, then full-fledged ones appeared, which were assembled by a master from Moscow. The machines were bought at one time with the money of the city festival of street culture, where fixers were invited to show something. Ilya remembers his gold sprints - even more homemade, on cardboard rollers and a Hall sensor.

Bicycle Tomsk

According to Anton, the cycling community in Tomsk is large: there are road races, Grand fondo, strong local riders. Most of all, he likes Akademgorodok with a network of singletrails that enthusiasts once built from scratch — they are still being completed and used.

The main complaint about local road starts is that there is no entertainment: the races are held far away or early in the morning, the organizers do not work with visual and do not think about the audience. Anton dreams of a big annual cyclocross race in the city center — near the university, where there are stairs, descents and paths, and passers-by could just stop to watch. Ilya agrees: the relief is what flat Novgorod and St. Petersburg just lack.

Purple Blaze, "Backwoods" and video

Purple Blaze, Anton explains, is a made—up name without much meaning, only an association with speed and flash. It was conceived as a creative community: music, filming, and then the focus quickly shifted to bicycles. Almost all of Anton's friends are musicians, so concerts appear at his events.

The word "Wilderness" appeared from the movie "Sibiriada": Anton wanted a Russian name that is not rigidly tied to a bicycle and can develop anywhere. In the video, he came from landscape photography, and this experience helped to shoot travel. Ilya advises his channel as a pure pleasure for the eyes.

Pakraft and Urban rivers

Anton bought Pakraft in 2019, when he lost his office job in Moscow and received a payment. He has long been attracted by the format "you ride a bike, then you swim": a boat weighing less than a kilogram can be put in a backpack, and the boundaries of the route immediately move apart.

Alloy stories are a separate genre. According to Setuni, after the rains, he got into big water: Moscow rivers rise quickly because of storm drains, almost like mountain ones. Later, he was called a scout of locations for filming a fantastic film — it was necessary to swim through Setun and Yauza with a production designer, including tunnels and under a low bridge near a military unit. In Tomsk, on a spring river, he ran into an ice plug in a tunnel and barely pulled the boat out, and the camera was carried away.

Sometimes it was really dangerous: on a rafting trip in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, one of the newcomers in the group almost drowned, he was pumped out. Ilya remembers how he himself swam alone along the swollen November river, turned over twice in cold water and realized that one could not walk alone in rough water.

"Tract" in a hurricane

The race "Tract" is three years old. It started with a poster that Anton once put together in Photoshop, and a video from the route reconnaissance. The format is not consciously fixed: the essence and style remain, but every year something changes so that you don't get bored yourself. In 2023, a concert with three groups, lectures by travelers and local historians, a camp with garlands and a stage were added to the race.

In the middle of the holiday, a hurricane came: a tent with prizes was torn down, and people were on the route. The organizers called everyone, drove on the "Field" through the muddy fields, wrote the worried father of one of the participants. The last rider was found when the car was already abandoned: he waited out the storm in the ravine, calmly collected all the points and eventually won. There were about fifty participants in total, and with the audience — more than a hundred.

Anton honestly calls mistakes: it was wrong to go on a search for the three of them, one of the organizers should have stayed in the camp. On the route, some of the people cut off or went the wrong way, and you can't pull the tape on the turns — it is torn off by tractor drivers. The organizer can't race himself and shoot at the same time: at the first race, Anton tried to start with everyone and quickly realized that this was incompatible.

Racing-games and city formats

Anton works in 3D and game development, and this can be seen from his races. In "Athens on Fire", participants searched for cardboard obelisks hidden in the park in the spirit of "Heroes", collected a map from pieces of coordinates, sailed by boat to the island and dug out a box with prizes with a shovel. He even made a prototype of a mobile game about fix with his brother against the background of stylized panoramas of Tomsk.

The plans are to race "Through" from point A to point B, although in Tomsk it is difficult to find a route that does not boil down to one street, and a series of cross—country races of three stages in different places. Couriers are discussed separately: real, year-round couriers who travel from morning to night in any weather.

Plans, a sticky squat and small towns

Next year — the "Tract" again, but with preparation in advance, during the year, plus fixed races, possibly cyclocross and new turbulent rivers. For himself, Anton wants to ride more and progress in tricks: in winter, underground parking is great for this.

A separate pain is the seatpost on the steel frame that stuck three times: it was heated, sawed and drilled until the master removed the pin and redid the knot. Ilya in response tells about his season: about seven races held, including four stages of cyclocross, Tour de Selishchi and Tsar Grader. In the end, they talk about small cities: Tomsk and Novgorod are losing active people, but the core of enthusiasts remains, and with remote work the situation may change.

Timestamps

1. 00:26Hello and weather in Tomsk
2. 01:52How it all started
3. 07:29Cycling community in Tomsk
4. 20:06ZigZag Race 2018
5. 22:22What is Purple Blaze
6. 27:45Packcraft and the romance of narrow rivers
7. 30:49Exploration of movie locations
8. 35:28On the verge: dangerous alloys
9. 39:47What is the "Backwoods"
10. 41:03Race "Tract" and hurricane
11. 57:15"Athens on fire" and the game about fix
12. 1:00:44"Through", couriers and cross-country racing
13. 1:04:19Plans for next year
14. 1:07:25Stuck seatpost
15. 1:12:55Tomsk and Novgorod are small cities

Mentioned in this episode

The tract · Athens on Fire · ZigZag Race · Purple Blaze · Gold Sprint · Packraft · Tsar Grader · Tour de Selishchi