Nikita Stepanov: the Ilmer brevet, the Novgorod highway and the ford across the White Sea

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Useful from the issue

1. Closed road means closed

   In Iceland, a sign about the closure of the road and the warning of tourists should be taken seriously. Nikita ignored them and found himself in the snow on narrow tires.

2. Do not cross the ford in clothes

   Wet clothes pull down. Nikita barely swam out and calls this mistake unforgivable; the safe ford turned out to be a few dozen meters from the marking.

3. The riverbed in the sea is more dangerous than the shore

   At low tide, the rivers flowing into the sea continue far from the shore in a rapid stream. It is safer to cross them at the very shore.

4. Smaller and shorter stops

   Nikita's main advice for long distances is not to stop every hour for 15-20 minutes. If the goal is just to get to the hotel a hundred kilometers away, you can do whatever you want.

5. The Novgorod region can be passed over the weekend

   Radial routes for 70-100 km are added to the Novgorod Tract, which can be traveled in a day or weekend without spending a vacation.

6. In regional centers, book in advance

   According to Ilya's experience, not all hotels work, it is difficult to find a single room, and somewhere there is no water. It is better to call in advance and clarify the conditions.

7. A bag doesn't have to be a bicycle one

   Nikita's frame bag is a case for an electric bicycle battery for 500 rubles, and everything you need fits in it.

8. 200 km is the base

   Ilya calls Novgorodians to "Ilmera": 220 km with soft rules is a good way to drive your first long distance.

Iceland: snow instead of road

Nikita has had a love of cycling since early childhood: on the very first bike, both of his supporting wheels fell off almost immediately, and he rode two ahead of his peers. He calls Iceland the most epic trip.

There he ignored a sign about a closed road to the interior of the island and a warning from German tourists about snow. He waded through several mountain rivers, and at the pass he found himself in the snow — and for about 30 km he had to push his bike by hand: a cross-country bike with narrow tires. Spending the night in a tent in the middle of a snow field in severe frost convinced him that he couldn't endure a second night like that. The next day he walked about 40 km back, crossed the last ford in the evening, and the morning after 12 hours of rain the river became noticeably wider — he wouldn't have been able to cross it then.

From Arkhangelsk to Petrozavodsk along the White Sea

The second most powerful trip is in 2022 along the north from Arkhangelsk to Petrozavodsk. There was almost no information about part of the route: scattered reports from different years, and those mostly from motorcyclists. A section of 7-8 kilometers along the sea can only be walked along the bottom at low tide, having timed it. The most dangerous thing is the riverbeds that continue far into the sea: a muddy stream only a few meters wide, and Nikita read that even a tractor can tighten there. I had to go back to the shore and cross at the shore.

On one of the rivers, the weather turned bad, and because of the wind from the sea, the tide did not open the ford. Nikita decided to transfer things on an inflatable rug, went in his clothes — and a couple of meters from the shore he lost the bottom under his feet and went under the water. He emerged, according to him, on superhuman efforts; he calls this mistake unforgivable. And the real ford turned out to be 30-40 meters from the marking: the water was ankle-deep.

Ilya remembers the traveler Tatyana Nikulina, who goes on even more risky solo hikes. Nikita says that he cannot condemn her, but he would not allow himself some of her crossings on the water for safety reasons.

What I would like to learn from abroad

Nikita remembered two things from his trips around Europe. In Portugal, a bus and several cars calmly, without signals, drove five to ten kilometers behind a cyclist on a narrow serpentine, where it was impossible to overtake him without leaving the solid — in our country, he says, it would end up overtaking and lapping. In Finland, he was delighted by the bicycle tracks cleared of snow between cities with underground crossings under the highway. Ilya says he saw the same one at Lappeenranta.

Ilmer's brevet

Nikita has been holding Ilmer since 2017. The idea was to bring a piece of brevet culture to Novgorod: even in St. Petersburg, only a few dozen people travel distances of more than 200 km. For many, "Ilmer" turns out to be the first and last brevet, but everyone gets pleasure.

The distance is non—standard - 217-220 km depending on the starting point, participants have cards with stamps at checkpoints, there are no starting numbers: this is not a race, although the protocol with the finish time is published. The rules are softer than on classic brevettes, and Nikita drives the route in advance every spring to check the asphalt. This year, 48 people started, and all met the time limit — a record. They come from other cities of the region, and from St. Petersburg, and brevet itself unites cyclists, runners and triathletes.

Novgorodsky tract

The idea of the tract grew out of resentment: many Novgorodians do not know how many beautiful places there are in their own region. Here you can visit the taiga, ride the hills, see waterfalls, cave rivers, salt springs and shores that seem to have descended from the Crimea. The circular route with a length of about 1500 km gathers most of the regional centers of the region; the southern part, Nikita admits, turned out to be boring, but without it the route would have lost its meaning. So that not only vacationers can travel along the highway, he gradually adds radial routes for 70-100 km on weekends.

Ilya drove the highway almost entirely in six days for about 200 km. The first day turned out to be the hardest, about 266 km with a large number of graders of different quality — from viscous sand to a washboard — and the last. But the section to Lyubytino turned out to be excellent asphalt with views, as if in the mountains, and in front of Lyubytino Ilya saw a bear.

From everyday observations: there are hotels in regional centers, but it's not easy to find a single room, sometimes you have to pay for two; one hotel turned out to be closed, the other has not had water for several years. Soviet canteens help out. Ilya's claims are a narrow and unpleasant road in front of the Lane and a track that sometimes does not follow the road and knocks down the bike computer. Nikita plans to fix all this and mark shops and hotels on the route.

Dreams and equipment

Nikita's next plans are a week in Karelia. Further dreams of mountains: the Urals, Khibiny, Sayan, partly Mongolia, Tashkent and Bukhara, and the main dream is the Pamir highway at an altitude of 3-4 thousand meters along the border with Afghanistan. Money gets in the way — the flight plus almost half of its cost for transporting a bicycle — and time: with a two-week vacation, inconvenient flights eat up several days.

Nikita hardly follows the ultra-distance races, but admits that he read with envy the reports of a participant who traveled a long route across Russia from the south to the north entirely. His equipment is simple: a seat bag, two feeder bags on the steering wheel and a frame bag, which is actually sold as a case for an electric bicycle battery and cost about 500 rubles.

Timestamps

1. 00:00Introduction
2. 00:23How did the love of the bike begin
3. 01:23The most epic journeys
4. 02:13Iceland: the story of the pass
5. 05:37Karelian trip and ford across the White Sea
6. 11:04Tatyana Nikulina
7. 12:35Cycling abroad
8. 15:07Ilmer
9. 19:59Novgorodsky tract
10. 33:45Plans for the year and beyond
11. 36:35Do you follow the races
12. 39:20Tips
13. 40:34Bikepacking
14. 41:16Conclusion

Mentioned in this episode

Ilmer · Novgorodsky tract · Pamir tract · Khibiny