Cycling in the Riga night

Here in Latvia are commonly organized bike rides at night around Riga. This event is called Nightride. I heard about this event few times before my first visit, as my fiancée and a few of his friends like to attend.

So obviously I had to try it during my visit even though I was a bit nervous, because I’m not very much into biking. I borrowed a bike from my future mother-in-law and shortly before ten in the evening we went to the venue.

There was a lot of people and after ten o’clock we went for a ride. The group had a leader who had thought of at least part of the route in advance. We drove around Riga for a while, after which the direction was outside of the city. At this point, I was a little nervous because I didn’t know at all where we would end up. The street lights ended and the bike lights didn’t illuminate much. However, there was enough visibility to avoid bumps and it was pretty nice to ride in a group, the fatigue was not bothering me yet.

Eventually we ended up by the sea. The Latvian coast is almost a big sandy beach, so it was mainly a choice of where we wanted to stop on the coast. Our stop was roughly halfway between Riga and Jurmala, so we could see the lights of both cities. This was a really magical and wonderful moment, with the moon shining in the sky and the waves splashing on the beach.

Next, something surprising happened; the majority did not want to go back the same route, but instead drive along the beach back to Riga. The leader of the event was not very happy about this, but went with the majority, as did we. I didn’t do very well on my city bike, but I managed to keep up surprisingly well, of course, occasionally falling off the bike and having to push the bike over the softer piles of sand. I started to gradually lose my nerves and eventually I had enough. We parted with fiancée from the group, climbed with a few others over the sand dunes to a nearby small road of which these others were aware. Along the way, we met the event organizer, who was also having same idea as us. Together we set off along the road towards Riga.

The road joined a bigger road that led towards Riga. Since we had no other options, we decided to drive the roadside to the city. Fortunately, there were hardly any cars so late at night. However, fatigue became a problem for me. It was already quite late and pedaling on the beach had taken up a lot of my energy. Did I already mention that I hadn’t cycled very much in the summer? My cycling fitness was pretty bad. The rest of the journey was more up to my willpower and staying in motion than anything else. I knew that if I stopped, I might not start moving again.

Eventually we got back to Riga, to the Freedom Monument Square. The organizer of the event was with us and confirmed that we had reached the “finish line”. He also gave us the official mileage that came to be driven during the night: 60 kilometers. No wonder it started to feel in my legs and the energy started to run out.

Maybe not so surprisingly, my stomach started to make whale sounds and we ended up at a kebab place to get some food. After eating, we continued with my fiancée and one of her friends to celebrate with a beer the rather crazy experience we had just survived.

After drinking few beers, we finally got to the apartment, at about 3 o’clock at night. While I was proud of this achievement, I stated that such an extreme sport may not be for me.