Never content to just set new records in races he’s already participated in, endurance cyclist Jay Petervary left the country last week to take part in a new and ambitious race in Kyrgyzstan.
The Silk Road Mountain Race is an unsupported 1,000-mile race in the Tian Shan mountains near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. This is the first year of the event. The route follows gravel, double and single track, and forgotten military roads through isolated high-elevation valleys surrounded by 16,000-foot peaks.
Petervary, of Victor, has decades of ultra-endurance cycling experience, having raced the Tour Divide, the Iditarod Trail Invitational, the Ride Across America, the Italy Divide and other long-distance events many times, but he said he has some nerves approaching this race.
On July 30, the New York Times reported that two American cyclists and two European cyclists were killed while touring through Tajikistan, which borders Kyrgyzstan. ISIS members intentionally hit the cyclists with a truck. Petervary said he is aware of that incident but doesn’t want fear to mar his race.
“I’ve ridden through downtown LA and that’s dangerous. I’ve ridden through grizzly country outside of Island Park and that’s dangerous,” he said.
Another challenge is that there aren’t a lot of information sources online to help Petervary predict how the race will go, so he has cobbled together as much knowledge as possible and is prepared to complete the whole event without getting food or water from villages. He doesn’t think that will be necessary; he has heard that the people of that region are extremely welcoming. But that hospitality can pose its own issues. When Petervary is in race mode, he doesn’t have time to accept extended meals or tea, but he doesn’t want to offend his hosts either.
“I’m very well prepared for this event but what happens out there is in a lot of ways outside of my control,” he said.
Inevitably, there is also the question of the language barrier, as well as the stress of traveling to Central Asia for the first time. The race also passes three military checkpoints on the China-Kyrgyzstan border, which Petervary has prepared for with passport copies and possible bribe money stashes.
Petervary’s wife, Tracey, herself an accomplished racer, will also be participating in the Silk Road Mountain Race. She has a teammate, Mark Seaburg, with whom she has raced the Cape Epic in South Africa. Petervary is happy that she will also get to experience the spectacular landscape and foreign culture while not being forced to race at his pace (which is unsustainable by most people’s definition).
The race started Aug. 18 and wraps up Sept. 1. Find more information at silkroadmountainrace.cc.
