The Major Latvian Cycling Festival in Olaine Is Fast Approaching
This month, on 20 August, the highly acclaimed Latvian Cycling Festival will take place in Olaine for the third consecutive year, bringing together cycling enthusiasts of all ages. Participants are invited to choose one of four exciting distances, appealing both to experienced cycling professionals and to all admirers of the sport, including families with children. Alongside the races, visitors to the Cycling Festival will also be able to enjoy an extensive programme of entertainment, spending an active Sunday outdoors and bringing the summer season to a close in a spirit of positive emotions.
The Cycling Festival in Olaine is one of the few cycling events in Latvia to offer high-quality, carefully planned and diverse road-race distances for all tastes. This year, too, it will be a particularly vibrant and unifying event, delighting cyclists of various ages and abilities with the aim of promoting cycling in Latvia and encouraging residents to take part in active sporting activities, raising the skill level of local cyclists and supporting an active and healthy lifestyle. As usual, the most successful race participants will receive cash prizes and other valuable awards.
Andris Bergs, Chairman of the Olaine Municipality Council, says about the upcoming Cycling Festival: “Sport has become part of people’s daily lives, and it is only natural that, while actively developing sports infrastructure, we organise various sporting events in Olaine. This is the city’s 50th anniversary year, and I am convinced that the best anniversary gift is to encounter smiling, sporty and energetic people in the streets. That is exactly what the participants in the Latvian Cycling Festival are like. The city is ready for it!”
This year’s new addition to the race programme is the Health Distance, popular among cyclists, which was created by combining last year’s MTB and Family distances. Anyone interested can already register for one of the following rides: the Sport Road Distance (90 km), which will challenge highly qualified cyclists from all over Latvia; the Popular Road Distance (45 km), in which participants will traditionally be able to compete either individually or as part of a team; the Latvijas Maiznieks Health Distance (16 km), which will bring together cycling enthusiasts of various ages; and the Children’s Race (0.3–1 km), whose course will run alongside the picturesque Olaine Forest Park and allow even the youngest festival participants to compete for the title of winner. In addition, this season children will be offered, for the first time, an unprecedented Dip Dap course to be completed on a balance bike.
Registration for the Latvian Cycling Festival in Olaine is possible by completing the form on the website www.maratoni.lv by next Wednesday, 16 August. When registering for the races in advance, the entry fee for the Sport and Popular distances is EUR 20, for the Health Distance it is EUR 13, while participation in the Children’s Race is free of charge. On the day of the race, the entry fee for all distances will increase. The Latvian Cycling Festival in Olaine is organised by the sports event agency “Alpha Baltic Sport” in cooperation with the Olaine Municipality and the Latvian Cycling Federation. Sporting activities and a healthy lifestyle are supported by AS Olainfarm. Prizes are provided by Atlētika, Rasēns, Valmieras piens, Silvanols, Olainfarm, Tonuss Elast, SIS Sports Nutrition, Kivvi Cosmetics and Latvijas Aptiekas. The total cash prize fund exceeds EUR 1,600.
