Bike ride in honor of Great Patriotic War
Release
Between 18 and 23 April 2010 the Moscow – Saint Petersburg bike ride took place in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The event supporters were the Board of Guardians of the Russian Bicycle Sports Federation, Gazprom, Russian Technologies State Corporation and ITERA International Group.
Among the bike riders were sportsmen from the Russian professional bicycle team Katyusha: Denis Galimzyanov, Nikolai Trusov, Alexander Kholodov, Roman Maikin, Pavel Ptashkin, Pyotr Ingnatenko, Stanislav Starodubtsev and Alexey Savitsky.
Participating in the race were also famous bicycle sports veterans: Olympic Champions Vladimir Osokin and Anatoly Yarkin; World Champion Sergey Nikitenko; USSR Champion and Peace Race Champion Ivan Mishchenko; prize winner of World Championships Pyotr Chevardov; world record-holder and USSR Champion Anatoly Bessonov; multiple champion of Russia Yury Amelkhin; prize winner of Russian Championships Mikhail Telegin and prize winner of Russian competitions Oleg Volotskov.
The bike ride started out from the Monument to the USSR Marshal Georgy Zhukov at the Manezhnaya Square in the Hero City Moscow and ran through the places of hot battles of the Great Patriotic War: Tver, Rzhev, Velikiye Luki, Pskov and Luga. The final destination of the 1,328-kilometer route was the Victory Square in the Hero City Saint Petersburg.
The bike riders put flowers at the Motherland Defenders' Monuments, met with the War veterans and pupils of children's sports schools along the whole route.
At a meeting near the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee highlighted that Gazprom's everyday activity meant not only billions of cubic meters of produced gas and thousands of kilometers of gas pipelines, but also sports schools, children's playgrounds, swimming pools and gyms. Daily care about the future of our country was the Company's priority.
