Saturday, May 25th, 2024

Every year, the Prague Harley Davidson dealership organises a glorified point-to-point ride in aid of charity. The object is to visit each specified point in the shortest possible distance. The entry fee is 1,000 Czech Crowns for a private motorcycle and 10,000 Czech Crowns for a corporate entry.

The entry fees collected are halved, with half going to the nominated charity – and the other half to the winner.

For the last three years the nominated charity has been Nedoklubku (www.nedoklubku.cz) which aims to help premature babies.

The event is open to all motorcycles – and was (rather embarrassingly) won on one occasion by a girl on a errrr…. moped !

Initially, the ride was a big circle, starting and ending at the Harley Davidson dealership in K Měchurce, in Prague 5.

However, Eva Pavlová, the wife of our President, General Petr Pavel, is the patron of the charity and, last year, the ride ended in the grounds of Lány Manor, the President’s country residence, where the stables’ area was devoted to some stalls, some food and the prize giving. The President even took part (but, sportingly, did not scoop the cash !)

It was to be the same again this year.

As usual, we all gathered at the Harley dealership. It was lovely morning and there were a lot of competitors.

First, we all had to register and get our little red location transmitter. This indicates, to the organisers, where we all go and what we do. Each individual competitor records a route and that meant, this year, we could all see what we did right an (in the blinding 20/20 vision of hindsight !) There was a very l-o-n-g queue !

The blonde lady is Tereza Beldová who deserves a big vote of thanks for all the hard work she does on this event.

There is, I am afraid, some doubt as to the absolute accuracy of what these boxes send – as I will discuss later.

When everyone had their transmitter, we all sat around waiting for our “Road-book” detailing the points we needed to visit. This year, including the dealership (Point 1) and Lany (Point 12), there were to be ten interim destinations.

After a few words on the usual “rules” which detailed the type of roads you can use and a new ones (two of Prague’s road tunnels were “out of bounds”, we got a few words of thanks from the Nedoklubku lady and we were ready.

To keep things exciting, one point on the “Road-book” is NOT pre-printed and Jarda Vavřína, the Harley dealer, selected a victim from amongst the competitors to draw the final point from a selection of four that were in a crash helmet.

Once the final inclusion was made, the “Road-books” were distributed, updated in biro (!) and the competitors retired to the variety of electronic devices we all now employ.

Lucie sat down and worked out a route. Probably because I was champing at the proverbial “bit” those of you with keen eyesight will notice we made a slight error (2 x No. 8 (which is, of course, the NINTH point anyway). This might, retrospectively have cost us, but who knows ?

At intervals, chiefly governed by who could type the fastest into their ‘phones or SatNavs, we all set off. In rides like this, some people just go for a ride and hope – some try hard to win. Sadly, I am in category two. The first few points though, regardless of your motivations, were fairly self evident – and a lot of people were headed in the same direction.

Because we were pretty focused, you have to be, we did not take many photos of our surroundings. We merely recorded the fact we did visit all ten. Last year, we were disqualified because our tracker said we did not get within 10 metres of one point, despite the fact that it was given as a Blue House number (its Katastral location) and I DID stop right outside. You can see what I mean about taking it seriously !

So, all I can really show you is one of us at each way-point …………..

 

 

The above is the bus stop in Slatina. I mention it specifically because, we ended up with a “miss” again, because our tracker said we did not go there. The eventual winner was, by then, on a slightly different route and going in the other direction … He was “clicked” by the sign on the other side of the road. I hate to sound like a “sour grapes” person, but surely as we approached we MUST have been with 10 metres of that too …..

Dawdling is not advised and I thought we had not done that, but we got to Lány Manor just two minutes before the three o’clock deadline. After being sunny all day, it was just beginning to rain !

The results were calculated, the distances tallied up and the winner was identified.

In steadily intensifying rain, the prizes were given out.

A cheque for 222,375 Czech Crowns was given to Nedoklubku by Eva Pavlová. This represented half of the entry fees, some money from sponsors and various small amounts collected on the day.

After a humorous interlude where the competitor who travelled the farthest was given a clock, the winner was announced. It was not us (see above) but it was Vilík, a member of HOG Prague. His prize was 48,409 Czech Crowns. I cannot see how that is half of anything – but it does not matter because, as is traditional, he gave it to Nedoklubku any way. You can see Vilík, just ahead of us, in the very first “on the road” picture. I should have just followed him !

It was the day of the World Hockey Championship semi-finals and the Czech Republic were playing the much fancied team from Sweden. It was on a screen, beneath a canopy and the Czechs had an early lead.

I half thought Lucie would want to stay and watch. However in the rain, she thought that would not be much fun (like riding fifty kilometres in a downpour would be ?). So, she put on her yellow waterproofs, that she calls her “ET suit” and off we went.

It was a miserable ride at first, but then it cleared up into sunshine, only to start raining again when we were almost home. Still, Lucie was able to catch the end of the Hockey where the Czech ended up annihilating Sweden 7-3. (The next day they beat Switzerland in the Final to scoop the Gold Medal).

As an aside, because were were considered to have missed a checkpoint, Lucie and I were placed 75th.

Sulkily checking the distance covered (and knowing we did NOT miss a checkpoint) we consider we were actually 20th. Not close – and no cigar – although the rain would have put that out !

Still …… there is always next year ……..