Košice to Bratislava in one day – on bicycles

A GROUP of four cycling enthusiasts decided to prove that Košice and Bratislava are not as far apart as many think and managed to cover the 450-kilometre distance in 23 hours 50 minutes on bicycles.

A GROUP of four cycling enthusiasts decided to prove that Košice and Bratislava are not as far apart as many think and managed to cover the 450-kilometre distance in 23 hours 50 minutes on bicycles.

“It was our goal to prove that this distance can be managed in one day and we are glad that we succeeded,” Roman Berco Balog, one of the riders in the KEBA event, told the TASR newswire. KEBA is a shortened version of KE (Košice) and BA (Bratislava).

Balog said many Slovaks think the distance between the cities is huge but the cyclists hoped to show that the metropolis of eastern Slovakia could be connected with the “beauty on the Danube River” in less than 24 hours by bicycle. The cyclists started their journey on October 15 and finished it the next day at 10:00 on the Danube River embankment in Bratislava.

“We made the route from Košice through Rožňava, Rimavksá Sobota, Veľký Krtíš, Šahy, Štúrovo, and Komárno and then all the way to Bratislava. And I must say this whole thing was mainly about our mental state,” Balog admitted, adding that their energy crisis came at night when it got cold and their concentration sagged. But the dawn brought new energy and Balog commented that “in Bratislava we only felt how many chocolate bars we had eaten during the ride”.

The rider said the most ridiculous thing during the journey was that people did not believe that they were cycling all the way from Košice to Bratislava and really expected to make it in less than 24 hours, believing the distance was too far. Balog concluded that he and the other riders had proved that the two largest Slovak cities are really not so far apart.

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