World Championships
The Russian hitchhiking club PASL is currently organizing the first TransGlobal Autostop Race, a world-wide contest of competitive autostop.
The final race is planned to take off in August 2013. Before, two qualification rounds are planned. During all stages, the global race competition rules are applied.
There are two rounds of qualifications, a national and international one.
- 1st round qualifications
The first round should consist of approx. 5000 km of hitchhiking, preferably through the country/region of the local hitchhiking club organizing it. Also, a minimum of ten checkpoints and six teams participating is recommended. Some checkpoints exist (far) off the road, asking participants certain skills in sport orienteering & navigation through unknown territory. If not enough teams are to be found, it is possible to participate in another club's qualification round.
The Baltics as well as Germany will organize their first qualification rounds throughout 2012.
Contents
Russia
Between August 7 and 23, 2011, the first national selection round took place in Russia. Six teams participated in the event, representing four different hitchhiking clubs of Russia:
- 2 teams – Petersburg AutoStop League (PASL)
- 2 teams – Moscow Team of Competitive Hitchhiking (MKSA)
- 1 team – Nizhny Novgorod Hitchhiking Club (NiKA)
- 1 team – Hitchhiking Masters Guild (GMA)
Winning team was MKSA2 (Igor Gefenider & Juliana Mikhailova), second NiKA10 (Alexander Medov & Irina Kanteeva), third PASL4 (Alexey Vorov & Tatyana Ovchinnikova).
For detailed results of the teams and the route through (Western)-Russia, check the route (English) and the time results (Russian).
Ukraine
From 28 October till 7 November 2012, the first national selection for Ukraine took place. Six teams participated in the event, representing four different hitchhiking clubs:
- 1 team - Petersburg AutoStop League (PASL)
- 1 team - Deutsche Trampsport Gemeinschaft (DTSG)
- 1 team - Moscow Team of Competitive Hitchhiking (MKSA)
- 1 team - Ukrainian Autostop Team (UKSA)
- 2 teams - (independent participants) (?)
Winning team was PASL4. Out of six teams, three teams arrived at the final. A short video was made during the trip by team S2 (see here).
- 2nd round qualifications
- final stage
The final route will be announced no earlier than three days prior to the start of the race. Though hitchhiking of freight traffic (airplanes & ships as well) is allowed, to cross the two big oceans it is planned to use casual air transport. The race will be probably split up in several stages to a maximum of seven to ten days per stage, with rest days inbetween. Also, there are defined rest times per team for during the race that have to be conducted.
Sponsorship & Media
On July 7, 2011, PASL hold their first press conference in St. Petersburg. Media coverage within Russia is already established, as well as sponsorship and collaboration with a major Russian tourist agency.
Links
- Website of the TransGlobal Autostop Race (Russian) ((English) coming soon)
- Interview (German) with PASL founder Alexey Vorov about their intentions of setting up the world championships
- Alexey Vorov explains the idea of the TransGlobal Austostop Race (Russian)
This article is a stub. This means that the information available to us is obviously insufficient. In these places little information is available or the description is severely outdated. If you have been there, whether hitchhiking, for travel or as part of an organized tour − be sure to extend this article! |