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 2012. 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 a min. 5000 km of hitchhiking, preferably through the country 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 qualification for Russia starts on August, 7th, 2011. It will approximately take two to three weeks. The Baltics are having their qualification rounds in early autumn 2011.

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 by a well-known 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 In these places little information is available or the description is severely outdated.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!