French ultra-distance rider Sofiane Sehili has recognised that he “wasn’t so smart” after his attempt to cross the Chinese-Russian border as part of his EurAsia World Record bid ended with him spending nearly two months in prison.
Having left Lisbon on July 8 and when he was just hours away from reaching his final destination of Vladivostok on the Asian coastline, Sehili was arrested for crossing the frontier illegally.
The experienced ultra-distance rider, 44, had initially wanted to re-enter Russia from China via a frontier post that was only crossable by train or bus – a transport option that would have invalidated his record bid in its third and final month.
So the Frenchman opted to use his bike to reach Russia through rough woodland, only to be detained – and see his 18,000-kilometre journey end with him spending nearly two months in jail.
Although Sehili faced a potential jail sentence of up to two years for the crossing, the authorities opted to release Sehili from prison, give him a fine and repatriate him to France.
“I tried to cross the frontier legally, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible that day,” Sehili, who had already been through 17 different countries, explained toAFP. once he had made it back to France last weekend.
“That would have been possible the following day, but I wouldn’t have had the chance to beat the record. So I decided to try to go through it illegally.”
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Having got over to Russia from China, he first rode for several hours through “a very thick forest. But then I told myself that enough was enough and that I wasn’t very smart to have tried to do that.
“Rather naively, I thought that if I told the [Russian] authorities it had all been unintentional, I’d [at least] have a chance of getting sent back to China quite quickly. But given the current situation in Russia being so tense, that didn’t work.”
Sehili said he had been well treated in the Russian prison and that he had had medical and legal attention throughout.
“It’s not a place where they pick you up and throw you in a jail and you’ve got no idea of what’s happening,” he toldAFP after being released on October 23 and flying back to France via Thailand.
Following Sehili’s failed attempt, the EurAsian crossing World Record will remain in the possession of its current holder, Germany’s Jonas Deichmann and with a time of 64 days and two hours.
Sofiane Sehili during his failed EurAsian Record bid (Image credit: Edgar Santos)
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