French cyclist says he will seek to break more records after Russian jail

MOSCOW :A French cyclist who spent 50 days in custody in Russia said he would seek to break another record after his hopes of doing the fastest cycle ride from Portugal to the Pacific were dashed when he crossed the Chinese-Russian border through a dense forest. 

Sofiane Sehili, who describes himself as an "ultra-endurance racer and adventure cyclist", was freed in Russia's Far East on October 23 after he admitted illegally crossing the border. He flew back to Paris on Sunday via Asia.

After cycling 18,000 km (11,200 miles) from near Lisbon, he was on course to break the world record for cycling across the whole of Eurasia - and just 200 km from Vladivostok where his journey should have ended.

When he reached the Russian border, he found that his electronic visa would only allow him to cross by train - and that the train had already left. There was just one train a day.

"I was on a mission to break a world record and if I had decided to wait another 24 hours to be on that train then breaking the record would have been impossible," Sehili, 43, told Reuters in an interview from Paris.

BARBED-WIRE FENCES AND RAZOR-SHARP GRASS

So he decided to cross the border on foot, and carried his bike through a dense forest, over streams, under barbed-wire fences, navigating east by GPS until he found a railway track. 

"I kind of gave up on that dream of breaking the world record somewhere in that forest after crossing the barbed wire," he said. "There was no path. I was walking in streams, climbing over fallen tree trunks and walking through high razor-sharp grass and my legs were full of cuts."

The record is held by Jonas Deichmann from Germany, who did the vast journey in 64 days, two hours and 26 minutes, according to the Guinness World