A little less than a year ago, on November 19, 2022, Evgeniy Hoffman messaged on Instagram, introducing himself as a person who aways stays with bicycles, a cycling tourist and a bike polo player, and also a part-time video maker, who moved to Kyrgyzstan and took with him, in addition to his families, bicycles on top of a car and filming equipment.
"...I found you while watching films about SRMR on YouTube.
...besides this, I am a videomaker and would love to collaborate with you"
Soon after this, we met, exchanged views on the world and life, and decided to continue communication in case we could organize something together. After some time, Evgeniy began filming for the Gergert Sport Store in Bishkek. In the spring of 2023, with the direct assistance of Evgeniy, the Store decided to join the support of Aiperi and Aishoola as first female riders in the upcoming SRMR race, for which the girls and I are grateful to Evgeniy.
A couple of weeks ago or so Evgeniy responded to my invitation to ride the overnighter along the valley in October Bikepacking Overnighter* The following photographs here tell about our journey together. We ate fried trout for lunch at a roadside summer cafe at the crossroads in front of the Issyk-Ata gorge. We set up camp on the fresh autumn lawn between the Sovet and Kara-Oi villages in the upper part of the valley with views of the Burana Tower and the city of Tokmak.
Find a story about his two days ride over to Kegery Pass and overall first time experience off-road bikepacking ride in hight mountains, here.