Third Annual Bicycle Race in Panatau, 2017

06.09.2017

55 people of all ages at the annual bicycle race in Panatau!

The third annual edition of the “I want to be active!” bicycle race, organized by AMURTEL Romania took place on Sunday, 3 September 2017 in Panatau village. Fifty five contestants pedaled hard up the hills of Panatau during the bicycle race this year!

There were several age categories, starting with children as young as 7 years old all the way up to two courageous seniors over 60. In total, there were approximately 200 people that came to the event to cheer on the racers – including 25 enthusiastic volunteers from the local highschool in Patarlagele, inspired by their teacher Marina Bratucu, who also works at Familia AMURTEL and Andreea Visan, our volunteer coordinator. Daniel Busuioc, another loyal volunteer, came a day early to Panatau to lead a bicycle maintenance workshop to make sure everyone’s bicycle was safe for the competition.

The competition was financed by a grant from the County Council of Buzau, and run in partnership with the mayor and local townhall. The event ended with an award ceremony, complete with gold, silver and bronze medals as well as certificates for all participants!

It has already become local tradition that the community looks forward to which is unique to the area. Indeed, it is already attracting bicycle enthusiasts from neighboring towns as well!

Perhaps one of the most importantacheivements, however, is to see the level of engagement that it has generated, especially amongst the youth. It is quite rare to see such a level of volunteer spirit in the rural Romanian communities and this is an aspect that particularly impressed one of the visitors from another city.