The county of Međimurje saw it’s 11th “official” BIMEP since the rebirth of the biggest Croatian cyclosportive on April 17, 2016. A tradition that goes back to 1983 and Sport society “Zrinski” was reborn in 2005 and sees a continual rise in numbers every year.
BIMEP stands for “Biciklom međimurskim putevima” or “cycling the paths of Međimurje”.
What made BIMEP stand out was the idea behind it. There is no single starting point, regardless of which of its 15 stations riders pick out, for a mere 5 kuna (70cents) you get a piece of cardboard and set on a quest to get as many stamps as possible.
The record was broken this Sunday when over 3300 riders set out to fight the wind in the warmest conditions ever. Thousands of riders went with a quest to get at least one stamp, two or more, and more than a handful went on to complete the 150 (+/-) km long challenge of collecting all 15 stamps.
Whether starting from lowlands near Kotoriba, near the Mura/Drava estuary, or hitting the hilly west of Međimurje, BIMEP took every rider on an epic tour.
The chaos of collecting stamps made every rider, every group pick up their own route, their own pace and their own challenge, but at the end of the day, everyone was a winner.
