The first international bicycle tour “Sava 2013”

This year’s Sava Day featured the 1st International Race “The Sava Cycling Tour 2013”. Eight experienced cyclists, representatives of bicycling associations from four countries through which the Sava River flows – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, took part in the tour.

This year’s Day of the Sava River, which is celebrated on June 1st, also featured the 1st International Bicycle Race Sava 2013. The eight experienced cyclists who participated in the race represented all the four countries through which the river flows – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. The start of the race was at the river’s spring in Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, from where the cyclists embarked on an 850-kilometre journey. On the following day, they were welcomed in Samobor near Zagreb. From there they continued towards Sisak and Čigoč, Lonjsko Polje, Jasenovac, Gradiška, and on to Slavonski Brod and Županja. A welcoming ceremony in Bosnia and Herzegovina was organized in Brčko, from where the cyclists continued on to Šabac, and finally towards Belgrade. The cyclists arrived in the Serbian capital on June 1st to a welcoming party on the estuary of the Sava and the Danube rivers. 

Daily news about the race, and the cyclists’ passages through the four countries connected by the Sava River, were broadcast by the media, and the tour was also documented online at www.savacommission.org by the Sava Commission, which organizes the celebrations of the Day of the Sava River. It is an international institution which coordinates activities in all the four countries regarding the development and conservation of the river, as well as the return of people to the river. The commission also oversees the development of facilities that will contribute to the development of sustainable continental tourism. With that goal in mind, the project “Our Beautiful Sava”, which is in its sixth consecutive year, was also initiated, while this year’s main Sava fair takes place as part of the Floraart International Gardening Exhibition between May 31st and June 2nd at Bundek Lake.

The fair features presentations of customs tied to life along the Sava River, unique clothing created for the occasion by students of the Faculty of Textile technology and photo exhibitions. Visitors can also look forward to a diverse cultural and artistic programme with a great offer of traditional dishes and treats from regions along the Sava River.