Omsk GP   

When you are in Omsk you have entered Russia's second-largest city east of the Ural Mountains. Omsk is a hateful hole. There is hardly a tree here. In summer there is heat and winds that bring sandstorms; in winter there are snowstorms. I have scarcely seen anything of the country round. The place is dirty, almost exclusively inhabited by military, and dissolute to the last degree. I mean the common people. If I had not discov...

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When you are in Omsk you have entered Russia's second-largest city east of the Ural Mountains. Omsk is a hateful hole. There is hardly a tree here. In summer there is heat and winds that bring sandstorms; in winter there are snowstorms. I have scarcely seen anything of the country round. The place is dirty, almost exclusively inhabited by military, and dissolute to the last degree. I mean the common people. If I had not discovered some human beings here, I should have gone utterly to the dogs. It is not without reason that Novosibirsk is the largest city and towering over Omsk.

The Omsk GP is a race suitable for every rider that is capable to ride a variety in terrain. The race is a first race for many young riders when they enter the ranks of professional racing and let them experience true competition in there purest form.

Passing many small villages around Omsk before entering the city center the riders have seen rural townships and crossed the rivers Om and Irtysh. When the end of the race the riders pass the architectural centerpiece of the city, an ensemble of buildings along Lyubinsky Avenue/Lenina Street, anchored by the former Gostiny Dvor, and flanked by two chapels. The area is an eclectic mix of architectural styles, dominated by Art-Nouveau, Neoclassical and Second Empire. Another area of interest is Nikolsky Avenue-Krasnykh Zor Street, where a line of merchants' wooden houses still stands. The street leads to the Neoclassical cathedral of St. Nicholas, which was commissioned by the Cossacks, and consecrated in 1840. It contains various relics of the Siberian Cossacks.

The largest and most opulent church in the city is the Dormition Cathedral, a five-domed edifice in the Russian Revival style and that is where the riders receive their medals after they finished their race and the top three will be cheered by the human beings living in Omsk.