Exclusive-French cyclist freed by Russian court says the adventure is over

By Guy Faulconbridge

POGRANICHNY, Russia (Reuters) -A French cyclist, freed on Thursday after weeks in Russian jail for illegally crossing the border from China in an attempt to beat the record for riding across Eurasia, said his adventure was over but he would try to have happy memories of Russia.

Sofiane Sehili, who describes himself as an "ultra-endurance racer and adventure cyclist", was freed in Russia's Far Eastern district and let off from paying a 50,000-rouble ($615) fine, a district court in Primorye said.

The court said Sehili had admitted his guilt. Photographs from the court showed him standing in a cage still wearing his cycling shoes, laces removed.

"So this is the end of this adventure in Russia," Sehili told Reuters in English in the court in Pogranichny.

The city, on Russia's far eastern border with China, is about 10,000 km (6,200 miles) east of Lisbon where his epic cycling journey began in early July, and less than 200 km from Vladivostok on Russia's Pacific Coast where he had hoped to end it in record time.

Often cycling more than 300 km (190 miles) a day, Sehili passed through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and finally Russia in his bid to reach the Pacific Ocean.

He was detained in early September after crossing from China into Russia.

HARD IN RUSSIAN PRISON

Russian authorities said he had crossed illegally and he was kept in pre-trial detention from September 4, according to the court.

"It was hard at first, especially the first few days in a pre-trial detention centre," he said, though the learning curve was steep in a world where he did not understand Russian and had no prior experience of Russian culture.

"After a while I got used to it and I learned to know my cellmates and I observed the life in prison and some people from Russia, and I learned a few things about life in Russia and I tried to study the Russian language a little bit."

His lawyer was quoted by the RIA state-owned news agency as saying the cyclist had been satisfied while in detention, though he complained of unusual food and a lack of regular showers.

Language was a barrier - as was missing his girlfriend and family back home.

"I tried to learn how to communicate with guards and the cellmates and after a while it wasn't as hard to be in prison as at the beginning, even though I still missed home and my girlfriend and my family," he said.

"I learned to see all of this as something that would eventually end and try to find the positive in all of this."

DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER

According to BikePacking, a resource for all-terrain cycling and backpacking, Sehili left his job as a freelance journalist writing reviews because he no longer got a kick out of it and became a messenger and then a long-distance racer.

"I'm going to ride until I can't," BikePacking quoted him as saying. "Until there is an ocean in front of me."

"I am going to meet hundreds of people and despite not understanding their languages, I know there will be great encounters; it is an adventure before anything else."

He was trying to beat the record for cycling across Eurasia, now held by Jonas Deichmann from Germany, who did the vast journey in 64 days, 2 hours and 26 minutes, according to the Guinness World Records.

France said it was relieved he has been freed. Sehili said the guilty verdict was good for him as he got to go home.

"It is a good verdict for me so I am happy," he said. "I think I will try and keep finding the positive things here and not try to dwell too much on the negative and try to keep a somewhat, a good memory of Russia."

($1 = 81.3000 roubles)

(Reporting by Tatiana Meel in POGRANICHNY, Russia, Guy Faulconbridge and Anton Kolodyazhnyy in Moscow and Nicolas Delame in Paris; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Peter Graff)