“We can cross Václavák with a four-lane highway, but we can’t build a pedestrian zone along the river in the center?” wonders representative Rattay
photo: Archive of Štěpán Rattay/Stephen Rattay.
INTERVIEW When I ride a bike, I experience freedom on my own skin, Štěpán Rattay, an enthusiastic cyclist, representative of Prague 5, and also a consensual driver who disagrees that Prague is not a suitable place for cycling, tells PrahaIN.cz: “We can cross Václavák with a four-lane highway, but can’t we build a pedestrian zone along the river in the center?’
What is bikepacking? Even those who are actively involved in it often do not agree on the exact definition of this term. For some it’s a summer vacation on bikes, for others it’s a cycling competition, for others it’s a lifestyle.
According to the official definition, bikepacking is “a combination of off-road cycling and backpacking”. You move in the wild and travel off the classic tourist routes, you experience all this on a bike. Both singletrack trails and forgotten field or forest paths will take you to less frequented places.
You have to be a really enthusiastic cyclist to spend the entire vacation just on a bike, ride tens and hundreds of kilometers, sweat dozens of shirts (but also do far more for your health than in all the resorts in the world).
“Bikepacking is cycling in its original pure form. It’s a reminder of a time when there were no cars or asphalt.”
Joe Cruz, cyclist and adventurer
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One of them is Štěpán Rattay – a cyclist and athlete who travels everywhere on his bike. For work, for fun. And they spend their holidays the bikepacking way. For him, bikepacking combines three joys in one: discovering the sometimes-neglected beauties of the Czech Republic, a slightly adrenaline-charged way of spending a holiday on your own outside the main tourist streams, and also the joy of moving around on a bike, which he loves.
Stephen, you are an enthusiastic cyclist. How long have you been cycling and what got you started?
I like to go for rides on my bike and I also really like it when I can combine a trip or a visit with riding a bike. I also drive around Prague, but the main thing is that it is the easiest way for me to combine work with movement.
As a politician, I spend a lot of time debating at meetings, I also sit a lot at the computer, so I am often glad to be able to stretch. I’ve been riding a bike since I was little, it was the biggest Christmas gift I got as a child.
As a boy, I tried to train for a while and rode some amateur races in Karlštejn, Hýskov, Bělečské okruhy and so on. I’ve been going to Svaté Jan pod Skalou since I was little, and it’s perfect for sports riding there. There are some hills, snaking and picturesque at the same time. You will sweat while enjoying the beautiful nature and landscape. I love it there.
You live in Prague for a long time, you ride your bike everywhere. Do you think Prague is a suitable city for mass cycling?
I am a native of Prague, originally from Dejvice, then I lived for a while in Svátý Jan, where I was also deputy mayor, and 6 years ago, my wife and children and I returned to Prague 5.
We live on the hillside below the second highest mountain in Prague – Vidoulí. The hills simply accompany me and without them the bike would probably be boring for me. There is a lot of cycling in cities at the foot of mountains such as Barcelona, Lisbon or Salzburg, which is considered one of the friendliest cities for cyclists.
Why should this be a problem in Prague? I don’t think the undulating landscape is such a problem, it’s more about insufficient infrastructure. A large river flows through Prague, and from north to south we should comfortably cycle along the bank of the Vltava. I often hear arguments that we have a valuable historic center that is already overcrowded.
Štěpán Rattay is a rock fan and an active bikepacking operator. Source: Archive of Štěpán Rattay.
We can cross Václavák with a four-lane highway, but can’t we build a continuous pedestrian zone along the river in the center of Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in the world? And we’d rather allow car traffic there indefinitely. Professor Carlos Morena, the father of the idea of the short-distance city concept, recently visited here. And he commented on the number of cars in the center, whether we are crazy here!
How do you manage to ride a bike to work, for example? Isn’t it a bit inconvenient? You have to park somewhere, you have to wear special clothes, you have to have somewhere to wash…
It’s a bit uncomfortable, but we should all get out of our comfort bubble sometimes or better regularly. It’s raining outside, so I won’t ride my bike? I overcome myself, take something more durable and go. It’s my movement-health, time-money and relaxation, I don’t make noise with the growl of another combustion engine and I don’t spread ash and waste.
As they say in Scandinavia: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.” It’s true that in Prague I would include Prague’s cycling infrastructure among the “bad clothes”. I drive a car in Prague myself and I know how they can be irritable and rushed behind the wheel, and therefore also a certain risk for cyclists or pedestrians in traffic.
If I go for a ride or a bike trip with luggage, I prefer to ride on bike paths and paved roads, where car traffic will be minimized. I’d rather find a few kilometers, but if I’m cycling in Prague, time is a priority for me and I want the shortest or fastest route from point A to point B.
If there was a dense network of cycle paths, there is nothing to solve, but here we have a disjointed one, and that is annoying. As for the background, I always lock the door on the street, it’s always downhill to get to work, so I take a shower there rather rarely.
It is often said that the city belongs to the people, that we should drive all cars out of it as much as possible in favor of cycling and also pedestrian traffic. Are you a radical in this regard or do you have a consensus approach?
Cars belong to the city, but the roads should be especially for those drivers who live in that city, or provide necessary services, transport goods and the like. If cross-country people drive around Prague in their cars, who come here for a well-paid job and then put their income from taxes outside Prague or the money they earn into building their residences outside the metropolis, they must not share that they have to pay extra for parking or that they will pay tolls over time as it is in London for example.
Look at the imbalance between the fees for paid parking zones and the year-round flyer. Lítačka is 5 times more expensive and we have one of the cheapest public transport in Europe. They have to pay twice as much for the year-round coupon even in Bratislava. The ratio of the annual fee for ZPS (editor’s note – paid parking zones) and public transport should be 1:1.
In Copenhagen, Denmark, everyone thinks twice about whether to have a second car registered for parking in the household, because you will pay an incredible amount of money for it there. In our country, it is quite common for a household to register as many as 3 cars for 700/- per year, each for a different member of the household. Then they park in front of the house all year round and, for example, on Barrandová, they are surprised that they have nowhere to park for the night.
Let’s get back to cycling. What appeals to you most about bikepacking?
Bikepacking is a freedom that gets under your skin. Even riding a bike is a certain degree of freedom for me, and if I pack a sleeping bag, mat and tarp on my bike, I push its limits even further. It is similar to going on a trek in the mountains.
You are in nature, through which you plan your journey, if you like a place, you can stop, wake up, sleep and then you can continue again. I cycle through the countryside at a speed where I can still perceive a lot, if I walk it is undoubtedly even more intense, but again the radius of the distance narrows, how much you can cover.
Do you think bikepacking in some form is also possible in the city? Maybe take unexplored shortcuts?
You probably don’t want to sleep in a sleeping bag much in the city. Bikepacking is about either riding a bike or packing. You really drive the minimum, because a self-propelled bike forces you to reduce weight as much as possible and you want to overcome a greater distance on it, it doesn’t make much sense to me in the city.
When I ride for several days, I take a “gravel” bike, in Czech it’s called “štěrkolet”, it’s actually a cyclocross bike with wider tires. I will pack a sleeping bag, mat, tarp, water bottle, mug, stove, dry food, raincoat and waterproof socks, water bottles. Sometimes you can easily carry 15 kg of cargo this way, if you are wet, even more.
Would you take your family bikepacking? Can you imagine the spread of “family bikepacking”? Or is it really just adrenaline fun for the hardened?
Just two weeks ago, we were 4 families in Vysočina on bikes and we also went there on a multi-day trip with an overnight stay in nature. It’s about some tolerance. When I ride alone or with cyclists who ride a little, you can ride over 100 km a day even with a suspension bike.
If you are traveling with children, you must adjust the speed of the group to the weakest hiker. I wouldn’t choose terrain that is too demanding for children, it can really annoy them. It’s about being orderly and being able to organize things.
Learn to pack only what is really necessary for the trip and you also need to know where and what is packed. If not, then the trip is one big never-ending wrap. However, cycling still has great potential to develop us, people simply enjoy cycling and it is healthy. We have one of the best marked network of hiking trails in the world, why can’t it be for bikes too? Anyone who has been on bikes in Czech Canada, Třeboňsk or Šumava will know what I mean.
Enthusiastic cyclist Joe Cruz claims that bikepacking is cycling in its purest form. Do you agree with him? What does bikepacking actually mean to you?
Freedom, knowledge, fun and health. Do you remember the scene from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when Paul Newman gets a bicycle, a revolutionary novelty for its time that some people see for the first time, and together with Katherine Ross they gulp down freedom and enjoy life?
I think this scene captures how the invention of the wheel has value for us. Bikepacking has moved this to the present day, travel and the associated learning and enrichment is more accessible. It’s nothing new, our grandfathers put a thicker coat on their favorite, packed a blanket, shorts, socks and set off on an adventure.
Do you think that Prague as such supports enough alternative modes of transport, be it cycling or walking?
Unfortunately, Prague still lacks a number of backbone cycle paths and connections, probably the biggest handicap is that we still make insufficient use of the Vltava and its tributaries. In other European cities, the river is the bearer of relaxation and rest, they build zones and green belts around them for relaxation, active and passive rest, where you can do sports, strengthen yourself, but also meditate, meditate and sometimes even forget.
If we can, for example, as is the case along the canal in Vienna, fully move along both banks of the Vltava, the people of Prague will also start using bikes to go to work, for meetings, but also for culture in the city center.
Today you can get on your bike, ride along Botič to the Vltava and take the A2 to the center on Národní třída. However, this should be the case for all tributaries of the Vltava and valleys oriented west-east along both banks. But on the left bank, the A1 ends at Císařská luka and then you drive between cars on the two-lane Strakonická to the Jiráskov bridge and onward in full traffic.
What will ideal transport in Prague look like in 2030?
Prague will be a modern European city of short distances. Everything we need for life: school, food, doctor and most of us will have our work within 15 minutes walking distance from our residence. However, there is still a long way to go, and it also means being able to choose reasonable and far-sighted people to lead the city.