After two years of postponements, the Kinneret cycling race finally happened again. It was the 45th edition of the event but my first time riding it. This was not my first time riding part of the Kinneret loop, though. I rode 40 KM during Tri Kinneret 2025 when I finished the Olympic triathlon in April 2025.
My friend Yehuda signed up for this event a year ago, but it kept getting postponed. His registration was carried over to the new date. I only registered a few weeks ago, after confirming I would be home on the event date (2025-11-01). We both registered for the 60.5 KM amateur course. Even though I am not at the same fitness level I was a few months ago, I kept riding about once a week for an hour on Zwift. From a fitness perspective, I believed I could finish the full distance.
Yehuda and I arrived on Friday at the Jacob Ohalo Kinneret hotel. Location-wise, the hotel was right at the start of the tour route, so there was no need to drive to the starting line. On Friday we brought pasta and had a carb-loading dinner. We went to sleep around 23:00. The next day we woke up at 6 a.m., got organized, and headed to the course at 7 a.m.
The ride took me about 3 hours; I finished at 10:15. I took water breaks but otherwise pedaled continuously. This was my first time riding clipped in outdoors. Until now, I had only used cleats on the trainer. I was afraid of falling. A few months ago I bought pedals with a power meter, Garmin Rally XC200, and shoes with compatible cleats. On Friday I practiced clipping in and out outdoors for the first time. After a few minutes I felt I understood it, and despite the risk I decided to ride the tour that way. Thankfully, I managed to ride the full course clipped in.
There were a lot of people at the tour; estimates talk about 10,000 riders. In Tri Kinneret most people had road or TT bikes. In contrast, on this tour I saw a wide variety of bikes: road, mountain, hybrid, tandem, hand cycles, and more. The age range was also wide; I saw young kids riding with their families. One kid told me his six-year-old sister had just learned to ride and was already doing 30 KM.
Even so, road bikes were the ideal bikes for this course. One hundred percent of the route was paved asphalt, with no off-road or dirt sections (like there were at Sovev Jerusalem). As a result, I could ride very fast on my road bike (Giant TCR). On one descent I reached a top speed of 56 KM/h. On the other hand, my average speed was much lower, 21 KM/h. In many sections I felt a need to slow down. The roads were closed to car traffic in all lanes, but there were so many bikes on the road and many people did not keep to the right when riding slowly.
This was my longest ride in terms of distance, but not in terms of time. Sovev Jerusalem in May 2025 was a more challenging ride because there were climbs, off-road sections, and I rode my mountain bike, which is heavier and slower than my road bike.
This ride was good preparation for Tri Kinneret 2026.
Links
- Tour de Sonol - 45th ride around the Kinneret
- Tour de Sonol Around Kinneret
- Tour de Sonol - Around Kinneret 2025 event launch (Shvoong)
- Around the Kinneret
- Tour de Sonol - Around Kinneret 2025 held for the 45th time - Walla Sport
- Tour de Sonol Around Kinneret held for the 45th time
Official video
Official poster
Featured image by Johnnie Cohen on Unsplash.
